Wild boars appear frequently, but cannot be killed at will. How do wild boar hunters do their job?

Wild boars are rampant in many parts of my country, making them a hot topic again and again at the end of the year. Why is the "Three Haves" list adjusted? Can wild boars be hunted? How do wild boar hunters work?

In 2021, wild boars have become a hot topic in many parts of my country. Recently, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration publicly solicited opinions on the draft adjustment of the "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Ecological, Scientific and Social Value". Among them, wild boars, which were included in the "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Economic and Scientific Research Value under State Protection" in 2000, were "kicked out" of the list, making wild boars once again a hot topic at the end of this year.

What are the main considerations behind this controversial adjustment? Does this mean that wild boars have been given a "free pass" and can be hunted at will? Will it lead to the endangered species again? How to resolve the "human-pig conflict"? These questions have attracted much attention from the public.

Do you know wild boar?

As the saying goes, "You've never eaten pork, but you've seen a pig run." Pigs seem to be very familiar animals to people. But that's not the case. Although wild boars are rampant in many places, most people have never seen one in person, and wild boars are rarely exhibited in zoos around the world. In fact, even domestic pigs are rarely seen alive by people living in cities.

Although the appearance of wild boars is similar to that of domestic pigs, there are at least several obvious differences: first, the head of wild boars is narrower, the snout is long and protruding, and the ears are smaller; second, the skin of wild boars is worn into a hard protective layer, with stiff body hair and obvious bristles, and almost no fluff; third, the upper canine teeth of male wild boars are particularly developed and become tusks, which are exposed and curved upward. These differences, as well as its weight of about 100 kilograms, fully reflect its wildness, showing its sturdy and strong body and considerable impact force.

Wild boars have a wide distribution range, native to most parts of Asia, Europe and northern Africa, and later widely introduced to North America and Australia. They are highly adaptable to the environment, and their distribution range spans tropical, subtropical and temperate zones, from tropical rainforests, subtropical and temperate forests to semi-deserts and grasslands, but their main habitat is mountain jungles.

▲Wild boar (Photo courtesy of Li Xiangtao)

The endangerment and prevalence of wild boars

Over the past century, due to the indiscriminate logging and hunting by humans, many animal resources have been severely damaged and have become endangered species, among which wild animals that mainly live in mountain forests are the most affected. As a traditional hunting animal, wild boars have always been one of the most hunted, sold, and eaten wild animals by humans. Coupled with the sharp reduction in suitable living space, the population of wild boars has been sharply reduced or even extinct in many of their original habitats.

Therefore, wild boars are not only listed as local protected animals in many places (they are classified as second-level protected wild animals in Beijing), but are also included in the "National List of Terrestrial Wild Animals that are Beneficial or Have Important Economic and Scientific Research Value", commonly known as the "Three Haves" list.

With the continuous strengthening of my country's environmental protection efforts, the effective implementation of policies such as hunting bans, natural forest protection projects, and returning farmland to forests, the wild boar population has grown rapidly in many provinces such as Anhui, Henan, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, and Heilongjiang in the past 10 to 20 years. Wild boars are also found in Pinggu, Miyun, Huairou, Yanqing, Changping, Mentougou, and Haidian districts in Beijing. In the Xishan area north of the Summer Palace, wild boars have reappeared after disappearing for 60 years. The number of wild boars in some provinces exceeds 100,000, and experts estimate that the number of wild boars in the country has reached one million.

The reason for the increasing number of wild boars is of course related to their own "quality", that is, they have strong adaptability, a wide range of diet, and amazing reproductive capacity.

Wild boars eat a wide variety of foods and are not picky eaters. They eat anything they can eat, including vegetarian food (crops, wild fruits, grass, bamboo shoots, mushrooms), meat (rabbits, mice, small birds, chicks, bird eggs, worms), and even poisonous food (scorpions, snakes). Wild boars are polygamous, with high reproduction rates and cub survival rates. Females are "hero mothers" with a gestation period of only four months. They can give birth to 4-12 cubs, and up to 14 cubs. Moreover, females in their reproductive prime can give birth to two cubs a year, usually one in April and May, and another in autumn. The average lifespan of a wild boar is 10 years, and the longest can be as long as 27 years.

▲Wild boar and its cubs being breastfed (specimen) (Photo courtesy of Li Xiangtao)

However, in nature, no organism can develop according to its potential reproductive capacity. They are all limited by the population size that the environment can carry, and many young animals do not live to the age of sexual maturity. The population growth of wild boars is restricted by food, controlled by predators, and competes with species of the same species and similar ecological niches, as well as being affected by diseases and parasites.

