4 Discussion
Understanding the temporal and spatial processes driving contact among
animals can provide insight to factors structuring a myriad of
contact-based ecological processes. To this point, assessment of contact
structure has generally relied on simple assumptions (e.g., high habitat
resource selection area) that are often not tested. Here we assessed how
well the spatial distribution of contacts matches that of general space
use. Our findings in two wild pig populations highlight that the spatial
overlap of individuals (population-level RSF model outputs) does not
adequately represent the spatial distribution of contacts across the
landscape, which challenges the accuracy of predictions of contact rates
and spatial transmission dynamics if applied to landscapes outside the
study areas. Specifically, landscape features that drive contact between
individuals were generally different from those that drive
individual-level space-use (Figure S2 and S3) in two different systems.
This suggests that some factors related differently upon the way wild
pigs’ interface with their landscapes in their daily lives compared to
how they interact with conspecifics in the areas they inhabit.