tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27871603317031564332024-03-14T06:15:15.391+00:00Friends of the BoarFriends of the Boar want to see wild boar back in the UK. We want to see wild boar managed properly without cruelty. We wish to share our views of how to live safely and peacefully alongside the wild boar. Presently, we don't believe wild boar are being treated fairly nor is science used to assess and manage the population. We believe the public are misled about the true character and socio-economic benefits that they bring to Britain.Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-38973874225364252252016-09-28T15:24:00.004+01:002016-09-28T15:33:28.515+01:00A HEALING FORESTOur supporters have been out and about in the Forest of Dean this month hoping to catch a glimpse of the boar. Reports are that it is still very difficult to see any due to the tall bracken.<br />
<br />
Having said this, we have had a few incidents reported already about boar getting too close for comfort.<br />
<br />
One such nature lover contacted us about a standoff between himself, his dog and five boar near Brierley. Concerned for others in such a situation, he (Scott Worgan) contacted the local press who wrote of his experience <a href="http://www.theforestreview.co.uk/article.cfm?id=103624&headline=One%20man%20and%20his%20dog%20v%20five%20boar&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016" target="_blank">here</a>. The report was exagerrated of course, to make a better story, and sadly Scott was criticised in the next edition by boar lovers, including (alarmingly) someone claiming to be from Friends of the Boar!<br />
<br />
We would like to make it clear that Friends of the Boar did not respond to the press report at all, and it concerns us that some people may be using our name in vain.<br />
<br />
This cat-fighting in the pages of the local letters section of the press does nobody any good. It only entrenches people's belief towards the boar, good or bad. Yet what we are discovering is an increasing tolerance for the boar even in situations like Scott's, including residents who have contacted us about boar outside their homes.<br />
<br />
We now believe that the hatred coming out of both camps (boar lovers versus boar haters) is actually being initiated and catalysed according to how we perceive each other (in the press usually) as human beings.<br />
<br />
It is becoming clearer that boar haters are actually hating the people who support the boar more than they hate the boar themselves. And visa versa.<br />
<br />
This is a classic divide and rule strategy employed by the authorities who are happy to read about the "war of words" at the same time as getting on with their agendas without any democratic accountability.<br />
<br />
A bigger picture begins to emerge, one where our countryside, our forest, our towns, and indeed our own individual health is at stake.<br />
<br />
More and more studies are coming to the conclusion that we NEED nature, and that nature needs to be working properly. Human beings have evolved in sync with nature and it's cycles of boom and bust via drought and flood, warming and cooling, freezing and melting.<br />
<br />
But as we are more and more aware, things are changing rapidly towards a disequilibrium. Whether this is because of human activity (as per the climate change idea) or via natural variability it does not matter.<br />
<br />
Einstein famously stated that a problem cannot be solved with the same "mind" that created it. We, therefore, cannot solve any crisis, be it climate or animal in nature if it is us that created it in the first place.<br />
<br />
But rather than just sit back and watch the "war on words" unfold, now believing that our destiny is pre-ordained, we must change the "mind" of ourselves and those around us.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xa6nUYMHRHY/V-vSN-lVEaI/AAAAAAAAAU4/lDHPT0fjkAMyKLMX3gAiSvB8lWHvsI8MwCLcB/s1600/Wild%2BBoar%2B203%2Bin%2Bwallow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xa6nUYMHRHY/V-vSN-lVEaI/AAAAAAAAAU4/lDHPT0fjkAMyKLMX3gAiSvB8lWHvsI8MwCLcB/s320/Wild%2BBoar%2B203%2Bin%2Bwallow.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
Not only that, but we must also understand that we have an inner ecosystem at work within every individual. It is becoming more obvious that this inner world is becoming just as out of equilibrium as the outer world. A doctor would term this as a "disbiosis".<br />
<br />
Intensive farming, antibiotics, vaccinations, growth hormones, fertilisers (rich in nitrogen and phosporous), soil degredation, food additives, sweeteners, bulking agents, and the quest to make a quick buck has led us inexorably to ill-health through the food we eat.<br />
<br />
All the above are linked to allergies, gut problems, fatigue problems, cancer, neurologic problems, autism, heart disease, the list is long. <br />
<br />
This terrible affliction starts in the gut when our microbes are killed off or starved of their nutritious power source. We are dependent on the balance of these microbes in our gut for we are 90% microbe (only 1 in 10 of the cells in our body are human).<br />
<br />
To restore our physical health requires nature to do what it does best, and what we have evolved with. We need a restorative ecology that provides us with nutritious food that feeds our inner ecosystem. Once this suceeds, we will learn very easily that the microbial world of ours has a direct influence on our wellbeing (sense of security) and importantly on the way we think (the mind).<br />
<br />
Conservation is a tool that requires a fresh mind. This fresh and healthy mind can cure what we humans have harmed, both in respect of our food production, our climate and our relationship to the wild.<br />
<br />
A forest is a very special place unlike most other external ecosystems. It has defined boundaries we can perceive. It contains trees that give us clean air and convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The trees need the microbes in the soil to do their work, and the microbes need larger animals to manage them in turn.<br />
<br />
One such architect of a healthy forest is the wild boar.<br />
<br />
A wild boar is thus a symbol of a healthy you!<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Repsect and cherish our healing forest.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Forgive those who do not think like you.</span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #cc0000;">Reap the reward of less anger and feelings of insecurity, and reap the benefit of love and acceptance.</span><br />
<br />
We hope that one day we will change the mind that created all the problems, for only then will we move on to better things.<br />
<br />
David J SlaterFriends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-54762497891956628922016-09-12T13:53:00.004+01:002016-09-12T13:58:01.358+01:00BOAR ARE NIGHTMARE NEIGHBOURS ACCORDING TO MAINSTREAM MEDIA.An ITV 1 documentary will be aired tomorrow (Tuesday 13th September) at 8pm.<br />
<br />
It's title is Nightmare Neighbours. It is part of a series and it will attempt to portray the wild boar as just that - a nightmare neighbour for residents here in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
Anyone who read the last post and maybe thought we were exagerating about the mainstream media, may like to read The Daily Mail just 2 days ago (9th September 2016). The article is clearly presstituting itself to the ITV Corporation by advertising the ITV programme tomorrow in such a sensationalist and downright inaccurate way.<br />
<br />
This, apparently, is what the mainstream thinks we want to see and hear and what sells viewing figures! Treating the British public like brainless idiots will surely backfire?<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JfmgswY_08Q/V9aiC_7m6II/AAAAAAAAAUk/DItiVlQLtUk02fm9QdPfnVCpnz7c-149QCLcB/s320/Daiy%2BMail%2BNightmare%2BNeighbours%2BSept%2B2016.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="272" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Read the fully biased and derogatory article towards people of the Forest of Dean <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3782547/The-new-boar-war-not-Dutch-Meet-20-stone-beasts-ramming-cars-tearing-gardens-Gloucestershire.html#comments" target="_blank">here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Friends of the Boar were interviewed for the programme, and we can only hope that they haven't distorted our voice.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
We will be looking carefully to see if they showed how people can help to repair the turves of grass dug by boar. We hope they will show the wildflowers created by diggings. We certainly hope our message about the current over-cull is causing more problems than it solves will also be given some airtime. And we would also expect our strategy for controlling numbers more effectively, and with a social and ecological conscience, will also be aired.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Let us see...</div>
Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-43158531219526780502016-09-05T14:30:00.002+01:002016-09-05T19:09:35.222+01:00BOARING & PREDICTABLE - MAINSTREAM NEWS FIRES UP HATRED OF BOARThe last week of August witnessed the seasonal appearance of the boar after the summer recess. Hooray!<br />
<br />
Boar fans may wish to visit the Forest of Dean now with a hope a seeing one of our most amazing mammals.<br />
<br />
Every year, almost to the day, boar reappear from the heart of the forest. After a safe period of piglet rearing, the shortage of food starts to bite and the roadside verges start to call.<br />
<br />
This is also a time when the inexperienced, first-time mums, give birth to their first litter of 4-6 piglets. The roadside verges represent a life-saving resource to these families, stocked full of insect grubs not to mention human waste after a summer full of litter throwing tourists.<br />
<br />
Grubs as well as flowers grow well in the warmth of these verges, comparatively unshaded from the sun unlike the deeper parts of the forest where a dense tree canopy has all but killed of the grass by blocking out the light.<br />
<br />
