Wild Boar Release in Wales

[8x57]

We have all the above in our woods apart from Iolo

I know what you mean Elmer. I have a small piece permission just up the road from yours.

 

[British Shooting Services]

There has always been a few pigs loose in the Maesteg area , last few I saw had lipstick on.

Now there's no need to talk about your ex's like that

 

[8x57]

I saw something on the Welsh news last night about this release. The farmer gave the impression that he wasn't working very hard to recapture the released boar but maybe I got the wrong impression. As Richard 577 has indicated he isn't going to be very popular with his neighbours if that's the case.

 

[griffshrek]

Now there's no need to talk about your ex's like that

What do you mean my ex I was on about the one I'm with

 

[griffshrek]

Hi Neil, anywhere near your patch?

Barry yes not a million miles away , if it looks like they are establishing I'll borrow the feeder to increase the odds.

I got some burgers to swap with you ,very tasty not traditional flavour more a smokey BBQ type.

 

[Sako 3006]

Whats the betting the Valley Commandos will have them all sorted by the weekend.

 

[paul k]

If either they are not all recovered or shot and they get into the forestry above Maesteg I can see there be a couple of hundred boar up there in a year or two. That is if they manage to evade the local cowboys. Come to think of it if only one pregnant sow evades recapture or shooting you could still have a situation similar to the Forest of Dean within a year or so.

Interestingly I've just got some numbers for the Forest of Dean from the Forestry Commission. Thermal imaging has put the minimum number of wild boar in the Forest at 535 plus juvenile recruitment and in the year to 31st March 2014 they culled 195 including road kill etc. The other thing these numbers suggest is that there is one boar for every two deer in the Forest.

 

[8x57]

I'm wondering what progress has been made to recover or eliminate the released Maesteg boar in the last week. It all seems to have gone a bit quiet. Does anybody know for sure?

 

[Southern]

Interestingly I've just got some numbers for the Forest of Dean from the Forestry Commission. Thermal imaging has put the minimum number of wild boar in the Forest at 535 plus juvenile recruitment and in the year to 31st March 2014 they culled 195 including road kill etc. The other thing these numbers suggest is that there is one boar for every two deer in the Forest.

If they culled 400 pigs out of 500, they would have 500 again, a year later, with no hunting.

Near my home is a 38,000 National Park, which used to be owned by one family, taken by the government for a National Monument to preserve the huge trees, etc. I was friends of the family, and one of a few people with permission to hunt it. There were a few wild boar, bears, panthers, alligators, deer, in a big open forest ( oaks 150 feet and better, pines even larger, six and 8 feet in diameter). After they banned hunting, the pig population exploded, to the detriment of the other game, and rare plants. Now they trap them, and have studies by pasty white biologists and do-gooders who dislike hunting, and want a "humane" solution. ... and what would that be? Releasing trapped ones on private land in the middle of the night?

Wild boar are too smart to be trapped effectively. Mentally, they are predators, like a cat or wolf. The only way to really cull them is a big man drive into shooting lanes.

 

[Jagare]

Interestingly I've just got some numbers for the Forest of Dean from the Forestry Commission. Thermal imaging has put the minimum number of wild boar in the Forest at 535 plus juvenile recruitment and in the year to 31st March 2014 they culled 195 including road kill etc. The other thing these numbers suggest is that there is one boar for every two deer in the Forest.

So the FC really have no idea how many boar are in the Forest of Dean and they culled about 30% of their numbers counted. As i wrote before its reconned that only 20% of boar here survive past there first year and yet the population doubles every 5 years. Not forgetting that the boar are spreading out from the Forest of Dean as well as increasing their local population.

 

[timbrayford]

If they culled 400 pigs out of 500, they would have 500 again, a year later, with no hunting.

Near my home is a 38,000 National Park, which used to be owned by one family, taken by the government for a National Monument to preserve the huge trees, etc. I was friends of the family, and one of a few people with permission to hunt it. There were a few wild boar, bears, panthers, alligators, deer, in a big open forest ( oaks 150 feet and better, pines even larger, six and 8 feet in diameter). After they banned hunting, the pig population exploded, to the detriment of the other game, and rare plants. Now they trap them, and have studies by pasty white biologists and do-gooders who dislike hunting, and want a "humane" solution. ... and what would that be? Releasing trapped ones on private land in the middle of the night?

Wild boar are too smart to be trapped effectively. Mentally, they are predators, like a cat or wolf. The only way to really cull them is a big man drive into shooting lanes.

I thought that the cull figures looked a bit lightweight as well, how does the boar census in the Forest of Dean compare to earlier years?

 

[paul k]

I thought that the cull figures looked a bit lightweight as well, how does the boar census in the Forest of Dean compare to earlier years?

I'll check back to see and post if I find anything.

 

[Penyard]

Guys, we have had wild boar round here now for 20 odd years. I accept they can be a menace, especially to arable crops and grass paddocks. However, they fill an ecological niche in a woodland ecosystem which they occupied for millennia and were only absent from for 200+ years. Don't forget that our forefathers managed to wipe them out with mainly dogs and pointy sticks so talk of apocalyptical scenarios of the world being taken over by wild boar is unhelpful and does not fit with my experience round here.

Look also at the Kent and Sussex populations. Are they out of control or, as I suspect, under control or dwindling due to habitat and hunting pressure?

The habitat in this part of the world means that the dean boar have spread very slowly and only in directions where there is woodland which we are actually rather short of in the uk which is the big difference with places like Sweden and Germany.

of course they need managing, good fun and eating they are, too! However, there breeding rate is not exponential round here and the numbers relatively stable.

 

[greenshoots]

The sooner they are shot the better, I farm not many miles from Maesteg and I do not want the bloody things on my ground.

not a prob i will volunteer my marlin444 and myself to sort them out for you

greenshoots