Feral Pigs Spread Across Britain

There are also concerns about public safety, with a number of people reporting being chased by wild boar, which can weigh up to 200kg (440 pounds).

www.malverngazette.co.uk...

They're feral pigs and they weigh up to 300kgs. If you walk into a group of males in the dark they explode off in all directions. If you're in the way you'll be knocked flying. Apart from that they pose little danger to pedestrians.

. . . possibility of poaching, with people hunting boar with trained fighting dogs and high-powered guns, is also considered.

Possibility? It's a certainty. Plus bows, spears, knives, traps, snares etc. Lost dogs can be aggressive. The dangers posed by snares and guns are obvious.

. . . poaching has become an increasing problem particularly around the Forest of Dean area.

www.wild-boar.co.uk...



Feral pigs are spreading across Britain resulting in road deaths, savaged pets, bullets flying, snares set, almost certainty of massive harm to pig farming through disease causing movement restrictions and possible culling, destruction of sports fields and other cared for grassed areas, the list goes on.

It is delusional to portray this as the return of the wild boar, an eco-tourism opportunity, a welcome return to balance in our woodlands. This is a feral pig infestation.

Last time I checked the area of the Forest of Dean where I've been watching the development of the feral pig phenomena it was obvious the population had stabilised at a very high and destructive level. Stabilised because they've spread.

Pigs are cool and clever, so it's not all bad. Unless you're a dormouse.

. . . boar have negatively impacted on, but not eliminated, dormouse populations.

www.bioone.org...

They also eat lizards, chanterelles and sweet chestnuts. When a high population of feral pigs take over your foraging ground, your status changes from forager to scavenger.

Pig-like creatures ruled the world millions of years ago during the porcine age, according to palaeontologists.

. . .

Paul Wignall, professor of palaeo-environment at the University of Leeds, said: "They fed and spread. We think there were billions of them. Their fossils are everywhere."

www.telegraph.co.uk...

. . . billions of them . . . ruled the world . . .

It can only be a matter of time.

They hunt those in Texas, who don't love some pork?


You guys can have a bow right?


^_^

Thankfully they aren't Daeodons.

a reply to: Kester

There's only one way to fix this, bring back asterisk and obelix and fire up the spit.

a reply to: Lysergic

Hunting with the bow and arrow was prohibited in the UK in 1965.

www.britishbowhunterassociation.co.uk...

I'm just making hissing and growling noises, no words coming out.

a reply to: Kester

WOAT>?

Birthplace of the English Longbow and you can't own a frickin bow?!

I CALL SHENANIGANS!

What about a crude spear fashioned from a broom handle and steak knife and some duct tape?

a reply to: Lysergic

They banned duct tape, too sticky.

It's a different world over there in England.

Archery hunting in the US is looked upon mostly favorably by the public. Some folks give me a pass socially when they hear I'm a bow hunter (I do both seasons, rifle too.)

I read a letter from some guys who came from the EU to Wisconsin to hunt whitetail deer. THey'd been saving for like a decade for the trip, and went home with a little spike buck each, which They thought was amazing. They wrote a letter thanking the town where they'd stayed, the chamber of commerce and the hotel that gave them a cut on the room rate.

Pigs are the primary rationalization for Texans owning assault rifles.

I have killed 30 in a single night's hunting, and the landowner begged us to come back and "finish the job."

Pigs in texas root crops with their snouts; killing young plants in the shallow arid soil. They will hunt and kill small game, and young fawns as well. I know a guy who traps young boars and sells them to a restaurant in Austin; he gets $15 a pound on the hoof. They feed em on corn for 2 weeks to tender the meat a bit. But these have fed mostly on pecans and acorns and so taste sweet.

Hogs will root in freshly plowed dirt, and so tear up dams, tanks, and any kind of irrigation ditch. They will also wreck fencing. They are the worst during the springtime, when a packs of 50-80 animals will churn up a grassy meadow, turning it to a mud "waller", and killing all the grass there permanently. I want to hang a ham, and cure my own bacon; but the wife won't let me hang meat in the garage.

I can imagine what hogs do to the English countryside.

a reply to: tovenar

I can imagine what hogs do to the English countryside.

www.theforester.co.uk... tionIs=news&searchyear=2017

a reply to: Kester

They're feral pigs and they weigh up to 300kgs. If you walk into a group of males in the dark they explode off in all directions. If you're in the way you'll be knocked flying. Apart from that they pose little danger to pedestrians.

