Ledgers, Hounds, and Boars

Wang Youqin lost confidence in farming after three years of not having a good harvest. More than 200 mu of land, 480 kilograms of seeds, and 14 tons of fertilizers were only trampled by wild boars and 70 to 80 kilograms of corn.

The 45-pound hunting dog Black Tiger encountered a 300-pound wild boar head-on. After its internal organs were pierced by the long tusks, its life was frozen at the age of two and a half. That month, the agricultural protection team killed three wild boars and lost three hunting dogs.

Zhang Minglan, 67, has been fighting wild boars for seven years. After trying every possible method, such as hitting iron sheets, playing radios, and burning cypress branches, she finally electrocuted three wild boars with high-voltage equipment, which also broke the law. Later, she still slept in a shed on the ridge every night, guarding the vegetable field.

In 2000, wild boars were included in the "National List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Economic and Scientific Research Value under State Protection". In the past five years, wild boars have caused the most serious damage to people, crops or other property losses caused by wild animals. At present, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration has launched a comprehensive pilot project to prevent and control wild boar damage in 14 provinces (autonomous regions). Hunting teams have been set up in many places to kill some wild boars in a planned manner.

Behind the three stories in the Qinba Mountains, wild boars reproduce at a rate of 1 to 2 litters per year, with 4 to 12 boars in each litter. The conflict between humans and pigs started with a seed and a pound of fertilizer, gradually escalated, and even broke out into a conflict with a high voltage of 8,000 volts.

Wild boars in the agricultural supplies account book

Wang Youqin has lived in the mountains for 3 years.

In the winter of 2018, he and his wife and children returned to his hometown in Zhushan County, Shiyan, Hubei, to develop and manage hundreds of acres of tea gardens.

Zhushan County is located in the hinterland of the Qinba Mountains, with Wudang in the north and Daba in the south. Mountains account for more than 80% of the county's area. Wang Youqin heard that in recent years, wild boars would enter the fields and destroy the crops during the harvest season. Every evening after 6 p.m., every household would beat gongs and drums and go to the mountains to drive away the wild boars until the middle of the night. He simply built a few tin houses and lived on the mountain with an altitude of nearly 1,000 meters.

When talking about wild boars, Wang Youqin sighed repeatedly. He found the agricultural materials account book for the past three years and listed the disputes one by one.

During the first two or three years of tea tree growth, crops such as corn and millet need to be interplanted between the rows to regulate the soil, suppress weeds and provide sun protection. If the harvest is good, it can also subsidize some of the tea tree planting costs.

In the past two years, Wang Youqin has planted more than 200 mu of land. In 2019, he mainly planted millet. After planting 400 kilograms of seeds, the original harvest of 70,000 to 80,000 kilograms was eaten and dug up by wild boars, leaving only 20,000 kilograms.

"That year was still good." In 2020, Wang Youqin switched to growing corn, which has a lower cost. In July and August, the corn gradually became full, but the Qinba Mountain area was rainy all day long. The rain washed away the mountains and landslides blocked the roads, making it impossible for people and vehicles to get on and off, let alone harvest.

If there is no way to collect, then we can only guard. Wang Youqin is basically on the mountain 24 hours a day. The house made of iron sheets and wooden boards is flooded on all sides. It rains heavily outside and drizzles inside. At night, he wears rubber water shoes and hangs more than 30 electric speakers all over the mountain, letting the "Hey la la la" sound of herding pigs ring all night long. When it is not raining, he ties firecrackers to the mosquito coils at intervals, and the firecrackers will explode wherever the incense burns. The mosquito coils that are one finger thick and half a person tall can barely last for one night. He buys mosquito coils and firecrackers in boxes, and this expense costs several thousand yuan every year.

A horn used to drive away wild boars. Photo by Huang Yu, a reporter from People's Daily Online

However, these simple methods of protecting farmers are only effective for the first ten days or half a month. Once the wild boars get used to them, they are no longer afraid of them. Wang Youqin still has to patrol the fields every night with a flashlight. Sometimes, there are wild boars everywhere on the slopes, and he is in a panic, like a child picking sesame seeds and throwing watermelons in the forest, not knowing which side to look after.

