I have recently spent a bit of time in Germany with a group of local hunters including one who is a volunteer forester - which in germany includes managing the wildlife- he also lectures and trains new hunters to achieve their Jagdshein - their hunting permit, which from what I can see has elements of both DSC1 and DSC2 but covers all wildlife including the huntable species, as well as a lot of ecology on how you should manage the species populations, and also a lot on the hunting traditions and customs.
The land we were hunting on was very much like Southern England with blocks of woodland and farmland - more arable farmland than Gloucestishire and Forest of Dean - possibly more akin to Thetford or Hampshire / Sussex. A bit more woodland than the UK - 30 to 40% of the area is wooded, but still large arable fields of mixed wheat, maize, oilseed rape etc.
The only real difference is that every wood / corner of wood, field etc has high seats. We were shooting on one 250 hectare revere - a hunting permission which is leased on a 9 year basis. 30 plus high seats - most of which you can quite happily sleep in - not a ladder but a tree house.
And off that 250 hectares they are taking at least 60 pigs a year. That is their cull target and every other neighbouring area has a similar cull target density. This is not a cull level to dramatically reduce numbers, its just trying to keep population at a stable level.
From what I can gather, Wild Boar are extremely wary, highly intelligent and travel vast distances - they are reckoned to cover at least 30km a night in their foraging. To achieve their cull the hunters spend a lot of time in the highseats. Typically requiring at least five nights for every time they see boar and can pull the trigger. The only way they can get close to cull numbers is to organise drives. They get as many hunters to man the high seats and then send the dogs into the woods - the dogs are highly trained and have to pass several exams before they are licensed to hunt. On one or two drives a year they can get 60% of their cull target, but its the only way they can realistically get any where close to the sorts of numbers they need to achieve. Over the course on one week I only saw one partially grown female (dame) with two half grown piglets (fleishlings) . My host shot the two piglets, whilst I shot the dame. Although she was only 50kg carcass weight - i thought she was huge, until shown pictures of large males taken from the same area - some as large as 250 kg carcass weight and the size of a steer.
And there is added incentive for the hunters to manage the boar properly - if the boar cause damage to crops they are sent a bill by the farmer and this can run into € thousands. Its a well established system with the local Forstmeister arbitrating.
Given that Boar are now again part of the UK Flora and Fauna we do need to rethink how we manage them. From what I have read and heard it seems that the UK populations are pretty static in that they remain where they are, but if there is hunting pressure it wont take them long to work that's it better to pack their bags.
They seem to be a very sociable animal living in sounders run by an old old matriarch, who is the main breeding female producing ten plus piglets a year. This is one animal is not shot - the focus is on younger animals, piglets and the male boar. Shooting the old matriarch causes huge problems - the youngsters then have no guidance and cause massive damage to crops woodland etc - described as delinquents.
Rather than being seen as a problem, I think we just need to take a different view and learn from those who have boar as an everyday part of the countryside. Just from the economic side on state land the carcasses are sold at €4 to 5 a kg - thats carcass weight - ie guts and heart and lungs removed by head and trotters and skin still on. And the Germans seem to as a population embrace this and its seen as an everyday product in the shops and on restaurant menus. 10% of the population hunt.
The hunters work with the farmers and have regular meetings with the local community. When was the last time we saw a shoot sitting down with a parish council?? Much of the German countryside is state owned to which everybody has access - the fact that they have big hairy beasties in the woods doesn't seem to cause a problem. Most seem people seem to understand to just leave them in peace. The hunters accept that people are about all the time and thats why just about all shooting is from a highseat. If we put up highseats such as theirs, they would soon be vandalised.
I also visited a small Frankonia store - much bigger than any shooting emporium I have been to in the UK. They have 23 stores across Germany and there other chains as well as a large number of independents. Go into Decathlon - they have hunting sections.