Past experiences drive citizen perception of wild boar in urban areas

Wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations in urban environments have increased during the last decades. This has led to a new scenario where humans share the space with this recent colonising species inside urban areas. Citizen perception on wild boar presence must be taken into account to assure the most suitable design, application and acceptance of management measures. In order to advance in the knowledge and comprehension of urban wild boar perception by citizens, we conducted 181 surveys to women and men representing all age classes. Our questions were focused on assessing citizen features, experiences and attitudes regarding wild boar presence in the urban area of La Floresta (Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain). We used a recursive partitioning approach through regression trees to explore the relationship between a Wild Boar Perception Score (WBPS) and citizen profile, past and current experiences involving wild boars, contact with wild boars and acceptance of management measures. Our results show that the WBPS is mainly driven by previous incidents suffered by the respondent, independently of citizen profile, current experiences, level of contact and acceptance of management measures. The respondents answered that measures should be taken to minimize wild boar incidents (37%) and to help wild boars to return to their habitat (27%), whereas 16% chose to coexist with wild boars in the current conditions. Culling all the wild boars was not supported at all, even among the citizens with the most negative perception of wild boar. Citizens with positive perception of wild boar presence in urban areas contribute to reinforce the phenomenon by feeding wild boars. Our results verify that socio-demographic variables such as gender, education and public health concern are less important than past experiences to drive citizen perception and explain resident attitudes. Information campaigns on the causes, consequences and effective management options for urban wildlife could help to improve understanding and acceptance of the circumstances and currently non-socially accepted possible solutions. Evaluation of citizen perception and information campaigns should precede wildlife management measures, in order to gain acceptance by residents before being implemented.