Corn destroyed by wild boars fell down in pieces. Photo provided by the interviewee

"You can't hold on to the rain at the back. You don't know when it will come. You can only watch the corn decrease day by day." Wang Youqin remembered that the rain lasted for at least 57 days. In late September, the rain finally stopped. Wang Youqin estimated that there were still several thousand kilograms of corn left in the field. After the road was opened, he drove a farm machine to the mountain with 11 workers early in the morning.

The scene before him made him very annoyed. In just a few days, the last few fields had also suffered: the corn stalks were leaning here and there, lying in pieces. The already yellow corn cobs were dug out, gnawed a few times, and abandoned on the roadside.

While the workers were searching for surviving corn in the mess on the mountain, Wang Youqin sat on the slope without saying a word for the whole morning. In the past six months, he has planted 480 kilograms of seeds in the more than 200 mu of land in front of him, applied 14 tons of fertilizer in three batches, hired hundreds of workers, and cooked dozens of meals for them... In the end, all the hard work in the agricultural materials account book only earned 70 to 80 kilograms of corn.

"I can't do it anymore. I have no confidence." In 2021, Wang Youqin gave up intercropping on some tea fields and bought more than 300 kilograms of corn seeds and 9 tons of fertilizer. Even in good weather, he only received more than 4,000 kilograms of corn, some good and some bad. What's even more annoying is that in the places where there is no intercropping, wild boars even dug out tea seeds. Wang Youqin had to go and replant.

Li Youjian from the same county does not farm, but he has heard many stories like Wang Youqin's. For more than 20 years, Li Youjian has run an agricultural supply station, providing fertilizers and seeds to five surrounding towns. In the past, he could sell an average of 1,000 tons of fertilizer per year. In recent years, sales have dropped significantly: more than 800 tons were sold in 2020; by the end of November in 2021, only about 580 tons were sold.

"Wild boars are causing more and more damage. Some farmers have almost no harvest and many say they don't want to plant anymore." For Li Youjian, the profit from each ton of fertilizer is about 100 yuan. The loss of one seed or one kilogram of fertilizer falls even more heavily on the farmers. "My friend's father stayed up until 2 a.m. one day, thinking that wild boars would not come again, and went home. The next morning, the old man found that several acres of corn fields had been damaged and was so angry that he couldn't speak."

In June 2021, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration issued the "Notice on Further Improving the Prevention and Control of Wild Boar Hazards", pointing out that in the past five years, wild boars have caused the most serious damage in cases of casualties, crops or other property losses caused by wild animals.

Recently, a netizen reported the situation of wild boars causing harm in Zhushan County on the "Leaders' Message Board" of People's Daily Online. Zhushan County responded that after verification, the situation reported was true and a work plan for preventing and controlling wild boar harm had been formulated.

Wang Youqin said that he had been back home for three years, and this year was the hardest, "because if he continued to work, he would be in debt." His mother died young, and he went out to work when he was 13 or 14 years old, the farthest he went was Qinghai. Over the past 30 years, the family has saved more than 700,000 yuan, and after deducting the expenses for his son's family, the remaining more than 500,000 yuan was invested in the land, and no money has been made back yet.

Death of Black Tiger

"Bang!"

After a period of silent searching, a dog finally barked, the sound of finding its target. The hound Black Tiger excitedly ran up the mountain ridge. It had not been out for more than 20 days since it was injured last time. This two-and-a-half-year-old mixed-breed dog has Pitbull and Plott bloodlines, with a dark body, shiny fur, a broad chest, a tight mouth, and slender limbs.

The nearby hunting dogs heard the noise and moved, making a loud noise. At this time, the wild boar, which had been exposed, was about 20 to 30 meters away from the dogs. It had not been provoked yet and did not want to fight, but wanted to escape. It had been running in the mountains for many years and was very familiar with the terrain.