This period of fresh diggings around the forest always sparks a media frenzy for silly stories, and this year is no different.<br />
<br />
The media are gifted press releases from the Forestry Commission's new public relations department of spin and disinformation. But not before meetings are convened in secret with various stakeholders in the Forest. It has become clear that the Forest of Dean is becoming corporatist by the backdoor, rather than by direct sell-off by the quango's (the FC) master in government (DEFRA).<br />
<br />
On the 24th August, one such meeting took place between the Forestry Commission, commercial pig-breeders, boar hunters (The Deer Initiative) and the NFU (National farmers Union). Also present was the UKplc's local representative Mark Harper MP.<br />
<br />
A day later, as predicted by Friends of the Boar, the results of the meeting would hit the centralised mainstream news media, leading to the usual inaccurate and utterly sensationalised descriptions of what is actually happening in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
The BBC had pig farmers on it's radio broadcasts, whining about breeding purity of rare breeds coming under attack. One woman mentioned being unable to allow her pigs roam wild on a grass bank because of threats from wild boar mating with her prized meat on trotters.<br />
<br />
Thankfully on this show, Scott Passmore, formerly of Friends of the Boar but these days running his own venture "A Wild Life With Animals", challenged this pig-breeder to get a more secure fence around her pigs, just like her predecessors would have had when the Forest of Dean allowed pigs to roam free for months during pannage. Pig breeders didn't seem concerned with interbreeding of pigs of all shapes and races back then!<br />
<br />
The only discussion that is noted in the main <a href="http://www.wild-boar.org.uk/news/news.php?id=5" target="_blank">press release</a> (see link) is how to kill more and more boar in the light of new and scientifically ridiculous guesswork on boar numbers. Numbers that are now put at over 1,500 boar, or in excess of 21 wild boar for every square kilometre of forest habitat!!<br />
<br />
Utterly impossible! <br />
<br />
This is dumbed down for the volunteer journalism recruits, or novice but enthusiastic corporate-sponsored "Presstitutes". A syndicated and automated news story feed with a tag-line that the boar population has increased by 50% on last year lands on their desk and they feel they need to generate click-throughs in order to be noticed by their editor.<br />
<br />
The National Pig Association (NPA) of course believes everything that it's told by the inventors of the boar census at Bank House in Coleford, Gloucestershire. Similarly, the UKplc's rep also unquestionably defers to that authority, and what is created is a "consensus" without facts. Everyone is now awakening to the consensus trick of the mainstream media, but it doesn't stop themselves making each other look foolish and stupid.<br />
<br />
Have a read of the ludicrous take from<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1672121/villagers-warned-not-to-put-bins-out-because-they-are-being-ransacked-by-feral-wild-boars/" target="_blank"> The Sun newspaper</a> (see link), who also attempts to make us fearful of "educated" hogs, "smashing" through fences, leaving councillors "baffled".<br />
<br />
None of this is actually happening!<br />
<br />
Here is the NPA's own knee jerk <a href="http://www.pig-world.co.uk/news/animal-health/npa-demands-action-after-50-rise-in-wild-boar-numbers.html" target="_blank">report</a> (see link) to the inaccurate news on boar numbers. The NPA now "demands" numbers be drastically reduced before the profits of UKplc take a turn for the worse.<br />
<br />
The pig industry is of course controlled by DEFRA (the same daddy to the FC) through licenses and regulations, so it comes as no surprise the NPA has no voice of its own as clearly demonstrated in their report. The NPA quotes "new modelling" of numbers without question! The conclusion of this is the targeting of over 700 wild boar for this next hunting season (of course a number that doesn't exist naturally without the intervention of bad management).<br />
<br />
Is it a coincidence that this news also comes the same week that guns are being fired at our badgers too?<br />
<br />
This place is THE FOREST of DEATH. Bad science, consensus and a whore of a corporate mainstream press are forcing this upon us and our wildlife. It has no basis in fact and hides the true reasons behind diseases in animals - it is bad domestic husbandry.<br />
<br />
The NPA claim they're worried about boar giving pigs diseases, when it is exactly the opposite that is true - domestic pigs are the historical and present-day source of all swine disease. We worry that diseased pigs on farms meet with the boar. We urge the farmers to fence in their diseased animals!<br />
<br />
The pig industry admits that it is domestic pigs that pose the greatest biosecurity threat to other pigs and give advice on this <a href="http://pork.ahdb.org.uk/media/2728/biosecurity-for-smallholders.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
<br />
The same argument is true for Tb in cattle. Poor cattle husbandry has been shown to be the vector for Tb in badgers. But DEFRA and the "CON-sensus" CON-struct tries to avert gaze away from the truths about British farming and its disastrous effects on wildlife.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-38012803069456924262016-05-18T14:49:00.004+01:002016-05-18T14:49:44.412+01:00The Boar on Terror<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:DoNotRelyOnCSS/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><br />
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Forest of Dean is most famous for its ancient woodlands. It has the largest
amount of oak trees in the United Kingdom. Previously the forest was only
reserved for royal hunting, and that is how it gained its name as the Royal
Forest of Dean. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The Forest of Dean used to have an incredible mining industry,
one of the largest in Britain. It still has ancient rights that preserve miners
to dwell anywhere in the forest, as long as they are over 21 and have spent a
year and a day down a mine. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">With the abundance of natural beauty that the
Forest of Dean beholds it has many tourist attractions to entice new visitors
to the area. Symonds Yat is a small, scenic village located at the bottom of
the valley, and its rich with wildlife. A canoe can be hired to meander along
the river Wye, with possibilities of spotting a rare peregrine falcon. The
award winning sculpture trail is the largest in South Wales and England, a
walking magazine rated it, ‘one of the best walks in the area’. Puzzle Wood is
located near Coleford and offers the public a tranquil walk through its
woodland, which has played host to many film and TV producers. Scenes have been
shot there from Harry Potter, The deathly hallows. StarWars, The Force Awakens
and BBC’s Merlin to name a few. </span></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Nature
booms and is proliferant in the Forest of Dean. Bluebells and daffodils dapple
the woodlands floor with purple and yellow. It’s majestical, mythical, ancient
woodland has historical intrigue and walking through it can be likened to
stepping into a more spiritual and basic time period. But, behind this façade
of tourism attractions, its natural exterior and exquisite views The Forest of
Dean has a more sinister and ever growing internal problem. Lurking in the
forest there are beasts, so if you go down to the woods today, be sure to take
an AK47 and plenty of bullets. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">‘War on
Boar’, cries the local media. Its plastered on every news board, outside supermarkets
and convenience shops in The Forest of Dean. The boar have tormented the
public, and have had them fearing for their safety, so lets consider why? </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">After
investigating some of the history surrounding this problem, I unearthed some
terrifying newspaper stories. ‘Hozilla’, one particular boar was named by local
newspapers. Hogzilla is a giant, genetic freak that will crush you with one
hoof. He’s the size of a small bear and will tear you apart with one tusk.
Hogzilla is a North American boar that does not dwell in our country, but
somehow found itself being googled, copied, pasted and put on the front cover
of local newspapers. Fear and pandemonium spread through the ‘foresters’, they
are unsure of when this ‘war’ will be over. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The ‘war’
is a battle. It’s a battle between hog and man. Newspapers reveal that these
boars have women and children trapped inside their cars out of sheer unprovoked
terror. Picture the scene; a boar lingers outside their car holding them
captive. He circles their car filing his tusks ready for an attack. His victims
sit motionless as the boar’s red and evil eyes reflect the violent mood he is
in. </span></span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NVllVaFFlMA/Vzxye43RHrI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/AUObqaUgYA81FAxsAVfw8bU5-ndBuvYNACLcB/s1600/Wild%2BBoar%2B128%2Band%2Btourists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NVllVaFFlMA/Vzxye43RHrI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/AUObqaUgYA81FAxsAVfw8bU5-ndBuvYNACLcB/s320/Wild%2BBoar%2B128%2Band%2Btourists.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture the scene - women and children trapped in their cars out of sheer unprovoked terror.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This is a familiar story between locals; they cannot fathom why these boars
have such hatred and resort to merciless tactics. This incident leads us to
another terrible act committed by a boar, on a poor and unsuspecting couple and
their dog. They were enjoying a walk through the forest, sunlight beamed down
on them through the trees and out of nowhere a boar ‘charged at 30mph’, proceeded
to ‘jump a 6ft high fence’ and then finally ‘savaged’ their beloved pet.
