Abstract
Resting is an essential aspect of animals’ lives and represents substantial portions of time budgets. Animals may rest in response to a variety of internal and external stimuli and they develop resting strategies to cope with both physiological and ecological constraints. When, where, how and how long animals rest is tuned to flexibly deal with changing environmental conditions. Yet the outcomes of these adjustments of resting are rarely investigated. Anthropization is a major driver of behavioral adjustments and resting behaviors are sensitive to human activities through a variety of mechanisms. Yet, the effects of anthropization on resting strategies are understudied to date. In this thesis, we review the literature about the drivers and outcomes of resting strategies, and we investigate the possible mechanisms through which human activity may affect animals’ rest. As a case study, we explore the effects of anthropization on wild boars’ (Sus scrofa) resting strategies. We use GPS and actimetric data from various telemetric surveys of wild boar populations to focus on the selection of resting sites by this species. We examine the effects of two aspects of anthropization: direct disturbances and habitat modifications. We describe how wild boars adjust their use of the landscape for resting in response to human activity. We then evaluate the efficiency of this strategy in mitigating the risk of being disturbed. Finally, we explore how resting site selection may affect wild boars’ ability to circulate through the landscape.