Wild boars like to lie in the grass and bask in the sun. Photo by Huang Yu, a reporter from People's Daily Online

The chances of success were slim if we just chased it. People threw stones and shouted, trying to force the wild boar into the encirclement in front, where four or five hunting rifles were quietly waiting. The black-gray beast had poor eyesight, but its hearing and sense of smell were first-rate. It sniffed the ground, tilted its body, and ran sideways toward the nearby hillside. There were open vegetable fields and tea gardens there, with no cover, and therefore no ambush.

The formation that had been maintained for several hours was broken, but the hunt had to continue. Fortunately, the hunter found fresh footprints on the second hilltop soon. The footprints were the size of an adult's fist, and the owner of the footprints might weigh 300 kilograms, a solitary pig.

Black Tiger followed the footprints and soon heard the clear barking of dogs again. Perhaps because it had lived a long and peaceful life, the wild boar slowed down after running for less than an hour. Seeing this, several hunting dogs circled to the front, crouched down and attacked, blocking its way.

Wild boar footprints. Photo by Huang Yu, a reporter from People's Daily Online

Some people say that there are neither tigers nor leopards nor wolves in this area, and wild boars are the "king of the forest." The beast that was surrounded and provoked was already a little angry, wanting to fight or flee. When the opponent hesitated, the black tiger rushed out and bit the opponent's ear tightly. The other hounds jumped forward at the same time and bit its hips and legs.

Wild boars are not vegetarians. They swung their heads left and right, trying to break free, and their nearly 10-centimeter-long fangs kept stabbing at the dogs. The black tiger weighed only 45 kilograms, and the heaviest of the dogs weighed only 60 to 70 kilograms. After being thrown off by the 300-kilogram beast, they got up and fought again and again.

Black Tiger had never encountered such a big wild boar before. The strongest one in the past was only about 200 pounds. Even so, it did not give in. Both pit bulls and proto-hunting dogs are resolute and brave, especially pit bulls. Once they bite their prey, they will never give up until the winner is determined.

The ambush turned into a battle of encounters. The wild boar, with nowhere to escape, had red eyes, snorted angrily, and rushed towards the pack of dogs. Several hounds howled in pain and retreated in anger. The wound on the black tiger's back that had just healed opened, revealing its pink and white flesh. But it couldn't let go yet, and had to buy time for the hunter with a gun in the distance.

"Caught!" the approaching hunter gave a signal to encourage the dogs.

The wild boar did not fall down after the gunshot. It usually likes to rub against trees, rub out fat, and then roll in the mud. The dried mud becomes armor, and the thick fur makes it difficult to be killed by a single shot. The second gunshot hit the wild boar's hind leg. The dogs took advantage of the situation and dragged it to a step, continuing to bite it.

The trapped beast gradually gave up struggling, and the confrontation that lasted for more than half an hour finally calmed down. The surroundings were covered with blood, and the injured hounds curled up on the ground, whimpering and licking their wounds. The black tiger's limbs were stiff, and it lay sideways, facing the wild boar's body. It was injured in four places, on the buttocks, back, chest, and corner of the mouth, and half of its canine teeth were knocked out.

The dying black tiger is receiving treatment. Photo by Huang Yu, a reporter from People's Daily Online

"I'm afraid Hei Hu is going to die today." Seeing the deep wound in Hei Hu's chest, his owner Liu Jun said to himself. He said that Hei Hu is usually the most docile and never destroys the house. "Few hunting dogs are willing to ride on motorcycles. He always lies quietly and never jumps off the car."

After more than an hour of disinfection and suturing, the black tiger was still dead. The chicken intestines and fish offal it had eaten before leaving in the morning were its last meal.

The cost of hunting

A hunt lasted more than five hours. 14 hunting dogs went up the mountain. One died, one was missing, one was seriously injured, and four or five suffered minor injuries.

"It was a huge defeat," said Liu Jun.

