Impact of hunting modality on social contacts in wild boar populations across Europe

Variation in animal social interactions emerges from individual responses to social and physical environments and plays a key role in shaping pathogen transmission, gene flow, and information transfer. Although hunting can induce changes in contact patterns through disruption of the social environment, the non-consumptive effects of hunting have not received much attention compared to the demographic effects of harvest. We examined the effects of hunting activities on contact rates in wild boar, a species particularly exposed to social disruptions owing to its high sociality and intense management. Using GPS-telemetry data from 21 populations across Europe (435 unique dyads), we analysed how hunting activities impact social contacts within and between wild boar groups while accounting for confounders potentially shaping contact heterogeneity (e.g., habitat productivity, population density, predation, seasonality, individuals’ sex, and spatial proximity). We found that drive hunts, but n..., , , # Data from: Impact of hunting modality on social contacts in wild boar populations across Europe

Dataset DOI: [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s6p](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s6p)

## Description of the data and file structure

Animal location (GPS fixes) data were collected within a framework of various research projects conducted independently across the study areas and deposited at the common data sharing platform - EUROBOAR.

Based on the GPS fixes, association indices (Simple Ratio Index) were calculated specifically for this project. Index of dyadic contact intensity based on GPS-telemetry animal locations (spatio-temporal proximity)

### Files and variables

#### File: Additional_data.csv

**Description:** The table contains study site-specific information added in the revised models

##### Variables

* area_name (name of the study site)
* Wildboardensity_Pittiglio (population density as retrieved from Pittiglio et al. (2018) per study site)
* Hunting_index (number...,