Аннотация:Wild boar is one of the most important hunting husbandry resources in Eurasian boreal and temperate forests. In Russia, these animals inhabit a large part of the territory; however, official bodies do not allow public access to relevant and unbiased regional statistics. In parallel with official figures, such statistics have been kept for decades by VNIIOZ (All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Hunting and Animal Breeding): the resource is estimated using the indirect method of recalculating multiple scores from independent respondents. We compared VNIIOZ long-term datasets with the wild boar habitat suitability distribution in the Russian territory to assess the reliability of these figures and to carry out a pilot evaluation of the need for their adjustment. Our results show a good correlation between the abundance assessment by VNIIOZ and habitat suitability (about 0.7); we also identified several regions where wild boar abundance indicators are sharply dissonant with the existing environmental capacity. We discussed the impact of man-made and natural factors on the population growth rate of wild boar in Russia.