Apparently the boar would not listen to reason and had to be ‘beaten with a
branch’ to fend it off. The wild boar eventually admitted defeat and the couple
escaped. The wild boars are not only monstrous in size but can now perform
extraordinary feats of agility, beyond their capabilities.</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">It has
also been reported that wild boar have been known to sneak out of the
undergrowth, and venture into open spaces. According to newspapers they
‘totally ruin picnics’. Innocent sandwich eaters are resorted to abandoning
their lunch and are forced to ‘scramble up trees’. Boars mockingly taunt them
while scoffing the remainders of carefully cut salmon and cream cheese
sandwiches. Eventually the boar will wander off in search of other happy,
unsuspecting picnic goers. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Many
locals have also complained of being ‘prisoners in their own homes’, these
headlines suggest that these people fear leaving their houses in case a boar
might appear, and then prevent them from re-entering. The boar could whip past
them, charge through the door, lock it and then adapt an animal farm type
strategy and start living in their homes. They could start wearing their
clothes, smoke pipes in the living room and eat all of their carefully labelled
preserves. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Unprovoked
and frenzied attacks’ another local newspaper claims, as they try to describe
the boars behaviour. A frenzied attack conjures up images of a wildly excited
beast, hyperactively, fraught and feverish lunging towards an innocent person,
crazed in a fast and furious attack. They are mad and leap from one direction
to another before choosing to strike. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So, a mass cull is necessary, according
to the local Council. It will provide a solution for these frenzied attacks. A
cull will also provide a resolution for landowners and council officials that
claim that the boar are a ‘nuisance’ and create ‘damage’. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In another news story
it was reported that one boar in particular had decided to ‘raid’ a local town
in The Forest of Dean. The boar had ‘ran amok in the town centre’. In actual
fact the boar had churned up a small piece of grass outside a chip shop, but
‘ran amok’ sounds more dramatic. He danced in the street, he sprayed his name
in graffiti all over the walls, raided veg shops for sustenance and partied
hard before returning to his dark and cold domain. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Their
‘diggings’ are also well documented. ‘Diggings’, are a name given to the boar’s
natural occupation by the media. They don’t use little spades attached to their
backs, but instead snuffle up the ground with their snouts. The increase of
roadside carnage has proved the council’s suspicions that the boar ‘numbers are
out of control’. The diggings are obviously not due to the Forestry Commissions
hunters driving them out of the forest, which is their natural habitat and into
other areas. It is due to them ‘breeding like rats’. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The newspapers then tell
foresters that ‘soon there will be nothing left’. ‘Football pitches, cricket
pitches, parks and picnic sites will all be destroyed’, locals will have to
resort to more primitive or singular hobbies inside. The boars have become
relentless in their quest for total boar domination. Some locals have now made
it their hobby to document diggings and report them hastily to the local
council, I’m sure that this new hobby can be a fun activity for all who
participate, just be careful if the diggings are fresh. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Many boar
conspiracy theorists believe that the boar want to eradicate all other animals
from the forest, destroying habitats in their quake. The council back up these
theories with information concerning the possible extinction of butterflies
cause by boar. They also confirm suspicions that the boars are eating all the
frogs, snakes and lizards in the area. Could it be that all reptilian life will
soon be extinct in The Forest of Dean? </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">One man
has taken the initiative against this boar on terror. Interviewed by the Daily Mail and armed with his '.308 Blazer Hunting Rifle’, he takes to the forest
prepared. He admits that when approached by a boar he ‘thrusts himself in a
jutting motion’ and proceeds to ‘slice open its upper thigh’. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Locals are
advised to be extremely cautious of boar in the forest, but in reflection of
this mans interview I would be inclined to be more mindful of the man jutting
around the forest with a high powered gun. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The boar are
primarily more active at night, they are nocturnal creatures because their
eyesight is poor. They have excellent hearing and are shy to approach. They can
be instinctively protective of their young and have been known to be protective
of their piglets when threatened, but usually retreat to safety. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The media,
Council and Forestry Commission have successfully made most of the community in
The Forest of Dean scared and vengeful. The public’s vengeance makes it easier
for the Forestry Commission to carry out their ambitions. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> Commission</span> want to cull a
certain amount of boar each year so they and sell the meat and make huge
amounts of profit. Visit www.friendsoftheboar.org to see photographs taken by
other members of the public that have a different view of boar. They capture
the essence of the boar in wonderful pictures surrounded by nature, their own
habitat. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">by Harriet Stenner, University of South Wales</span></span></span></span>Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-16060224805353548132016-03-27T18:57:00.000+01:002016-03-27T18:57:02.006+01:00WILD BOAR ARE DEFENDED IN LOCAL FOREST OF DEAN PRESS<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1s8dXkC4B0E/VvgdHP9oLiI/AAAAAAAAAUA/rjWyci5uVoAdSWVJvG7MWwgB6sXsYFPjw/s1600/In%2BDefense%2Bof%2Bthe%2BWild%2BBoar%2BReview%2BArtice%2BDJS%2BFeb%2B2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="387" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1s8dXkC4B0E/VvgdHP9oLiI/AAAAAAAAAUA/rjWyci5uVoAdSWVJvG7MWwgB6sXsYFPjw/s640/In%2BDefense%2Bof%2Bthe%2BWild%2BBoar%2BReview%2BArtice%2BDJS%2BFeb%2B2016.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Centre pages of The Wye Valley & Forest of Dean Review 26th February 2016</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:DoNotRelyOnCSS/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]-->
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:DoNotRelyOnCSS/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]-->
</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The presence of wild
boar in the Forest of Dean has become one of the chief issues in the Forest
with regular reports of problems caused by the animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, David Slater of <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">F</span>riends of the Boar
group argues they are a benefit to the environment and the annual cull is
counter-productive.</span></span> </i></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“Wild boar are on the rampage through Gloucestershire, so the Council
has sent a team to Germany to see how they cope with the menace”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Boar rampage through Coleford.” “Boar
attacks man for the first time in 300 years!”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">These are some of the headlines in the national and local press back in
2008-9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing changes it seems. But a
recent report paid for by the Forestry Commission concludes that headlines like
these have been largely responsible for much of the fear in the minds of
residents here in our forest.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“I’m scared to leave my house, a prisoner in my own home”, claimed one
resident.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is often the older
residents who are scared because they are the least likely people to see a
boar, and now they’re unwilling to go and enjoy Nature’s wonders on their
doorstep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such fear-mongering can cause
real yet unnecessary distress.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Dutch scientists published a recent report on the public’s perception
of wild boar and wolves – two species on their border and heading their
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Comparing the results with those
from people who had seen boar and wolves, it was clear that fear of the boar
and wolf dramatically lessened once seen; or “truth will out”.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The Forestry Commission’s recent report, “<i><span style="font-style: italic;">Social Aspects of Wild Boar</span></i>”, authored by Dutton, Clayton
and Evans at the University of Worcester (2015), differs from the Dutch study
because more people have seen a wild boar here than the Dutch people. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Back in 2009-10 hardly a soul had seen a boar here, and the press was
creating a false fear. Do you remember the <i><span style="font-style: italic;">Review’s</span></i>
front page image of Hogzilla, the American giant hog as big as a pony?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And remember the worry that, “It’s only a
matter of time before a child gets killed”, in the Forester?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then came the headline in 2010, “Warning
after Wild Boar savages greyhound”.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Loaded language and fear was everywhere until it slowly got through,
thanks to Friends of the Boar, that our boar are pure boar, puny compared to
the hybridised hogs of America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People began
to research that wild boar only attack people who are causing them harm or
distress, and the same goes for dogs too, like the greyhound.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boar in Europe are the same as ours,
including at times, a tameness.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We don’t hear about fear now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We have anger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Residents have
been put through the mill by the press and the Forestry Commission, unfairly
targeted to fear for our safety, then our dogs, and now we have to get angry at
the mess and “out of control” breeding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are not encouraged to repair the mess, or the battered fences (eg.