This life-and-death battle is not the first time. In early November this year, the farm protection team in Shiyan, Hubei, received hunting rifles and raised funds on their own to conduct six or seven hunts that month, killing three wild boars, losing three hunting dogs, and injuring many others.

The Technical Points for Preventing and Controlling Wild Boar Hazards issued by the State Forestry and Grassland Administration recommends that localities choose three hunting methods: gun hunting, cage trapping, and fence trapping according to actual conditions. Reporters visited and found that hunting dogs play a key role in hunting practices in many places.

"There are three main types of hunting dogs: search dogs, entanglement dogs, and biting dogs, which are responsible for reconnaissance, entanglement, and biting, respectively." On the other side of the Qinba Mountains, Gan Guowei and his team in Bazhong, Sichuan, raised more than 150 hunting dogs specifically for hunting wild boars. According to preliminary statistics from the Bazhong Forestry Bureau, the number of wild boars in the city has reached more than 35,000, damaging more than 20,000 mu of crops and causing direct economic losses of 19.07 million yuan.

There are currently 6 wild boar hunting teams in Bazhong City, and Gan Guowei is the leader of one of them. He recalled that in the past 7 or 8 years of hunting for farmers, the team has lost 20 to 30 hunting dogs every year. "One pig, two bears, three tigers. Wild boars are absolutely fierce beasts. If a dog is bitten and thrown, its internal organs will be injured and it will basically die."

Gan Guowei said that in order to reduce casualties among hunting dogs, once a wild boar is found to be entangled, people must rush to the scene quickly. But at this time, people are also facing great danger. Once, a wild boar weighing more than 400 kilograms was entangled. Gan Guowei was afraid that the dog would be injured, so he walked in front with a spear. As a result, the wild boar rushed straight towards him, "My head was numb."

With years of experience, Gan Guowei dodged in time and stabbed the knife into the wild boar's abdomen. However, one hunting dog was killed and eight were seriously injured. Four doctors performed surgery on the injured for nearly five hours. "One operation costs one to two thousand yuan. Without a gun, the dogs were wasted a lot."

Gan Guowei's office is filled with medical supplies for dogs. Photo by Huang Yu, a reporter from People's Daily Online

Cheng Chuang, director of the office of the Bazhong Forestry Bureau, introduced that local gun control is strict and none of the six hunting teams are equipped with guns. According to him, at present, only Mianyang has a professional armed hunting team in Sichuan. Wang Fang, chief of the Wildlife Protection and Wetland Management Section of the Bazhong Forestry Bureau, said that some counties and districts have tried cage capture, but the effect was minimal. "From July to early December 2021, only 28 wild boars were hunted through legal hunting in the entire city of Bazhong."

Losing a hunting dog is not only a waste of money. Several times, the doctor said to give up, but Gan Guowei still insisted on treating the hunting dogs and saved several of them. He said that when the biting dogs grow to 6 months old, they can be released for training, running in the mountains and crossing the water. They start working at 10 months old and it takes 2 years to become proficient. It takes more experience to train a hunting dog, at least 3 years.

Gan Guowei's team is now called the Bazhong Agricultural Federation Hunting Service Center, which is a non-profit, self-funded private non-enterprise unit registered with the Civil Affairs Bureau. Including Gan Guowei, the team has three permanent members and more than 10 mobile members. Everyone has their own livelihood and participates in hunting for free.

The Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau of Bazhong City's Bazhong District cooperated with Gan Guowei's team and signed a hunting agreement for 2021, stipulating that after completing the hunting of wild boars in the forest area, the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau will pay them a lump sum fee of 150,000 yuan. A wild boar hunting quota plan for each county and district in Bazhong City in 2020-2021 shows that the hunting quota in Bazhong District is 454 heads.

"We have only killed a few so far," said Xu Yuchen, head of the Forest Resources Section of the Bazhou District Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau. The Technical Points for Preventing and Controlling Wild Boar Hazards stipulate that the population density control standard in the southern hilly areas is 2 per square kilometer. "The 454-head target is a control target, not a task target."

