FERAL PIG (SUS-SCROFA) ROOTING IN A MONSOON FOREST WETLAND TRANSITION, NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

A grid of 447 cells (each 50 x 50 m) was centred on a wet monsoon forest on a gradual slope above the Adelaide River floodplain in the Northern Territory of Australia. Quarter-yearly surveys of pig rooting revealed that there was limited impact within the monsoon rainforest in both the wet and dry seasons. The seasonally flooded swamp communities (Melaleuca forest and sedgeland) were primarily exploited in the dry season, and dryland communities (eucalypt and Lophostemon forests) were exploited during the wet season. Rainfall in the previous wet season may have influenced the pattern of rooting in the dryland forests. Rooting and ground cover were found to be weakly positively related in three of the four surveys.