The wild boar is one of the most important hunting game species in Eurasian boreal and temperate forests. In Russia, these animals inhabit a large part of the country; however, official bodies do not allow public access to relevant and unbiased regional statistics. In parallel with official figures, such statistics have been kept for decades by VNIIOZ (Russian Research Institute for Game Management and Fur Farming): the resource is estimated using the indirect method of recalculating multiple scores from independent respondents. We compared the VNIIOZ long-term datasets with the wild boar habitat suitability distribution within the Russian territory to assess the reliability of these figures and to carry out a pilot evaluation of the need for their adjustment. Our results show a good correlation between the abundance assessment by VNIIOZ and habitat suitability (about 0.7); we also identified several regions where wild boar abundance indicators are sharply dissonant with the existing environmental capacity.

Keywords: Sus scrofa, distribution, abundance, SDM