Boar vocalizations and their potential role in sexual selection

The aim of this research was to gather existing knowledge about vocalizations of boars and their potential role in sexual selection. Few studies mainly from the 70s and 80s of the last century suggest that the so-called love song, emitted by males during courtship, could act as a stimulant that triggers mating. However, I did not find any evidence that boars significantly use calls in fights. Most studies deal with pig vocalization in a different context. For this reason, I tried to look at the studies of pig relatives - even-toed ungulates - to better evaluate the potential role of boar vocalizations in sexual selection. In their case, the influence of the calls on the sexual behavior of females and competing males was reported. It is possible to conclude that the role of boar vocalization is probably not that important as in red deers, for example, because boars use calls in short range communication. On the other hand, stimulatory effect on females was found in other species too. Further studies are needed to understand possible function of boar vocalizations that could be used for example in pig breeding to improve the effectiveness of artificial insemination of sows. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org