The Dilke), nor put things into perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So let me try.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe, one day,
someone will actually get hurt, either hitting a boar in a speeding car, or
getting knocked over by a boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we
so risk averse we wish to kill animals because of this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No. About 70 people a year are killed or
seriously hurt by cows in the UK!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>60
die from wasps & bees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1 or 2 get
an adder’s bite. But the most dangerous animal is the dog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Half of children get bitten by a dog, and
injuries by dogs are the second most common childhood injury to be seen in
A&E.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boar are safe to all good
meaning people and dogs, but accidents may one day occur.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">And the mess?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compared to the
devastation left behind by the Forestry Commission’s loggers, boar diggings are
nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Metre-deep ruts abound,
waterlogged and hazardous to walkers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So much so a lady had to be rescued a couple of years ago after becoming
stuck in the Forestry Commission’s mess!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rutted verges, with logs piled high (and dangerous), have become
compacted deserts for plant life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Driving the roads you won’t see this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Take a walk!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The Forest of Dean is almost devoid of insects and butterflies, the
things that plants need for pollination and birds need for food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The micro-organisms in the soil struggle
with repeated compaction, unable to breathe the air.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">How insincere and scientifically flawed were recent comments from Kevin
Stannard about the boar threatening the butterflies. Butterflies require
flowers on sunny forest rides - something his office destroys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And species like the small-pearl bordered
fritillary requires young bracken, not the huge overgrowths we get thanks to
his management.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The wild boar rotivate the forest floor and its sunny grass margins
(tracks and roadsides).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Uncompacting
the terrible damage caused by the logging, they allow air into the soil as
every good gardener and farmer knows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The boars are Nature’s ploughs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They’re seed-banks too, caught in the fur as they forage around the
forest. They disperse as well as churn up deeply buried seeds giving the flora
a chance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The wild boar not only reverse the ecological disaster created by the
Forestry operations, but they also reverse the damaging impact that free
roaming sheep and deer cause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sheep and
deer are both introduced, non-native species to the Forest (unlike the boar
that are native).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also cause
compaction of the soil, but worst of all they nibble away at any soft shoots of
grass and flowers that dare raise themselves through the sterile soil, all caused
by man and his non-native stock of meat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bracken and bramble are the few tough plants to survive this.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Contrast this to the boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
dig the soil and crush the bracken, an invasive and carcinogenic plant that
swamps out light and out-competes the more delicate flora.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bracken slowly regroups, allowing the
small pearl-bordered fritillary a chance of survival in the shorter shoots,
contrary to Mr. Stannard’s belief.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Friends of the Boar, and other wildlife fans have been trying to get
this message across for years, about the ecological benefits of boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George Monbiot, a journalist and ecologist,
as well as Dr. George Peterken (also a local resident), a respected ecologist,
both support the ecological necessity of the boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dr. Peterken, whose books you may find for sale in local
bookshops, stresses the benefits to the flora.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mr. Monbiot is an outspoken critic of sheep in our woodlands and
uplands, blaming the “white curse” on recent flooding events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, sheep and deer strip the uplands and
forests of vegetation, compacting the soil, and thus destroying the natural
ability to store rain and slow down the runoff into rivers and towns. Monbiot
argues for the return of boar.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve visited many people in the Forest who are anti-boar. From people
who have had their gardens damaged, to those angered over amenity spaces, such
as in Ruardean and Joys Green.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only
have Friends of the Boar helped repair gardens of people in genuine need of
help, I often put back overturned sods when out walking, pondering with some
frustration why we can’t all do this!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Freshly dug turf is so easy to kick back with a swish of the foot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I even went on the local news to demonstrate this after the boar
“rampaged” into my home town of Coleford one night, “devastating” an elderly
man’s lawn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Except that it wasn’t a
lawn but a roadside, and it was a small lone boar that calmly walked into town,
shallowly digging an area no bigger than a kitchen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ah, the press!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Each time I drive through Parkend in the winter and see, with some
regularity, the roadside diggings. I pray that one-day some of the residents
will just “push” the turves back into place, restoring their village and taking
pride in its appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find it
therapeutic like a jigsaw puzzle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
in 5 years of hoping, I’m still waiting (apologies to anyone of has, please
keep it up).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yes, the boar often
return and dig it all up again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
keep on having pride in your village, the boar will leave after 2-3 days, and
who knows, those grass verges may see red poppies and yellow hawkbit return,
and then the butterflies and bees, as they have across many roadsides in the
Forest.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">A few people who hate the boar have physically threatened me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t know why, but just because someone
wants to see the boar here doesn’t mean they were responsible for their
re-introduction!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, the
re-introduction of the boar remains a mystery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The main theory is that a boar farmer in Abergavenny had had enough, and
knowing the area around Staunton decided one night to dispatch a few in a large
roadside lay-by.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Initial reports were of a dozen or so released in November of
2004.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This number had expanded by 2006
to be 25-30, by which time the boar had spread deeper into the forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one but keen naturalists and forest
rangers saw them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember seeing the
photographs (of local naturalist Chris Ridler) of these boars at a local
Wldlife Trust evening in 2005.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in
2006, the Commission’s wildlife ranger Neil Sollis was interviewed for a
magazine, in which he stated, “<i><span style="font-style: italic;">We’ve no idea
where the two groups of boar in Dean, about 60 all told, are from, although we
do know that they’re pure wild boar.</span></i>"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He continues to say they are almost all juveniles.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So we now learnt that 2 groups of boar existed, each numbering about
30.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The journalist (Angus Watson –
Google it!) continues, "<i><span style="font-style: italic;">They cast a
wary eye over us humans, then it’s snouts down to gobble the feed that Neil
laid down earlier".</span></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This is interesting, because not only do we have 2 boar sounders (?)
