Dietary analysis of wild boar reveals unimaginable food composition
including even other ungulates: a report from mountainous karst area in
Southwestern China
Abstract
Wild boars (Sus scrofa) are extremely common in southern of China, but
little study has reported dietary habits of wild boars using
high-throughput sequencing technology. Due to the difficulty in
obtaining samples of the stomach contents of wild boars, there are few
reports on the diet of wild boars especially in karst areas. In our
study, the stomach contents of 14 south China wild boars were analyzed
by 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing technology. The results showed
that there were 153 genera, 93 families, and 48 orders, of which 78%
were plants. Main plants food component of wild boar were Cissus,
Dioscorea, Quercus, Actinidia and Houttuynia. The remaining 21% was
animal food sources. It is noteworthy that Elaphodus cephalophus were
detected in most of stomach samples, accounted for a large part of
animal food sources. Predation of Elaphodus cephalophus by wild boars
could cause a series of unforeseen problems, especially if this ongoing
issue continues in the future. Our study revealed the dietary preference
of wild boars under the special forest vegetation conditions in the
mountainous area of southwest China, and the relationship between the
diet habits of wild boars and their habitats from the perspective of
resource utilization, thus providing a key scientific basis for the
prevention and control of wild boars and resource protection.