Wild boar populations are expanding across Europe; humane management approaches including exclusion, fertility control, and hunting with welfare requirements reduce conflict without excessive suffering.
Wild boar conflict management presents a welfare challenge where population reduction often requires lethal methods, but the welfare cost of those methods varies significantly by approach. Hunting with appropriate caliber weapons, experienced marksmen, and follow-up for wounded animals reduces the welfare cost of lethal management. Non-lethal deterrents can prevent conflict entirely for high-value crops, reducing the need for population management. Developing effective immunocontraception as a non-lethal population management alternative would fundamentally change the welfare landscape for wild boar management.