joining forces in 2006, they were tame enough for the Forestry Commission to be
able to feed them and watch them at close quarters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Film crews soon followed, literally paying homage to the Forestry
Commission’s well-fed boar.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The origin of this other group of boar had remained largely a
secret.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They originated from Chase and
Penyard hills near Ross-on-Wye, after escaping a local farm about 1999.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They survived in this tiny patch of woodland
for 5 years, un-noticed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2006 they
had met up with the boar from Staunton, and despite a few encounters with
tourists and a farmer’s high-seat at Symonds Yat, remained elusive until about
2007.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2009, the Commission put the
totals population at 90, a figure adopted by the Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From 60 to 90 in 5 years!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who says boar are prolific breeders?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only when shot they are, which began in
2008! </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">It just so happens that between 1999 and March 2004, the thoughts of
re-introducing boar into a UK Forest was developing, and DEFRA wanted to know
how easy it would be to re-capture them if it turned out to be a disaster.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They paid the Forestry Commission to manage
a project at Chase and Penyard, where cages were laid to trap the boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was followed more intensively throughout
2004 in a separate project, resulting in 59 boar overall being trapped in cages;
31 in the first project and 28 in the second.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The trapped boars were nearly all juveniles and seemingly use to being
fed and baited by the Forestry Commission under Rob Guest.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In 2011, Kevin Stannard suddenly proclaimed in his management strategy plan
(2011-2016) that 60 boar were released at Staunton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has gone unquestioned ever since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Also in 2011, Stannard was making noises to increase the viable
population of boar from 90 (set in 2009) to 400.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was claiming about 800-1,000 boar existed in the Forest in
2011, based upon thermal imaging surveys in 2010 and 2011 (when 16 and 34 boar
were seen respectively).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This census
and its methodology is legend as much as it is flawed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It continues and is called
distance-sampling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t wish to “boar”
you with the dry details of why this method is just about the worst available,
but do please visit <a href="http://www.friendsoftheboar.info/">www.friendsoftheboar.info</a>
for the details.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">In short, the boar population that we read about is massively
inflated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our Forest simply cannot
sustain even 400 boar let alone 1,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Boars are limited by density of numbers, which really means limited by
available food and most critically shelter – shelter we see continually
disturbed and harvested for timber.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Studies over decades conclusively show that densities of 3-4 boar per
square kilometre are what is sustainable in the UK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That means, with our wooded area of 70-80 square kilometres,
200-350 boar will exist peacefully.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When piglets are born, almost always 6 to a litter, once a year only,
the population suddenly inflates, albeit on tiny trotters, and density
increases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many die naturally, but as
the survivors greet the summer warmth, the pressure for some boar to move out
increases to recover the density to 3-4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The exodus occurs each Autumn-Winter.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Extra feeding, as done excessively by the Forestry Commission for 12
years, inflates this number leading to more boar “invading” farmland and
villages. Also, the mismanagement of the cull can inflate numbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When piglets are shot, a sow (maybe even
unrelated to mum) will come into season immediately, thereby producing more
piglets that year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such mismanagement
is akin to farming the boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Piglets
have always made up 75% of the cull each year, as detailed in the larder
reports I’ve obtained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As piglets are
shot, more are produced, making a mockery of the claim that cull totals somehow
relate to population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Piglets make great barbeques, and the
Forestry Commission sells these direct to the customer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Older boars are sold to a game dealer in
Hereford.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">These facts and others are never disclosed by the Commission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lack of information, misinformation and
even disinformation is a huge criticism of the Commission in its own recent
study!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What I suggest is that the boar should be left alone in the forest so
their density and social structure remain healthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mr. Stannard needs to balance his books another way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each year the excess boar leave the forest,
often using the same exit points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>High
seats should be set up by landowners who may charge hunters to use them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hunters take the boar, making sure none
are scared back into the forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Profits from the meat sales should go into a social fund to compensate
genuine victims of boar damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of
this negates the need to accurately know the population and how many boar are
being poached etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boars will limit
themselves naturally to between 200 and 350, and as we all know in the summer
months (when the population is at a maximum), often hide away unnoticed in the
forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is, until the cull resumes
in the Autumn.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Hunting in the forest is a disaster and lessons should be learnt from
Germany – do not hunt boar in woodland!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They come into town during the cull, all stressed, possibly agitated
enough to attack dogs (often used to hunt boar both in Germany and here).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A recent incident of a boar goring a dog at
Lydney Park Hunting Estate is one such example of a boar becoming fearful of
hunting dogs like Spaniels.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">From what I have now
exposed, you decide where the boar came from and why, how many should exist in
peace, who is feeding them, is there any mismanagement, how should they be
managed, and can we all clean up the mess!</span></span>Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-49764185948371144692016-01-21T13:47:00.001+00:002016-01-21T14:18:53.323+00:00FORESTRY COMMISSION FOUND GUILTY OF SPREADING DISINFORMATION ABOUT WILD BOAR IN THE FOREST OF DEAN - IN A REPORT FUNDED BY THE FORESTRY COMMISSION!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EEBsuadbI0c/VqDFsvMCb4I/AAAAAAAAAS8/ZxBuD2wIqq0/s1600/Social%2BAspects%2Bof%2BWild%2BBoar%2Bcover%2B2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EEBsuadbI0c/VqDFsvMCb4I/AAAAAAAAAS8/ZxBuD2wIqq0/s320/Social%2BAspects%2Bof%2BWild%2BBoar%2Bcover%2B2015.jpg" width="215" /> <img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GQVY3nKluiU/VqDGLhJf3hI/AAAAAAAAATE/drVw946Dndg/s320/Social%2BAspects%2Bof%2BWild%2BBoar%2Btitle%2B2015.jpg" width="244" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
The results of an unpublished survey, commissioned by the Forestry Commission themselves, has been released on the social aspects of wild boar in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
The authors of the Commission's survey, Dutton, Clayton and Evans represent the Institute of Science and the Environment , University of Worcester.<br />
<br />
The report does not say anything about the author's credentials, but we do know that Clayton, whilst undertaking her PhD at Worcester, was employed by the Forestry Commission at Bank House for a number of years.<br />
<br />
Therefore, before considering this report, we must recognise that it is biased, having been undertaken and paid for by the Forestry Commission and it's employees.<br />
<br />
You can download the report at this link: <a href="http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/FCProjectFinalReport2.pdf/$file/FCProjectFinalReport2.pdf" target="_blank">Social Aspects of Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean 2015</a><br />
<br />
The report is ostensibly about the results of a social survey allowing residents of the Forest of Dean to answer questions and give their opinions and experiences of what it is like to live alongside wild boar.<br />
<br />
Given that the authors failed to challenge or clarify the opinions given, both negative and positive results should be taken with a pinch of salt. People lie! People get things wrong! <br />
<br />
We shall return later to these opinions, but <b>lets start with the history given in the report to check on the accuracy of what IS known</b>.<br />
<br />
<u>HOW MANY BOAR RELEASED?</u> <br />
<br />
The first chapter (5 pages) covers the background to the boar in the Forest of Dean. It correctly states that wild boar have been roaming at Chase and Penyard Hills since 1999 (about 1 mile from the Forest of Dean). It then makes some interesting comments, that although in themselves are unsurprising, it is what is omitted that highlights a few secrets the Commission do not want you to know.<br />
<br />
<br />
Page 2. Chapter 1, section 3:<br />
<br />