Although adult wild boars have few natural enemies, their young are prey to beasts such as tigers, leopards, lynxes, bears, wolves, and birds of prey such as golden eagles. In a complete ecosystem, due to the constraints of natural enemies such as beasts and birds of prey, no species, including wild boars, will proliferate without restraint.

However, many wild boar distribution areas in my country lack large predators, resulting in oversaturation of wild boars. In addition, human activities have led to a reduction in wildlife habitats, and the ecosystems in many places are not perfect, resulting in some wild animals facing local overabundance and lack of large-scale landscapes.

Human-pig conflicts intensify in some areas

The frequent appearance of wild boars in big cities is one of the hot topics. Take Nanjing as an example. Wild boars appear from time to time in residential areas, schools, factories, hospitals, shopping malls, milk tea shops, park greenways, subway stations... They even dare to "swim" in Xuanwu Lake and "wander" in Qixia Mountain. Nanjing is also nicknamed "Wild Boar City" by netizens.

▲On January 19, 2021, Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo released a wild boar that had been rescued for more than two months into the Laoshan forest in Pukou. The staff installed a GPS collar on the wild boar to monitor its activities in a timely manner in order to further study the activity rhythm of modern urban wild boars.

Similar incidents have also occurred in the tourist-filled West Lake scenic area in Hangzhou, where wild boars have appeared in Yanggong Causeway, Su Causeway, Quyuan Fenghe, Jiuxi, Meiren Peak, and Fenghuang Mountain. Residents who exercise in the morning and tourists who take a walk in the evening did not see the "White Lady" but encountered the "black wild boar", which became a joke among people.

In Changsha, a wild boar once caused a big disturbance on Xia Bixiang Street. In Guangzhou, a wild boar broke into a kindergarten, and another entered the cafeteria of the Guangzhou Education Institute branch to seek food. There are also records of wild boars appearing in Wulongshan Scenic Area in Dandong, Liaoning, Baiyun Park in Suizhou, Hubei, Jinhua Children's Palace in Zhejiang, and Taiyuan City. In Hong Kong, four wild boars broke into Kwai Chung Hospital and fought with the police for seven hours. In addition, traffic accidents involving vehicles hitting wild boars have occurred in Hangzhou Ring Road and Bei'an River in Haidian, Beijing.

In addition to disrupting the normal lives of people in big cities, wild boars are more likely to "cause trouble" near villages and towns. A company of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps had worked hard to grow 20 mu of watermelons, which had just matured, but were destroyed by a group of more than 20 wild boars. In the Lishan National Nature Reserve in Shanxi, wild boars not only destroyed crops, but also ate lambs. Almost all the lambs born by ewes in the wild were eaten by wild boars. A village in Guangchang, Jiangxi, planted 620 mu of white lotus, 1/4 of which was destroyed by wild boars. In the Foping National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi, wild boars also like to eat bamboo shoots, and have caused serious damage to the bamboo forest, which has had a serious impact on the survival of the "national treasure" giant panda.

▲July 15, 2019, Shijiazhuang, Guiquan Village, Jing County, Hebei Province, the sweet potato seedlings that were pushed by wild boars quickly dried up

There are even more cases of damage to crops in the fields. In Chun'an, Zhejiang, Hulin, Heilongjiang, Beihai, Guangxi, Nankang, Jiangxi, Xiaogan, Hubei, Wushan, Chongqing, and other places, people have been fighting wild boars for many years, but the result is that most crops have no harvest. In Luanchuan County, Henan, the area of ​​land damaged by wild boars reached 6,700 mu in one year, of which 2,700 mu was severely damaged, and 500,000 kilograms of grain were lost. According to statistics, there are as many as 26 provinces across the country that have been seriously invaded by wild boars.

More seriously, there have been incidents of wild boars causing casualties in many places. In Hubei's Ezhou, a wild boar weighing more than 150 kilograms floated across the river, climbed over the Chengguan embankment and entered the downtown area, where it hit people it saw, scaring passers-by to dodge, but more than 10 people were still injured. In addition, there have been tragedies of wild boars attacking villagers to death in Jilin's Liaodong, Jiangxi's Ganjiang, Anhui's Taihu, and Chongqing's Yunyang.

