Morphometric variation between populations of recent wild boar in Israel

Today the wild boar (subspecies Sub scrofa lybica Gray, 1868) is the largest wild mammal found in Israel (Mendelssohn & Yom Tov 1999a). Sus scrofa has formed an integral part of the fauna of Israel since c.0.78 Mya, with the earliest skeletal remains derived from the Lower Palaeolithic site of Gesher Benot Ya’akov, Israel (Hooijer 1959; Geraads & Tchernov 1983). Remains of wild boar are commonly found in archaeological assemblages in this region (e.g. Davis 1982; Tchernov 1988), and according to 19th-century travellers, wild boar were abundant throughout Palestine, including the thickets of the Jordan river and the Dead Sea, and even extended into the arid regions of the northern Negev and Judean desert (Tristram 1866; Hart 1891; Bodenheimer 1958; Qumsiyeh 1996). However, during the period of the Mandate of Palestine (1923–48) the population size of wild boar was severely reduced by hunting, and as a consequence, their distribution was reduced to the Jordan valley, from the Hula Lake in the north to Sdom at the southern tip of the Dead Sea (Bodenheimer 1958; Mendelssohn & Yom-Tov 1999 a, 1999b). Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 they have been protected by legislation, which, coupled with the reduced numbers of predators, has resulted in a marked increase in their numbers. Nowadays, wild boar occupy most of their former habitats including the coastal region. The species has also been observed as far south as Nahal Besor in the northern Negev, but it has been proposed that these animals may represent hybrids of domestic pigs and wild boar (Mendelssohn & Yom-Tov 1999b). Four main concentrations of wild boar can be identified in Israel today: the Upper Galilee (especially in the national park of Mount Meiron), the Hula Nature Reserve, the Golan Heights, and Sdom. As shown in Table 12.1, these areas differ markedly in vegetation, altitude, and climate. A study of dental pathology in skeletal collections derived from these groups showed significant differences between the four areas (Horwitz & Davidowitz 1992). Specifically, the Sdom group was characterized by an unusually high frequency of hypodontia of the lower third incisor, indicative of inbreeding.