"<i>Further animals were illegally dumped at Staunton in November 2004 (Figure 1.1). This was reported as <b>40 animals by Defra (2008) but actually involved 60 individuals</b>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Initially these two populations were made up of relatively tame animals; there are numerous tales of people hand feeding the boar. It has been reported <b>anecdotally that on at least one occasion the boar were rounded-up with an opportunity for their capture</b>.</i>"<br />
<br />
The authors are very sure that the number of boar released was not 40 but 60! No proof given. <br />
<br />
The story of how many boar were released near Staunton in November 2004 seems to have morphed over the years. Very early press reports put the figure at 10-12 boar. This soon became raised to 25-30 boar (Wilson, Wildl. Biol. Pract., 2014 March 10(3): 1-6), but in the Forestry Commission's own Management Plan of 2011, this inexplicably (and without evidence) became 60 boar.<br />
<br />
How do the Forestry Commission know it was 60???????? Maybe it was they whom released the boar?<br />
<br />
Let's ask a wildlife ranger, Neil Sollis, who in 2006 was interviewed by freelance journalist Angus Watson.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sLH-idwiX9g/VqDUPZ03CrI/AAAAAAAAATU/XkLjjgRGNUs/s1600/Wild%2BBoar%2BPure%2BBred%2BNeil%2BSollis%2B2006%2B01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sLH-idwiX9g/VqDUPZ03CrI/AAAAAAAAATU/XkLjjgRGNUs/s320/Wild%2BBoar%2BPure%2BBred%2BNeil%2BSollis%2B2006%2B01.jpg" width="206" /> <img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o6bN_-E1xyc/VqDUWPbpIyI/AAAAAAAAATc/QXlDQM3ZHa8/s320/Wild%2BBoar%2BPure%2BBred%2BNeil%2BSollis%2B2006%2B02.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
In this article, Neil Sollis talks of the two groups of boar, "<i>We’ve no idea where the two groups of boar in Dean, about 60 all told, are from, although we do know that they’re pure wild boar.</i>"<br />
<br />
So, 60 boar were NOT released at Staunton after all. This is the estimate in 2006 for all the boar from both groups.<br />
<br />
So how many escaped from the boar farm at Ross-on-Wye? We are finding it difficult to find this out, but someone must know - the farmer probably? Any other clues? OH YES.<br />
<br />
The strange comment above, in our Dutton report that anecdotally, <u><b>people were feeding and trying to capture the boar initially,</b></u> is tremendously insightful to us.<br />
<br />
Friends of the Boar have known for many years that two large projects were undertaken on the Ross-on-Wye Boar between 1999 and May 2005.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ECiy5746uSA/VqDW04yOgvI/AAAAAAAAATs/GqXhT8g6apc/s1600/Defra%2Bproject%2Bcode%2Bto%2Bcapture%2Bboar%2B2004-2005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pAgMoUCD8Ac/VqDW0o3D6aI/AAAAAAAAATo/UIgMxkPE8o4/s200/Defra%2Bproject%2Bcode%2Bto%2Bcapture%2Bboar%2B1999-2004.jpg" width="200" /><span style="color: black;"> </span><img border="0" height="171" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ECiy5746uSA/VqDW04yOgvI/AAAAAAAAATs/GqXhT8g6apc/s200/Defra%2Bproject%2Bcode%2Bto%2Bcapture%2Bboar%2B2004-2005.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The study from 1999 - March 2004 included <u><b>feeding</b></u> and <u><b>trapping</b></u> of boar in Kent, Dorset and Ross-on-Wye. The 1st May 2004 - 30th April 2005 study consisted of <u>feeding</u> and <u>trapping</u> boar in only Ross-on-Wye. The Forestry Commission at Bank House in Coleford were employed to undertake this trapping experiment.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In the article cited above, written about Neil Sollis in 2006, we read about the 60 boar, "<i>They cast a wary eye over us humans, then it’s snouts down to gobble the feed that Neil laid down earlier". </i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<u>And now you will discover that the 2 Defra projects used HUGE amounts of maize to trap the boar over 5 years!</u><i></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
So NO, it is not anecdotal that people were feeding these early introductions of boar - DEFRA and The Forestry Commission were feeding them copious volumes of food!!!!!<br />
<br />
Which, incidentally, they still do. <u><b>It is not the public feeding the boar but the Forestry Commission's hunters!</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And what of the trapped boar, how many, and what were the ages of the trappees?</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Of the earlier study, "<i>In total <b>31 wild boar (18 males and 13 females) were trapped and tagged, a further 13 animals (some probably recaptures) were trapped and released without fitting tags</b>. Of the 31 animals which were anaesthetised, all appeared to be in good condition and 27 (87%) of the animals were juveniles (6-12 months old). The other 13% (n = 4) were three older females and one male in his second year (Figure 2). The largest trapped animal was 92kg compared to a range of 40-52 kg for the 27 juvenile animals. No fully adult males were trapped".</i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Of the later study at Ross-on-Wye, <i>"Over the entire study, <b>a total of 28 captures were achieved</b>, composed of 20 individuals and 8 recaptures. The overall trapping rate was 7.3 trap-nights per capture. During Summer 2004 and Spring 2005, 40% and 58% of the estimated minimum population were captured respectively. Trapping preferentially captured young animals in the population. In Summer, juveniles represented 100% of the captured population but only 75% of the estimated minimum population. In Spring, juveniles comprised 86% of captured animals but only 67-73% of the estimated minimum population". </i></div>
<br />
Anyone good at maths? 31 + 28 = 59. Mostly juveniles! And guess the age range of the boar seen around Staunton JUST AS THESE PROJECTS WERE FOLDING UP around November 2004? Yep, Juveniles.<br />
<br />
Please send this information to your favourite newspaper!<br />
<br />
The report has yet another deception in its early Chapter too.<br />
<br />
Page 4: "<i>Frantz et al. (2012) found that boar from the Forest of Dean differed genetically from both continental wild individuals and domestic pigs, indicating that this population had a mixed wild boar/domestic pig ancestry</i>".<br />
<br />
Although Frantz <i>et al</i> (co-author Massey works for Central Science Labs, part of the Forestry Commission quango) does indeed find domestic pig ancestry in 20 sampled wild boar from the Forest, he also shows how every single boar across Europe also carries the same ancestry!<br />
<br />
The paper highlights that although the Forest of Dean boar have some unique markers that set themselves apart from boar on the continent, the differences are insignificant and far removed from the genetics of domestic pigs. The Forest of Dean boar, as concluded by ranger Neil Sollis and other experts, are as pure a wild boar as those across Europe are.<br />
<br />
The rest of the information in the report, therefore, <u>CANNOT BE TRUSTED</u> simply because the authors can't even get the historical facts correct, and they use purposefully misleading language.<br />
<br />
<u>But this is what you would expect of a report funded by the Forestry Commission about wild boar.</u><br />
<br />
We get unproven comments about costs of hunting from personal communications between Clayton and Stannard - presumably over their lunch break cuppa. Similarly, we get inaccurate costs of boar damage, including high costs to repair fences that were not even damaged by boar.<br />
<br />
The authors note that many of the respondents say they know about boar, only to contradict themselves elsewhere in the questionnaire.<br />
<br />
Respondents claiming boar attacks are obviously mistaken over what a boar attack is. A boar can easily outrun a human. If a boar runs at you to attack, it will get you! So no. Most "attacks" are of inquisitive boar trotting towards a dog or human for a closer look. Most people misinterpret this as an charge! Some attacks are mock attacks, but these are minor incidents, usually when piglets are near mothers.<br />
<br />
This is not helped by Dutton et al quoting a spurious report of Mayer, J.J. (2013). <i>Wild pig attacks on humans</i>. Proceedings of the 15th Wildlife Damage Conference: 17-35.<br />
<br />
In this report, Mayer claims 665 attacks have been made by wild boar on humans across the world. But Mayer defines attack as a "perceived threat" y the human, or as a "close encounter". Mayer gives no examples of any human actually being attacked in what would be the colloquial meaning of the word!<br />
<br />
Using Mayer is to scare the reader into believing wild boar actually attack people, when in fact they do not. This is clear propaganda and scaremongering by the Forestry Commission who paid for this report.<br />
<br />
But remarkably, given the biased nature of the report, what we discover in it's conclusion is a <u><b>heavy criticism of the Forestry Commission.</b></u><br />
<br />
The local press is also, quite accurately, held responsible for lying and fear mongering and sensationalising the boar, much to the detriment of some local residents who live in fear thanks to the rubbish that some journalists concoct and the loaded language they like to use (rampage, beast, savage, hairy, tusked, invade..)<br />
<u><b><br /></b></u>
Here is the summary:<u><b><br /></b></u><br />
<br />
<b>9.0 Summary Comments</b><br />
<b> </b><i><br />There are, without doubt, significant impacts on the residents of the Forest of Dean by the presence and activity of wild boar. However, the significance of these varies widely, and can be both negative and positive.</i><br />
<i><br />Perhaps the main issue identified by this project is the lack of satisfaction with the provision of information on wild boar. This is highlighted by the results of the questionnaire but also came across strongly when the project team spoke to residents, business proprietors, etc. There was extreme dissatisfaction with the Forestry Commission and District Council with what was felt to be poor and/or a lack of communication that exacerbates the frustration experienced by the negative impacts of boar. It is also unclear to many why the District Council abdicates any responsibility for providing information and the management of boar and passes all enquiries, etc., to the Forestry Commission. This reflects the situation recorded in the Netherlands.</i><br />
<i><br />Dissatisfaction is increased with what is perceived as misinformation and disinformation. Much of this maybe more as a result of what is seen as a lack of provision of information. However, incidents such as the misrepresentation of the minimum numbers calculated by thermal imaging as actual numbers is unhelpful.</i><br />
<i><br />Local media, especially the local newspapers, are also culpable in perpetuating some of the issues, such as anxiety and fear, with sensationalistic reports that frequently contradict one another. Mayer (2013) also reported that the media were quick to highlight the attacks and the threat of attacks; the English media were mentioned in particular to be sensationalistic. Clayton & Dutton (in prep) reviewed media articles in 2010 and found both national and local media were sensationalistic, with few reports being neutral in nature.</i><br />