The increasing contact between wild boars and poultry, livestock and humans also increases the risk of disease transmission. Wild boars can spread infectious diseases such as pseudorabies, brucellosis, swine influenza, and leptospirosis. After the first African swine fever outbreak in my country in Shenyang in August 2018, an outbreak of African swine fever in wild boars also occurred. Since wild boars have complex activity routes and are not easily affected by human control, if the epidemic continues to spread and cross-infects with domestic pigs, it will greatly increase the difficulty of prevention and control.

Wild boars are worthy of the title of "Three Haves"

Regarding whether wild boars should be removed from the "Three Haves" list, supporters believe that the rampant spread of wild boars in many places indicates that local imbalances have occurred, and timely adjustments are correct. However, those who disagree are mostly worried that this will make wild boars a "pest" and lead to large-scale, uncontrolled hunting, which will harm other wild animals and provide opportunities for poachers and game dealers.

The "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Ecological, Scientific and Social Value" was renamed from the original "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Economic and Scientific Research Value under State Protection". If we only look at the name, wild boars are worthy of the title of "three-have" animals.

First of all, domestic pigs were bred from wild boars, and today wild boars still play a very important role in improving domestic pig breeds. By analyzing the history of domestication and changes of Chinese pigs, it also provides important evidence for in-depth research on the history of early human migration, which helps us better understand the history of Chinese civilization.

▲Domestic pigs (above) are bred from wild boars (below) (Photo courtesy of Li Xiangtao)

The role of wild boars in nature cannot be underestimated. Wild boars occupy an important position in the forest ecological chain. They are the most common large mammals that have a very close relationship with forests and play an irreplaceable role in maintaining the stability of forest ecosystems.

For example, wild boars work tirelessly to turn the soil, which can prevent soil compaction and hardening that would affect the activities of soil animals, soil permeability, and the formation of soil humus. Wild boars gnaw on a large number of understory shrubs to build nests, which can adjust forest density, increase forest lighting conditions, and provide conditions for trees and herbs to absorb nutrients, etc.

From the perspective of the food chain, in an environment where even wild boars cannot survive, there will probably be no higher-level consumers; conversely, if there are no higher-level consumers in an ecosystem that can control the number of wild boars, wild boars will become rampant.

However, this adjustment of the "Three Haves" list is based on the scientific assessment of the ecological, scientific and social value of terrestrial wild animal species, and fully considers multiple factors such as population dynamics, threats, and social concerns. It was formulated by an expert group on the basis of the three basic principles of adhering to ecological priority, maintaining scientific research needs, and being conducive to social development.

The reason why wild boars are to be removed from the "Three Haves" list is mainly because the wild boar population is too high in many areas. Currently, there are 857 counties (districts) in 26 provinces across the country where wild boars are causing harm, which has had an adverse impact on the production and life of local people and is showing an increasingly serious trend. Therefore, removing wild boars from the "Three Haves" list will make it easier for local areas to take hunting or other prevention and control measures based on actual conditions, which will be more effective in solving the problem of wild boar harm.

Regardless of whether wild boars are on the "Three Haves" list, forestry and grassland authorities will continue to monitor and warn wild boars and their habitats. Local authorities will determine the number of wild boars to be hunted based on the number of wild boars and the damage to people and crops caused by local wild boars. Once the population of the species is found to be declining excessively, the protection level will be considered again to avoid the species becoming endangered due to excessive hunting.

Further reading:

What kind of job is "Wild Boar Hunter"?

Due to the over-reproduction and imbalance of wild boar populations, which pose a threat to humans and the ecology, it is necessary to take control measures to reduce their interference with human life and damage to property.

As early as 2006, my country no longer had an absolute ban on wild boar hunting, and local forestry departments could apply for wild boar hunting. Of course, this kind of hunting is subject to strict restrictions: it must comply with national laws and regulations on gun management, and it must not violate the hunting tools or hunting methods prohibited by the Wildlife Protection Law.

It should be noted that ordinary people who hunt, purchase, transport and sell wild boars will violate the criminal law, and hunting wild boars by using poisons, explosives, electric shock or electronic trapping devices, snares, traps, ground guns, volley guns and other tools, as well as nets, not only seriously threatens the safety of all wild animals in the area, but may even endanger human safety, and are all illegal and criminal acts.

Wild boar hunting requires high professional skills and involves gun control, so it must be carried out by professionals. The wild boar hunting in the Hangzhou scenic area was approved by the forestry and public security departments, and the police were authorized to work with the West Lake water management department to carry submachine guns and other weapons to eventually kill 7 wild boars. The wild boars that were causing trouble in Taiyuan, Changsha, and Ezhou were killed by police snipers.

