Composition of the diet in Sardinian Wild Boar (Sus scrofa meridionalis)

The Authors report the analysis of stomach’s content about 79 wild boars in Sardinia. The animals were pulled down during the hunting seasons (from November to January) of the years 2001 and 2002. The sex-ratio (M/F) resulted 0.53 and 0,44 respectively for the adult and young animals.The prominence of the categories of the feeds, pH and chemical composition were determined on the content of each stomach. Moreover the total capacity (average 1707 ml) and the stuff-ratio (weight of content/stomach capacity) of each viscera were determined (average 0.45). In total 14 different feeds categories were found. A mixture of vegetable and animal feeds was found in 91.1% of the organs; in 7.6% only vegetables were found; 1 stomach (1.3%) resulted completely empty. The animal food resulted 3.3% (weight) of the stomach content (insects, snails, mammals and birds). The insects are the most frequent animal (2.3 % of the content) and were found in 86% of the samples. The chemical composition of the ingesta showed a remarkable variability varying between the following values: crude protein 7.9-13.7%; ether extract 0.8-11.9%; crude fibre 3.5-17.4; ash 18.7.-51.8%; nitrogen free extract 26.9-60.1%.