On the other hand, wild boars are still breeding at a rate of 1 to 2 litters per year, with each litter containing 4 to 12 boars. From May 2020 to the end of November 2021, the number of wild boars reported in Bazhong District alone increased from 3,028 to more than 4,400.

Equal protection

In Fengshan Village, Bazhong City, Bazhong District, when talking about wild boars, in addition to pointing at the footprints in the vegetable fields and cursing, some people will also mention Zhang Minglan, followed by the sentence "Wild boars are protected animals and cannot be electrocuted or eaten."

"Look at that light bulb. It's so big. It looks like a ball of fire to me." At the village banquet, 67-year-old Zhang Minglan looked no different from other elderly people: wearing a flowery cotton jacket and a woolen hat, she sat around the charcoal brazier and chatted with relish about family matters. When she talked about her eye disease and where she would stay tonight, people remembered that her fight with wild boars was not over yet.

Twenty years ago, Zhang Minglan's husband passed away, and her children went out to study, work, and start their own families. Originally, she lived in her old house, planted a few acres of land, and maintained a simple and peaceful life. Seven years ago, wild boars frequently invaded, disrupting everything.

Fengtoushan Village is located in the northern mountainous area of ​​Bazhou District. Almost every house in the village is surrounded by trees. Xu Yuchen said that most of the reports about wild boars damaging crops in the district came from the northern mountainous area. "Zhang Minglan's land is adjacent to a public welfare forest, and there are no houses around, so it is indeed easy for wild boars to attract."

According to Xu Yuchen, the last round of returning farmland to forest in Bazhong District was between 2014 and 2015, and it takes about 3-5 years for trees to grow into a forest. It was during this period that the conflict between Zhang Minglan and the wild boar gradually broke out.

In 2014, Zhang Minglan built a shed and slept on the ridge at night. She tried all kinds of methods to drive away wild boars, such as knocking on iron sheets, playing radio, and burning cypress branches, but the effect was mediocre. She recalled that in March 2019, an outsider sold her a set of equipment for electrocuting wild boars for more than 5,000 yuan. She surrounded the vegetable field with a high-voltage power grid and plugged it in at night. In less than a month, she electrocuted several wild boars.

In May 2019, Zhang Minglan was released on bail by the Bazhou District Branch of the Bazhou Forest Public Security Bureau. In March of the following year, the Bazhou District Court of Bazhong City found that Zhang Minglan bought an intelligent farm guard with a maximum voltage of 8,000 volts to prevent crops from being damaged by wild boars. She electrocuted three wild boars and then ate some of the wild boar meat and its products herself or gave them to others, and sold some.

The collegial panel fully considered Zhang Minglan's confession and remorse when sentencing, and adopted the prosecution's recommendation for probation. In the end, Zhang Minglan was sentenced to three months of detention and six months of probation for illegal hunting. The court recovered 1,070 yuan of illegal gains from her and ordered her to compensate for the loss of wildlife resources of 1,500 yuan.

When talking about this, Zhang Minglan always looks embarrassed. She said that she was illiterate and did not understand the law, and she did something wrong; wild boars are protected animals, and she will not hunt them again.

Life still goes on. Zhang Minglan still climbs up the hill with a flashlight at 8 or 9 o'clock every night, and returns home at 5 or 6 in the morning to prepare breakfast and pig food. From home to the vegetable field, she must first cross a ditch more than two meters deep, and then climb a moss-covered stone staircase before she can see the shed leaning against the tree.

Zhang Minglan built a shed next to the vegetable field. Photo by Huang Yu, a reporter from People's Daily Online

The structure of the shed can be seen at a glance, including wooden sticks, tarpaulins, advertising papers, and sun-proof nets. To open the "door" made of wooden strips, people have to bend down to get in. Inside the shed, a wooden board is placed on two benches to form a bed, and a piece of blue iron sheet stands on one side of the bed. When sleeping, Zhang Minglan will hold a wooden stick in her hand, and when she hears any movement outside, she will hit the iron sheet hard to scare away wild boars. The mosquito coils, insecticides, and umbrellas placed on the bamboo chair beside the bed are all the tools she needs to deal with wind, rain, snakes, insects, rats, and ants.