Hunting activities based on the principle of maximum hunting density is one of the means of wildlife management. Scientific and reasonable hunting will play a regulatory role in the population of wild animals. The approximate hunting volume in various parts of my country is as follows: Chongqing Wushan applied for the first batch of hunting 10-20 heads; Hubei Laifeng and Changyang both planned to hunt 50 heads in the first batch; Heilongjiang Mudanjiang also planned to hunt 50 heads; Henan Jiyuan and Heilongjiang Jixi planned to hunt 100 heads in 4 months; Fujian Mingxi planned to hunt 150 heads; Hubei Badong planned to hunt 200 heads, Yunxian planned to hunt 300 heads, and Zhushan planned to hunt 600 heads; Shaanxi Lantian’s limit is 350 heads. At the provincial level, Shaanxi has the largest efforts, with a plan to hunt 9,700 heads a year.

It is reported that 117 hunting teams have been established in pilot provinces across the country, equipped with a certain number of hunting rifles, and implemented a management method of real-name purchase, centralized storage, and timely use. The area for hunting wild boars with guns has been demarcated, and the annual quota for hunting wild boars has been approved and announced by the relevant departments. Wild boars are hunted according to their biological characteristics and suitable hunting seasons. At the same time, various methods such as cage capture and fence trapping have been explored to carry out population control in an orderly manner. These are all organized and planned hunts approved by relevant laws, regulations and procedures. Relevant government departments need to make clear regulations on the hunting volume, sex ratio, hunting period, and location of wild boars.

Hunting areas are demarcated by the forestry administrative departments of districts and counties according to actual needs. The hunting season is from October 1st to January 31st of the following year, and the rest of the time is a hunting ban period. The forestry administrative departments of districts and counties shall propose an annual hunting quota for the hunting area based on the amount of wild boar resources, submit it for approval step by step, and issue hunting licenses and organize hunting based on the approved hunting volume. The annual hunting quota shall not be exceeded.

Hunters must be licensed to hunt, and hunting plans should specify the composition of the hunting team, personal accident insurance, hunting team management, hunting safety, collection and disposal of the hunted, and labor compensation for hunters. Professional hunting teams established in various places are mostly composed of people's armed forces cadres with relatively high shooting skills. They employ experienced local hunters as guides, carry live ammunition, climb mountains and wade through water every day, fear no danger, eat in the mountains, and walk through the jungle to find traces of wild boars.

After each hunting activity, the hunting team leader is responsible for reporting to the local township government the specific participants, the time of hunting and returning, the activity area, and the prey. The district and county forestry administrative departments are responsible for guidance and coordination services, and the public security organs are responsible for the management of guns and ammunition and safety education to effectively ensure the safety of hunting activities. In addition, the relevant regulations on the prohibition of eating wild animals must be implemented, and wild boars hunted must be disposed of harmlessly and must not be sold or eaten.

This kind of "wild boar hunter" is a very special profession. Hunting is actually very dangerous. As the saying goes, "one pig, two bears and three tigers", wild boars are strong, with sharp tusks, thick skin and solidified resin, which makes it difficult for shotgun bullets to penetrate. Therefore, when hunting wild boars, several people are always dispatched to hunt separately. When hunting, you must not smoke or take a bath to avoid being discovered by the wild boar. They use hunting dogs to determine the location of the wild boar, drive the wild boar out of the dense forest, and then kill it with a shotgun.

When attacked, wild boars have a strong "revenge" heart. If a shot fails to hit the vital point, it will fight with people and attack people frantically. The scene is very thrilling. In Guandu Town, Liuyang, Hunan, there was an incident where a wounded wild boar frantically tore and bit an old hunter to death. A member of a hunting team in Fengjie, Chongqing was also knocked down and bitten by a wounded wild boar, causing serious injuries. In Longling, Yunnan, during an illegal hunting of wild boars, three innocent villagers were injured, including the elderly, women and children. In addition, the irregularity of wild boars' appearance determines that this kind of hunting often has no outstanding results, and it is quite difficult to achieve the target.

Written by Li Xiangtao (Researcher at Beijing Museum of Natural History)

Editor/Liu Zhao New Media Editor/Lv Bingxin

Image source/Visual China (except those with signature)

Produced by: Science Central Kitchen

Produced by: Beijing Science and Technology News | Beijing Science and Technology Media

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