Forest of Dean Boar - Hunt Sabs
- Thread starter ChesterP
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timbrayford
Well-Known Member
1. Certainly would have a bearing, also a rural population hungry for meat perhaps?
ileso
Well-Known Member
Actually in Portugal they were pretty much gone from most of the countryside for over 100 years. Only recently in the last 20 years or so have they come back. Mostly due to the abandonment of rural life.
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mereside
Well-Known Member
but they must have have had small populations left what are the numbers now any ideas?, atb wayne
Orion
Well-Known Member
Not current figures but gives information about the recolonisation: http://www.secem.es/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Galemys-16-NE-021-Lopes-243-251.pdf
ileso
Well-Known Member
No official numbers, but it's amazing how resilient they are as a species. I guess they never disappeared from the deeper forest areas, and Spain is next door... Roe deer only came back in the last 20 years as well from over the border... Bears are also gone... Human expansion, deforestation and intensive farming will affect boar numbers
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How did they manage with bows arrows and spears?..some one asks?
Because they didn’t have Tesco’s and intensive farming in meat and grains and readily available foods sources.....
The boar probably were THE food source along with other wild protein.....
Enough hungry folks with bows arrows spears ....and as said .....trap pits or the like .....
And you will make a dent in them! .....
Not lot of people nowadays desperately relying 9n them never mind care what’s outside their borough 30 mph limits
Paul
Because they didn’t have Tesco’s and intensive farming in meat and grains and readily available foods sources.....
The boar probably were THE food source along with other wild protein.....
Enough hungry folks with bows arrows spears ....and as said .....trap pits or the like .....
And you will make a dent in them! .....
Not lot of people nowadays desperately relying 9n them never mind care what’s outside their borough 30 mph limits
Paul
ileso
Well-Known Member
True... But if poaching gets out of hand that also makes a dent... Poaching wiped out the Portuguese ibex... And it wasn't for meat but for trophies to sell. That's what happens when you end up with only females...
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timbrayford
Well-Known Member
All the more reason for properly considered evidence based management plans!
ileso
Well-Known Member
I agree with you there. Just out of curiosity, If they really wanted to, how difficult would it be to count them using either satelite thermal imaging or to get the army/navy/airforce to run a FLIR training mission over the forest of dean... Kill two birds with one stone if you like, train the military and get exact figures. No brainer if you ask me.
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timbrayford
Well-Known Member
If deer counts are used as an example it may be very difficult to accurately assess Boar numbers, see the section on Roe deer population estimates from Kalo http://documents.irevues.inist.fr/b...59181/LATERREETLAVIE_1961_1_41.pdf?sequence=1
nun_hunter
Well-Known Member
As someone who regularly liases with the police helicopters and their use of thermal it's next to useless when looking through thick tree cover. May be more effective in winter in a deciduous woodland or if other agencies have better quality cameras but for boar living within a wood/forest thermal from the air wouldn't be hugely effective.
ileso
Well-Known Member
And yet on another post, people say that thermal imaging is perfection itself.
asked from curiosity... mean the images that you see on youtube from the apache helicopters in afghanistan are extremely high quality and the zoom is exceptional. Definately good enough to distinguish a boar from a deer. Bu tthen of couse as nun_hunter pointed out, theres trees in the way...
I
Trees are relatively cold, animals aint, so you should see them trees or not.
Thickly wooded areas would provide blind spots to airborne surveillance, & a dizzying experience for aircrew trying to cover them all.
nun_hunter
Well-Known Member
It's not x-ray vision. Thermal can't see through stuff especially if it has any insulating properties. Light fog or thin foliage where something hard to see blends in then thermal will pick it up. Stand behind a window and you can be seen with the naked eye but thermal wont pick up a source or if you're under a tree with full foliage in summer the helicopter won't see you either. Stand in an open field and it'll pick up a decent image from many hundreds (possibly thousands depending on the camera) of metres away.
Freeforester
Well-Known Member
Judging by the experience over in Texas and other southern US states and indeed much of Europe, the trend for wild boar is going to continue to be upward for the foreseeable future. Some "interesting/unconventional" methods of control being experimented with by our colonial contemporaries, if one goes by YouTube videos!
The FC cull figures shown seem to suggest that in spite of exceeding the cull target on many of the year totals, the numbers are still increasing, and we must remember that these are bare minimum/official figures, which do not take into account other mortalities. Generally, if we basically agree that precise numbers are meaningless, they will only arrive at a 'rough estimate' once the set cull target figure is consistently being under-achieved, coupled with the guys on the ground input along the lines of "It's getting harder to find 'em now", and other indicators such as recorded body weight increases, fecundity rates, etc; but with the ever increasing habitat and diversity (much of the U.K. Is a great mosaic of 'bed and breakfast' habitat), the fact that there are much fewer hunter gatherers and rural dwellers inclined to shoot than in earlier times, plus the adaptability of sus scrofa, I'd suggest that we won't see the last one being slaughtered any time soon...
I'm sure they're going to impact hugely negatively on ground nesting bird life too.
The FC cull figures shown seem to suggest that in spite of exceeding the cull target on many of the year totals, the numbers are still increasing, and we must remember that these are bare minimum/official figures, which do not take into account other mortalities. Generally, if we basically agree that precise numbers are meaningless, they will only arrive at a 'rough estimate' once the set cull target figure is consistently being under-achieved, coupled with the guys on the ground input along the lines of "It's getting harder to find 'em now", and other indicators such as recorded body weight increases, fecundity rates, etc; but with the ever increasing habitat and diversity (much of the U.K. Is a great mosaic of 'bed and breakfast' habitat), the fact that there are much fewer hunter gatherers and rural dwellers inclined to shoot than in earlier times, plus the adaptability of sus scrofa, I'd suggest that we won't see the last one being slaughtered any time soon...
I'm sure they're going to impact hugely negatively on ground nesting bird life too.
I can just imagine the response to a request for full auto out of both sides of the Huey!
ileso
Well-Known Member
Contrary to the US, Australia and NZ, wild boar are naturally a part of the European ecosystem. They on the other hand want to eradicate themI can just imagine the response to a request for full auto out of both sides of the Huey!
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