A shed made of sticks and advertising paper. Photo by Huang Yu, a reporter from People's Daily Online

In early November, Zhang Minglan accidentally slipped while going downhill, hitting the back of her head and waist on the steps. Her children and grandchildren were not around, so she survived those days with biscuits and water. Her family was worried and called to persuade her not to go to the vegetable field anymore. "If I don't take care of it, what will happen to the crops?"

The Wildlife Protection Law clearly states that if wildlife protected by the law causes casualties, crop or other property losses, the local people's government shall provide compensation. Specific measures shall be formulated by the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government.

In May 2021, the Sichuan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau's reply to Suggestion No. 151 of the Fourth Session of the 13th Provincial People's Congress showed that the Provincial Forestry Department drafted the "Sichuan Province Terrestrial Wildlife Damage Compensation Measures (Draft)" in 2018 and solicited opinions from relevant departments. However, due to the overlap of key areas of wildlife distribution with old, young, remote and poor areas, local financial resources are very limited and it is difficult to raise corresponding funds. It has not yet been officially released.

While waiting for the implementation of the compensation method, some cities have begun to explore the insurance system. According to the information from the Bazhong Forestry Bureau, in 2020, Tongjiang County used fiscal funds to purchase 400,000 yuan/year of "Wild Animal Damage Government Rescue Liability Insurance". The amount of claims in the first 10 months of 2021 was 40,477.95 yuan. As early as 2018, Nanjiang County passed the "Request for Instructions on Matters Related to Wild Animals Harming Crops", with an annual fiscal allocation of 200,000 yuan, and adopted an open bidding method to determine the insurance company for compensation for wildlife damage.

Xu Yuchen said that the Bazhou District Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau has drafted an implementation plan for government rescue liability insurance for wildlife damage, planning to insure about 300,000 yuan per year. "The plan is currently being submitted for review and is expected to take effect next year."

On December 5, the official website of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration issued a notice to solicit opinions on the adjustment of the "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Ecological, Scientific and Social Values", and the deadline for feedback is December 25, 2021. The reporter found that in the draft for comments, "Susidae" and "Wild Boar" were deleted from the list in the "Artiodactyla".

Yang Zhaoxia, director of the Ecological Law Research Center of Beijing Forestry University, believes that even if wild boars are no longer "three-protected animals", they cannot be hunted and eaten at will. He said that in addition to the national protection list, local governments also have local key protected wildlife lists and local "three-protected animals" lists. Each province will decide whether to exclude wild boars from the protection list based on its own situation.

"Our country has issued a decision to completely ban the consumption of wild animals. All terrestrial wild animals are prohibited from being eaten. Even though wild boars are not within the protection scope of the 'three protected animals', they cannot be hunted, transported or traded for the purpose of eating," said Yang Zhaoxia.

"Three years for tung nuts and five years for tea." It usually takes about five years for tea seedlings to grow into tea trees, and then to be ready for picking and to generate economic benefits. Wang Youqin hopes that the problem of wild boar damage can be alleviated as soon as possible so that he can survive the next two years.

Zhang Minglan said that she is too old to work. She grows corn, sweet potatoes, rapeseed and radish in the fields all year round. The corn and sweet potato leaves are used to feed three to five pigs and a dozen chickens. The eggs laid by the chickens can be sold. "This is good."

The black tiger was buried by a stream, not far from the crop field it had guarded for the last time. People speculated that the boar's tusks had pierced its heart or other internal organs, otherwise it would not have died. Its body was stained with "oil sesame seeds", a kind of plant seed with an oily shell that is difficult to shake off. Perhaps new buds will grow here next year.

(Wang Youqin, Li Youjian, Liu Jun, and Zhang Minglan in this article are all pseudonyms)

Editor-in-charge｜Zhai Qiaohong Editor｜Jiang Yue

Source: People's Daily Online reporter: Huang Yu