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  PlanetArk 8 Aug 06
Wild Boar Roam Britain Once More
Story by Kate Kelland

WEST ANSTEY, England- West Anstey is a fairly ordinary rural village in the English county of Devon. It has a pub, a few farms, a post office and a population of around 100. Humans, that is. But in the undulating farmland and woods around the village there are as many as several hundred other residents -- wild boar who are adding every day to a nationwide population of up to 1,000.

Their presence on the edge of the Exmoor national park in southwest England, and across at least five other rural British counties, is starting to worry those in the know.

"They have no natural predators and if they are not managed we will be overrun by wild boar," says Martin Goulding, a boar expert who has been lobbying the government to act. "We will certainly have wild boar coming into our towns and cities, rooting through dustbins within 10 or 15 years."

This may be a relatively unexciting sight in France, Germany or Spain, but in Britain, where wild boar effectively became extinct around 300 years ago, the reality of these hairy beasts running through woods and farmland is sparking lively debate.

The source of West Anstey's feral boar population is the Woodland Wild Boar farm, where not long ago, farmer Alan Dedames had a herd of 120 living in his 35 acres (14 hectares). But five attacks by animal rights activists, who cut down fences, vandalised the farm shop and let boars escape, have left him with just eight adult boars.

Critics say wild boar could have a damaging impact on many areas of British rural life. They can root up and damage agricultural land, spread disease to other livestock, and can be dangerous to the public if they are cornered and become angry.

Supporters argue it is a native species which should be allowed to develop again in a country that was once its natural home.

NOT READY

Stephen Tapper, director of policy and public affairs at the Game Conservancy Trust, accepts that wild boar did once belong in this country, but fears contemporary Britain is not ready for their return.

"No one has done a proper assessment," he told Reuters. "We don't know what the environmental impact is and we don't know whether it's possible to, or even how to manage the numbers."

The government launched a study last year which it said would seek to strike a balance between wild boar and the interests of conservation, farming, horticulture, woodland management, infrastructure and human safety.

Penny Fox, who speaks for the government's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, says the government is considering all options for "control" of the wild boar, but insists there is no need to panic.

"There is no great urgency," she said. "The population is not huge, and it's not growing at a rate that it would swiftly become unmanageable."

But with a distinct lack of the wild boar's natural predators -- usually wolves, bears and lynx -- talk in Britain is turning to hunting to keep the population under control. Wild boar hunting is allowed in many countries and the money earned is sometimes used to compensate farmers for damage the animals cause.

Hunting with dogs is now banned in Britain after decades of tortured debate about the tradition of fox hunting, but experts say wild boar could be controlled through shooting seasons such as those organised in Germany and France.

Dedames, who is now effectively bankrupt, thinks the boars should be controlled in the wild, but wants it done properly. "We either have to kill them all, protect them all, or manage them. And the only real way to manage an animal like this is hunting," he told Reuters. "I'm not saying we should go out chasing them all over the countryside with a pack of dogs. We should have them as a proper game species that can be stalked."

SHOTGUNS "MAKE THEM ANGRY"

Goulding agrees but says it is vital that animal welfare considerations are put in place. "You can't just go peppering them with a shotgun -- that makes them very angry and very dangerous," he said. "There should be closed seasons when pregnant sows or sows for dependant young are not shot, and people must be advised on the correct ammunition and the correct way to shoot a wild boar."

Tapper wants more drastic action. He says wild boar are too great a risk and should be eradicated from Britain once more. "We are very sceptical about anybody's ability to manage them properly," he says. "Even in countries with a long tradition of big game hunting like Germany and France, we have seen numbers of wild boar really rocketing up.

"The only way to do it is to cull them with rifles and reduce the population to zero."
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