<i><br />Greater awareness and more accurate, clear and detailed information on the risks and benefits would be invaluable in managing the expectations, fears and issues of residents. Better information and education on adapting behaviour, expectations of individual responsibility, etc., would allow many to overcome any concerns regarding the presence of boar.</i><br />
<i><br />It is not the remit of this report to comment on the management of wild boar in the Forest of Dean. However, the lessons from Baden-Württemberg and other European countries would indicate that tough decisions are required to ensure the boar within the area do not become more of an issue to resident communities (and visitors). In particular in respect to negative boar-people incidents, boar-vehicle collisions, impacts on amenity areas, etc., although other negative impacts should not be discarded as unimportant.<br /><br />A sustainable (in financial/resource terms) population management strategy that is acceptable to residents and external stakeholders and communicated would seem to be an essential requirement for the management of boar and the expectations of resident communities. However, as can be seen from the crude calculations from data provided by the Forestry Commission, currently the financial costs of wild boar management seriously outweigh any economic benefits.</i> <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-8605936501001393072015-12-18T23:24:00.002+00:002015-12-19T02:14:38.502+00:00BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE on the Forest of Dean Boar<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U9Lnb24DTJI/VnSOOfJgEUI/AAAAAAAAASs/HvyOO_dLd-Q/s1600/BBC%2BWildlife%2BMag%2BBoar%2BDec%2B2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U9Lnb24DTJI/VnSOOfJgEUI/AAAAAAAAASs/HvyOO_dLd-Q/s320/BBC%2BWildlife%2BMag%2BBoar%2BDec%2B2015.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BBC Wildlife December 2015.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
A really good article on the forest's wild boar has appeared in BBC Wildlife magazine this month.<br />
<br />
Ben Hoare, the author, interviewed Friends of the Boar at length in November and we are delighted to see quite a lot of our information got through to print.<br />
<br />
It was refreshing to see some positive boar facts in the media for a change, such as the University of Worcester's recent survey revealing that a "huge majority of respondents feel boar are beneficial."<br />
<br />
Sadly we see more deceit from Ian Harvey at the Forestry Commission, and also from Robin Gill at Forestry research.<br />
<br />
They insinuate the boar can breed all year round because of the forest's "plentiful food and mild climate." This is wrong because because boar do not breed year round (unless mismanaged), and the food supply dwindles in the winter - hence the need for them to root the roadsides.<br />
<br />
Another untruth of Ian Harvey is that wild boar have 6-10 piglets, "since they are hybrids between wild boar and farmed pigs". Total nonsense, and he knows it.<br />
<br />
This they know to be untrue and are purposefully deceiving the public.<br />
<br />
No wild boar in the Forest of dean has been seen to have more than 7 piglets in 11 years. DNA tests have shown that all boar, all across Europe and Asia have "farmed boar" genes in them, but these genes are recessive. The boar are not feral anymore and act and look like true wild boar despite the tiny element of domestic genes (that all the boar across Europe also have).<br />
<br />
What Ian Harvey tries to base this pseudo-fact on is a post-mortem finding in a sow a few years back that had 12+ corpus luteum or "yellow bodies". This is the structure that bore the egg in the ovary and was left empty after fertilisation. These can equate to embryos. But again, Harvey quotes from domestic pigs for they have a greater correlation between corpus luteum and piglet number. But 12+ corpus luteum in wild boar does not mean that 12 piglets were to be born The sow produced 12+ eggs, of which 50% were likely to become embryos. <br />
<br />
We also note a councillor claims the boar in Ruardean primary School in 2008 HAD to be shot, when actually it did not. We have covered this previously, with a photo of said boar happily munching on windfall apples in a corner of the school field doing no harm to anyone. The children, as the councillor rightly states, were sad and shocked to see an innocent animal shot before their very eyes!<br />
<br />
So as per usual, people with propaganda to spread and an ill-will towards wild animals get a say in opinion pieces, but we hope you will do your own study and find the truth.<br />
<br />
We are glad, however, to see conclusive reporting that wild boar are actually good for bluebells. <br />
<br />
We are also glad to read of 4 ways we can learn to live with the boar (better fencing, meat-fund, garden-angels/turf teams, contraception).<br />
<br />
Actually, contraception may work but not the way the Forestry Commission wish using the dangerous <i>non-species specific</i> contraception administered via a feeding device.<br />
<br />
We have been approached by a company who are willing to do this on the wild boar. We hope to bring further news on this in the near future.<br />
<br />
Please get a copy and read the rest yourself. It is definitely worth a read. Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-29350034852829869782015-12-17T14:03:00.000+00:002015-12-19T02:13:13.744+00:00COUNTRYFILE APPEARANCE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pk3FRpkhEbk/VnLGtml1ljI/AAAAAAAAASc/zwMvA2tYey4/s1600/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2Btitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pk3FRpkhEbk/VnLGtml1ljI/AAAAAAAAASc/zwMvA2tYey4/s400/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2Btitle.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
BBC Countryfile aired a programme on 13th December 2015 that covered some of the issues of wild boar in the Forest of Dean. Friends of the Boar were consulted on the topic and David Slater agreed to try and help find some boar for them to film and to appear on the programme too.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06sphxz/countryfile-the-peaks" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06sphxz/countryfile-the-peaks</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1Pvh_Peqjc/VnK0tU1gicI/AAAAAAAAARo/lE89jAo4C0I/s1600/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2B02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1Pvh_Peqjc/VnK0tU1gicI/AAAAAAAAARo/lE89jAo4C0I/s320/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2B02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom and David Slater find teeth gashes of wild boar in conifer trees.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
We had 3 days to find some boar, and that proved to be quite tough. Surveying the entire Forest it had become very clear that boar numbers were now terrifically low, perhaps less than 70 left. Boar rootings were massively reduced compared to more recent years, as were all other signs. It reminded us of 2008-9 in terms of rootings, when the population was put at around 60-90 animals.<br />
<br />
Dave had discovered an area that held about 3 boar, so we concentrated on that area when the pre-filming team arrived. Signs were good and wallows had been used, and the crew waited from 3pm until dark to hopefully see them. It wasn't to be. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UzcuLD0reCw/VnK1in2s5HI/AAAAAAAAAR4/9qjtaNx7gP0/s1600/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2B08.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UzcuLD0reCw/VnK1in2s5HI/AAAAAAAAAR4/9qjtaNx7gP0/s320/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2B08.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David leads Tom through ideal wild boar habitat.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
But we believed it was just bad luck, and on the day of filming when Tom Heap arrived, Dave took them back to the area. New signs were there, but again they left without a look at a boar. Finding boar can never be certain and the crew left saddened, as they were all looking really forward to catching sight of one - for personal reasons as much as professional.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RAkZ0HfM5iM/VnK1ikNbmzI/AAAAAAAAAR8/oh3qdIePlds/s1600/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2B09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RAkZ0HfM5iM/VnK1ikNbmzI/AAAAAAAAAR8/oh3qdIePlds/s320/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2B09.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom and David discuss the wild boar during filming.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
We all had a nice day anyway and the chat about boar to the crew was stimulating and they were all interested as well as sympathetic to our side of the story.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Dave talked to them off camera about the population figures being propagandised by the Forestry Commission as outrageous, biased and scientifically flawed. They agreed that it was very strange that a population of over 1,000 boar meant that 10-12 boar existed per square kilometre, yet after many kilometres walking and searching we saw nothing. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
They saw nothing at The Rising Sun pub - a site the anti-boar locals claim boar visit every night. They saw none on their drives around the roads, and when locals were asked for any any recent sightings they all said none.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
On camera, Dave explained the hunting myth about predators and compensatory rebound effect - how numbers rebound back to normal, and often more, after rapid and unscientific culls.<br />
<br />
He explained that the 360 boar killed this year were part of the ongoing compensatory process and cannot be a reflection of the total boar population. This wasn't aired.<br />
<br />
Also, Dave suggested that 75% of the cull were humbug coated piglets. The Forestry Commission always attempt to dupe the public with cull numbers, preferring to give an impression that all boar killed are large adults as well as living all at the same time. No. Piglets are targeted ever more due to their ease of selling the meat to BBQs (the FC sells piglets direct to the public).<br />
<br />