Hahaha... keep believing that.

Feral hogs (not "pigs") are the meanest and most dangerous critters we have here. A black bear will typically shy away from humans (as long as there's not a cub around; then you're dinner), the few mountain lions we have are extremely dangerous but also rarely make contact with humans (unless they're starving; then you're dinner), but those wild boars... They pack in the first place, they're not afraid of anything, and they'll eat anything, including peoples. They're also tough as nails. I know some people hunt them with a bow; I want my .444 Marlin bear gun!

I wouldn't try to pet the nice piggies if I were you. You might draw back a nub.

Right now, it sounds like they haven't gone completely feral. Swine take a few generations to do that. Regardless of how they react to humans now, the next generation will likely see you as the other white meat, and there's no way any human can match strength with a boar.

It sounds to me that the UK ban on firearms is about to get a substantial part of the population dead. On the good side, once the human population has thinned out, England can probably lease itself out to hunters and supply enough pork, sausage, bacon, and ham to substantially drop prices globally. Let me be the first to thank them for helping end world hunger.

TheRedneck

Pig Man

Dont worry, we are releasing this pig to trap them......

Even worse, the UK is sending them over here:

goo.gl...

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: Kester

There's only one way to fix this, bring back asterisk and obelix and fire up the spit.

With times as they are, Getafix will be along shortly.

a reply to: Parishna

I think I may like that character..

Replace Pig with Chav and it makes more sense.

a reply to: Lysergic

We can own bows, I think restrictions exist once they pass a certain power.

The issue is a bow is seen as inhumane, hell even shooting vermin should be done humanely in the eyes of the law. The weapon should be of sufficient power, have enough shots to the competence of the shooter and ideally the shooter should have an alternative way of dispatching the critter at close range as to not prolong suffering.

We've become overrun with certain species, "vigilante" cullings, poaching and hefty sentences are becoming too common...

It's a pickle really, most people (city dwellers) don't care except when animal cruelty happens.

originally posted by: Fisherr
Replace Pig with Chav and it makes more sense.

Pigs have intelligence.

We have a problem here with the typhoons that destroyed many pig farms. Now the domestic pigs are breeding with the wild ones called inoshishi pigs. And these bad boys after 3 spawns of baby generations are big, so big they go after bears in packs and if you don't know it, bears can out run deers in the brush here in this country.

originally posted by: Kester
I'm just making hissing and growling noises, no words coming out.

Try not to hiss and growl

Hunting with a bow is prohibited in the UK because it's cruel. The chance of a fatal hit is significantly less than that of a rifle in the hands of someone who knows how to shoot. Nothing would turn the public off than a dead pig, dear, badger or swan, that had taken a couple of days to die with an arrow up its arse.

Swans and arrows

If there a problem with feral pigs then that's for professional pest controllers to deal with. The fact is that people and animals need to coexist, and the pressure on the natural environment by new building and insensitive agriculture is always going to push animals into contact with people. Sadly, I think that intolerant ignorance of Townies and farmers is setting the agenda against nature.

a reply to: RAY1990

Think you guys will lose the battle over there.

Speaking of Texas as tovenar mentioned...

We can hunt hogs - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year with any legal firearm or bow. Spotlighting, night vision, suppressed weapons all allowed. No bag limit. If you are hunting for meat or trophy you should have a hunting license. They are designated an exotic species, meaning not native. They are invasive and destructive and can be dangerous.

Females can breed a new litter of 5-6 every 120 days, females reach sexual maturity at about 8 months and typically first breed at 13 months. With this breeding cycle, they overcome species native to the environment.

With gun and hunting loving Texans having 24/7 access to hunting them, we barely keep them in check. Good luck over there in Britain with them!!

a reply to: Strate8

It's pretty similar in Alabama... no closed season, no bag limits, no hunting license needed on private land. Just kill the damn things! We have a pretty decent population one valley over from me, so I shoot the things at every opportunity. Don't want them on my mountain.

One thing we both forgot to mention is how intelligent a hog is... probably one of the more intelligent species around, and definitely smarter on average than even a dog. They will even set up ambushes and traps if they feel threatened, and in packs they use herding to put large prey at a disadvantage.

Mean, vicious, and smart...

TheRedneck