EARTHWORMS IN THE WILD BOAR DIET (SUS SCR OFA) IN MOUNTAIN PASTURE

In wild boar diet, earthworms are only detected by using macro-rest fo und in stomach analyses. Few authors looked for the presence of earthw orms by counting setaes. This study shows that such an analysis increa se the detected power of earthworm item (87,5 % of presence when count ing setaes against 47,9 % when using macro-rest method). The quantity of earthworm ingested by wild boar according to the two methods differ s significantly. The consumption of earthworms during autumn did not d iffer according to the sex of wild boar. Although a lot of signs could support a direct relationship beetwen mountain pasture damage and ear thworms item consumption, it was not possible to statistically assess such a relationship.