Authors: Molnár, Zsolt; Demeter, László;Szabados, Klára;Kiš, Alen;Ajvazović, Milutin;Runjanin, Borislav;Mandušić, Vlada;Biró, Marianna;Öllerer, Kinga;Marinkov, Jelena;

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and collaborative research is increasingly acknowledged; conservationists and scientists work together with local knowledge holders for better and fairer conservation management. Experience shows that working with locals and the use of evidence from both knowledge systems can considerably improve conservation. Detailed cross knowledge system reviews of the available evidence are, however, still scarce. We studied extensive pig keeping in forests and marshes, a historically widespread but nowadays almost extinct practice in Europe. We focused on three knowledge areas: what, when and how pigs forage. We reviewed five knowledge sources: living TEK, ethnographic literature (archived TEK), pig and wild boar scientific literature, and authors’ observations of foraging. Archived TEK differed much from living TEK. Scientific knowledge on wild boar foraging poorly correlated with living TEK. Variations in the contributions of the knowledge sources to the bigger picture were beneficial in widening the scope of our review, and were caused mainly by their different interests and methods used. We met several challenges of cross knowledge system reviewing. The unexpected dissimilarity of living and archived TEK and science points to the need to help the continuing existence and to an ongoing documentation of living traditional knowledge in Europe.