Biology subjects

Baubet, E.

Publications and source records attributed to Baubet, E..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

How big is enough? Movement-informed zoning for African swine fever mitigation

O_LIAfrican swine fever (ASF) poses a serious threat to domestic pigs and wild boar populations. Wild boar can disperse the virus, making effective containment crucial. One of the main control strategies involves establishing restricted zones around detected cases, i.e., areas with temporary restrictions on access and hunting; however, determining the appropriate size of these zones remains a major challenge. C_LIO_LITo inform the size of restricted zones, we analyzed GPS data from 527 wild boar across 46 European study sites using a two-step approach combining first-passage time analysis and survival modelling to quantify the risk of wild boar leaving areas of different radii (i.e., spatial scales). We investigated how the risk of leaving varied over time and across environmental gradients. To go further, we used our model findings to develop an online application that generates predictive maps of optimal buffer sizes for ASF management at the European scale, based on a given risk threshold (the maximum acceptable probability that a wild boar leaves the area). C_LIO_LIWe found that the relationship between radius and the risk of leaving is negative exponential, and the risk of leaving increased over time, with a more rapid increase for smaller radii. Landscape homogeneity, terrain ruggedness and human impact increased the risk of leaving, with stronger effects at small scales. Contrary to other predictors, agricultural cover exerted a strong effect on risk of leaving over large spatial scales, especially when it was abundant. C_LIO_LIAcross Europe, a buffer radius of [~]8 km is likely sufficient around high-risk infection zones in most areas (considering an infectious period of 14 days and a risk threshold of 5%); however, in certain areas, a radius of up to 20 km may be needed to effectively limit wild boar movement. C_LIO_LISynthesis and applications: Our results highlight the need for adaptive, context-specific restricted zones. Buffers of 8 km around ASF-affected areas can limit the risk of infected wild boar dispersal, but they may be reduced to 5 km in highly heterogeneous landscapes or high-human impacted areas. Larger buffers may be required in agricultural landscapes. We provide spatially explicit outputs (optimal buffer sizes) that can directly inform policy and wildlife disease response strategies. The approach can be adapted to any other infectious disease. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Spatial covariation between wild boars and other mammals in peri-urban landscapes: insights for management from southern France

Global urbanization is rapidly increasing, transforming ecosystems and favoring generalist species that adapt to human-modified environments. The wild boar, a highly adaptable species, is expanding its range and increasingly observed in urban and peri-urban areas, where it can cause accidents, damage, and health concerns. To mitigate their presence, non-lethal control strategies such as vegetation clearing in peri-urban parks and wastelands are being implemented to reduce the number of suitable resting sites. However, the ecological consequences of such habitat modifications on other wildlife species remain poorly understood. This knowledge gap limits the development of effective urban wildlife management strategies that seeks to balance ecological, social and economic considerations without harming wild boar populations and urban ecosystems. In this context, we used camera trapping to study the covariation between wild boars and other mammal species in a peri-urban area, with the aim of guiding targeted and effective management strategies. Here, we show a widespread presence of wild boars but no spatial or temporal covariation between the wild boars and the other species. In contrast, we found strong spatial structuring in mammal communities, primarily driven by small carnivores (mustelids, genets, cats, foxes) and a minimal influence of temporal variation, confirming that spatial factors, rather than seasonal changes, largely shaped species distributions. The study of the temporal variation across months indicated minimal seasonal structuring but revealed substantial within-site variability in month-to-month species abundance, with a general abundance gradient driven by common species like wild boar, cat, and fox. In conclusion, our results show that the lack of spatial covariation between wild boar and other species prevents reliable predictions, supporting a targeted rather than general approach to vegetation management.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2019

Efficient use of harvest data: An integrated population model for exploited animal populations

O_LIMany populations are affected by hunting or fishing. Models designed to assess the sustainability of harvest management require accurate estimates of demographic parameters (e.g. survival, reproduction) hardly estimable with limited data collected on exploited populations. The joint analysis of different data sources with integrated population models (IPM) is an optimal framework to obtain reliable estimates for parameters usually difficult to estimate, while accounting for imperfect detection and observation error. The IPM built so far for exploited populations have integrated count-based surveys and catch-at-age data into ageclass structured population models. But the age of harvested individuals is difficult to assess and often not recorded, and population counts are often not performed on a regular basis, limiting their use for the monitoring of exploited populations.\nC_LIO_LIHere, we propose an IPM that makes efficient use of data commonly collected in exploited marine and terrestrial populations of vertebrates. As individual measures of body mass at both capture and death are often collected in fish and terrestrial game species, our model integrates capture-mark-recapture-recovery data and data collected at death into a body mass-structured population model. It allows the observed number of individuals harvested to be compared with the expected number and provides accurate estimates of demographic parameters.\nC_LIO_LIWe illustrate the usefulness of this IPM using an emblematic game species distributed worldwide, the wild boar Sus scrofa, as a case study. For this species that has increased in distribution and abundance over the last decades, the model provides accurate and precise annual estimates of key demographic parameters (survival, reproduction, growth) and of population size while accounting for imperfect detection and observation error.\nC_LIO_LITo avoid an overexploitation of declining populations or an under-exploitation of increasing populations, it is crucial to gain a good understanding of the dynamics of exploited populations. When managers or conservationists have limited demographic data, the IPM offers a powerful framework to assess population dynamics. Being highly flexible, the approach is broadly applicable to both terrestrial and marine exploited populations for which measures of body mass are commonly recorded and more generally, to all populations suffering from anthropogenic mortality causes.\nC_LI

ecology↗