Boar in Scotland - article in the Sunday Post

[timbrayford]

At least use something that looks a little more like an actual population model.

Like this - basic exponential projection, using annual growth rate of 0.2 (which seems to be the average for wild/feral boar) and a starting population in 2006 of 10:

View attachment 241853

10 is a very low base point for a wild species

 

[timbrayford]

I gather the rate of population growth varies significantly between populations depending on their 'purity.' Talking to FE Rangers they said the E. Sussex pigs are quite pure and litter sizes are between a half and two thirds of that in the Forest of Dean where, although they look pure they are from Tamworth cross farm escapees originally.
They added in East Sussex the population is a fraction of what it was - whereas in the FoD they are struggling to reduce it.
From the photos I saw of some of the first pigs seen in the wild in the Great Glen that population certainly has plenty of domestic genetics in that core nucleus.

Having farmed Tamworths I can assure you that large litters are the exception rather than the rule, in no way do they compare to modern commercial hybrids

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Grey Squirrels are native to North America, not Europe

I know but are now out of control in the UK.

 

[NickJ]

Having farmed Tamworths I can assure you that large litters are the exception rather than the rule, in no way do they compare to modern commercial hybrids

Sorry, I think I got that wrong and they just said 'domestic pig' crosses. From memory they were saying that the litters ranged from 6 to 10 in Dean which is twice that of known 'pure' populations like abroad.

I was getting mixed up with the 'iron age' pigs that, I think are wild boar cross Tamworths.

 

[NickJ]

10 is a very low base point for a wild species

Are all the muntjac in England descended from two or three animals imported to Woburn?

 

[Mungo]

10 is a very low base point for a wild species

But entirely realistic for a population growing from a handful of farm escapes and deliberate releases.

My understanding of the Perthshire release was that there were somewhere between 10 and 20 let out.

 

[mudman]

We need to be importing pure wild sows from the continent and releasing them where the current feral populations are.

 

[timbrayford]

We need to be importing pure wild sows from the continent and releasing them where the current feral populations are.

Apparently the French WB are closest genetically to our original indigenous stock

 

[slider]

We need Scottish forestry to act like the French one and organise driven hunts which the public can pay to join

What has this got to do with Scottish Forestry. they are a Govt agency that deals with grants, policy and regulations. They do not have control over any land.

 

[slider]

Apparently the French WB are closest genetically to our original indigenous stock

We need to get rid of them not get more!

 

[mudman]

We need to get rid of them not get more!

Why do we need to get rid? Near enough the greater part of the world exists with wild boar, and so can we. We have them back, they should be managed in some places and encouraged in others, not extirpated again.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

African swine fever virus would be my reason.
It will destroy livelihoods if it gets a foothold in the UK.

 

[Big Buff]

Estate owners and politicians will frankly ignore the solution. "Day tags" sold at manageable or desired levels and let a few blokes get on the land with the appropriate certification and equipment.

Holyrood elite couldn't have it because it will upset the grass weavers they've got into bed with and estate management would be aghast at three blokes from Barnsley with big rifles wandering through the woods having paid 80 quid to thin out the "pests"...

There's a need for a little pragmatism...

Grass Weavers absolutely love that term

 

[slider]

Why do we need to get rid? Near enough the greater part of the world exists with wild boar, and so can we. We have them back, they should be managed in some places and encouraged in others, not extirpated again.

a) spead swine diseases
b) destroy habits, farmland, gardens parks and golf course
c) they were eradicated as a pest to man kind
d) they are so far from true wild boar that you will never get back what was lost
e) What is the benefit to reintroduction other that sporting (a bit like the selfish desire of some to spread muntjac)

 

[timbrayford]

African swine fever virus would be my reason.
It will destroy livelihoods if it gets a foothold in the UK.

In what way is it acceptable to scapegoat our wildlife for diseases that the reckless activities of mankind has spread around the globe?

 

[timbrayford]

a) spead swine diseases
b) destroy habits, farmland, gardens parks and golf course
c) they were eradicated as a pest to man kind
d) they are so far from true wild boar that you will never get back what was lost
e) What is the benefit to reintroduction other that sporting (a bit like the selfish desire of some to spread muntjac)

Just to give some balance:
a) Mankind has spread these diseases, if destroying wildlife was an acceptable solution there might be very little left to enjoy
b) modify habitats, often beneficially
c) true in part, the nobility valued and hunted them, the peasants hated them as competitors to their own swineherding
d) Sus scrofa scrofa truly is a wild boar , not a domestic species or hybrid
e) Obvious benefits to biodiversity such as breaking up stands of bracken to enable ground flora seeds to germinate and provide the broken earth habitats in which ground dwelling bees and other invertebrates thrive

 

[slider]

Just to give some balance:
a) Mankind has spread these diseases, if destroying wildlife was an acceptable solution there might be very little left to enjoy
b) modify habitats, often beneficially
c) true in part, the nobility valued and hunted them, the peasants hated them as competitors to their own swineherding
d) Sus scrofa scrofa truly is a wild boar , not a domestic species or hybrid
e) Obvious benefits to biodiversity such as breaking up stands of bracken to enable ground flora seeds to germinate and provide the broken earth habitats in which ground dwelling bees and other invertebrates thrive

Agree these would be benifits if populations could be controled and confined to areas where these benifits would be, well benifical. But they wont be.
One mans meat is always another man's problem. Just like some people like lots of deer so they can look at them/phograph them/shhoot them to other people they a crop munchers/tree mucnchers and traffic hazards.
We have enough problems in this World without adding to them

 

[foxdropper]

Talking directory at its best .

 

[foxhunter]

Why do we need to get rid? Near enough the greater part of the world exists with wild boar, and so can we. We have them back, they should be managed in some places and encouraged in others, not extirpated again.

+1

 

[User00035]

Why do we need to get rid? Near enough the greater part of the world exists with wild boar, and so can we. We have them back, they should be managed in some places and encouraged in others, not extirpated again.

Very true. But when they last roamed wild before extinction Britain had a human population of about six million and vastly more of the landscape was forested. If one or other of these population isn't stringently controlled there will be conflict.

I know which species I'd like to see controlled but we all know it will never happen.