Dave predicted a glut of piglets early in the new year to the crew because numbers were now so low that increased shelter and nutrition left available for survivors meant that piglet mortality would be drastically reduced. This wasn't a topic they wished to film.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Dave explained how the Forest of Dean couldn't support more than 400 boar, making the Forestry Commission estimate a joke. He compared density of boar to Europe, which at similar latitude and tree cover holds constant at 3-4 boar per square kilometre (in ideal habitat). This was not aired.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Dave explained his strategy that overcomes mismanagement and lack of knowledge on numbers. Allow a core area to be a sanctuary for the wild boar, culling only the boar that leave the Forest each year using high chairs and marksmen on the Forest periphery. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Excess boar surviving the births in Spring increase the density of boar. By Autumn this excess will leave due to overcrowding. These boar are the ones surplus to The Forest, and if left alone will damage farmland as they spread outwards from the core sanctuary. This was partly aired.<br />
<br />
One other thaing that wasn't aired and purposefully ignored was the terrific amount of forest damage by tree felling vehicles. The Forest looks quite ugly right now. We are seeing the worst ground and tree damage by the Forestry Commission for years, and that is saying something! </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
What was aired, in fact, was a piece that had already been determined to agree with impossibly high numbers of boar, of the many signs we saw (we didn't see much!), of the 1-2 dogs per year that had been hurt because the dogs were harassing the boar, and of the local hospital repairing its dilapidated fencing. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This was The Dilke hospital, whose grounds had been rooted about a month before. Boar had found the fence of the Dilke to be broken by a fallen tree - something the BBC crew had seen for themselves but didn't film it. The boar helped themselves in of course, lured by bird feeders and fresh grass. The Dilke, after 10 years of knowing about boar habits, didn't seem to care the fence had been broken. Lesson learnt we hope.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-95kdGh-Xc38/VnK1iXddEPI/AAAAAAAAAR0/bA1ijgXqHTQ/s320/Dave%2Bon%2BCountryfile%2B06.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">About to set up a trail camera - not enough wild boar left to find on demand these days!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
As night encroached on the day of filming (you can see this in the final footage and the photo above), we decided to use a trail camera to catch a boar. Dave took the camera back to the original site and was delighted to find that the boar prints he had shown the crew were that of a large and solitary male boar. In fact, the footage was taken at about 3pm - the time we had first assumed the crew would have the best chance of a sighting!</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
All in all a good day but we are a little sad that a lot of truth about population and mismanagement was ignored from the show. But they are the BBC after all (with a parliament to keep happy over license fees), and The Forestry Commission is a beloved quango of government. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-58349262811233562102015-09-25T17:42:00.000+01:002015-12-17T15:21:58.545+00:00BOAR'S HEAD NAILED TO TREE<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"></span><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Strange things occur in the Forest of Dean, and this week is no exception. A wild boar head has was discovered - nailed to a tree. Discovered, allegedly, by animal rights personnel.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">(Addendum - contrary to what we were informed by The Citizen newspaper, hunt saboteurs have contacted us to say the head was found by a local resident and her child whilst walking the dog.) </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><img class="share-overlay-img" src="http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/images/localworld/ugc-images/276271/binaries/image4.JPG" height="134" width="200" /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Friends of the Boar were contacted by The Forester for comment, which went like this:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Dear George [Henderson],<br /><br />Attached are 3 images for you.<br /><br />Earlier this year I
witnessed an organised dog hunt with an FC ranger. This practice has
been ongoing for maybe 2 years now. Heads of deer are placed in cages
somewhere in the public forest estate. Dogs are then trained to scent
the carcass and find it, somewhat like drag hunting for foxhounds.<br /><br />Friends
of the Boar have been alerted in the past by members of the public have
been alarmed when finding such horrendous sights as a head of an animal
in a cage.<br /><br />Friends of the Boar know that the FC have been laying
out dead deer for the wild boar at high chairs for many years now too,
enticing the boar so they get shot. One such deer was photographed and
became an embarassment for Defra and Forestry Research, who blamed it on
a researcher who should have known better. This was when DEFRA were
using remote trail cams to study the effectiveness of
non-species-specific-contraception delivery devices spaced around the
forest in about 2009. <br /><br />Meat left like this can be sources of disease which can be eaten by boar and spread to humans who eat the meat.<br /><br />The
images I send you are from 2013. I have been told by a reputable
source close to the FC that this was done by Forestry Commission
rangers, who regularly take heads of boar to either use for dog hunts,
or make a skull from by boiling off the flesh, and/or sell to trophy
dealers.<br /><br />The men in the images were a film crew for BBC
Springwatch who I was showing around. The gash to the stomach was to
prevent gas bloating and to allow quick access to the carcass by
scavangers such as the boar or foxes.<br /><br />Please copyright the images with ©David J Slater<br /><br />All the best,<br /><br />Friends of the Boar</i></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">The final story was published in the Gloucester Citizen paper and went like this:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><i>The head of a wild boar has been found nailed to a tree in the Forest of Dean.</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><i>It has been found nailed to a tree near Blakeney Hill Reservoir.</i></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><i>The head was put on a popular family trail, where people walk dogs, take their children for walks in the woods.</i></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><i>It has been reported to police and the Forestry Commission.</i></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><i>In response the Forest of Dean Wild Boar Cull Hunt Saboteurs have installed trail cameras at popular spots.</i></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Here's the link: <span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.gloucestercitizen.co.uk/Warning-explicit-images-Boar-head-nailed-tree/story-27861211-detail/story.html" target="_blank">Boar Head Found</a></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">For 4 years, this has been an all too common result of the Forest of Deam local press refusing to criticise the government stooges at Bank House in Coleford. They link the event to animal rights groups instead, without further elaboration.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Friends of the Boar supplied 3 images of a male boar that had been decapitated by Forestry Commission rangers to The Forester. Here are two of them:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KVqKHSTpvkI/VnLGIaWGopI/AAAAAAAAASU/V9xusaaivo4/s1600/Wild%2BBoar%2Bdecapitated%2B03%2BSpringwatch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KVqKHSTpvkI/VnLGIaWGopI/AAAAAAAAASU/V9xusaaivo4/s320/Wild%2BBoar%2Bdecapitated%2B03%2BSpringwatch.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">BBC Springwatch witness the decapitated boar as friends of the Boar make enquries.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JQ40XwGPgfs/VgVuiC6_sDI/AAAAAAAAARI/Gve6nLM3bRA/s1600/Wild%2BBoar%2Bdecapitated%2B01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JQ40XwGPgfs/VgVuiC6_sDI/AAAAAAAAARI/Gve6nLM3bRA/s200/Wild%2BBoar%2Bdecapitated%2B01.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><span style="color: black;">Gruesome - but you need to know what the Forestry Commission under<br />
Wildlife Manager Ian Harvey do to the boar.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Forestry Commission rangers have been known to use pet dogs to scent down wild boar. Dogs are used across Europe as weapons against the boar, as our last post highlighted.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">The Forestry Commission help hunting dog enthusiasts to hone their scenting skills, originally to hunt down deer, and now we believe to hunt boar.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Please register your complaint to your local MP, and if you live in the Forest of Dean send your concerns to Mark Harper MP. We understand very few people will do this, but please be brave and stand out from the crowd, and do what you can to stop the Forestry Commission from continuing this disturbing practice within the Public Forest estate where your children may walk with innocent smiles. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-5345530757579300492015-09-03T13:17:00.002+01:002015-09-03T14:05:38.089+01:00WILD BOAR KILLS ITALIAN PENSIONERLast month, on the 9th August 2015, the newspaper <i>Corriere della Sera</i> reported on a story about a 77 year old man, Salvatore Rinaudo, taking his dogs for a walk. His wife heard the dogs barking at some Wild Boar and then the Wild Boar attacked the dogs. The man tried to defend his dogs but was attacked himself. Somehow, his wife was able to run to the scene to help only to suffer some minor injuries herself, with some reports saying she was in her house when she saw the attack. The injuries he sustained resulted in his tragic death.<br />
<br />
We have tried to get more information about this story but have failed. British newspapers also seem unable to get more information, repeating only what is told in <i>Corriera della Sera</i>. As usual, The Daily Mail embellish the bit about the wife being at home, suggesting the attack took place on their doorstep (they must live in the woods).<br />
<a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6583317/Dog-walker-mauled-to-death-by-wild-boar.html" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6583317/Dog-walker-mauled-to-death-by-wild-boar.html" target="_blank">The Sun</a><br />
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11792885/Pensioner-killed-by-wild-boar-sparks-calls-for-cull-of-hogs-and-bears.html" target="_blank">The Telegraph</a><br />
<a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4522079.ece" target="_blank">The Times</a><br />
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3191755/Italian-dog-walker-killed-pack-boars-outside-home-trying-protect-pets-attacked.html" target="_blank">The Daily Mail </a><br />
<br />
<br />
The local Sicilian authorities, including the Forestry department, appear to be taking this all in their stride, despite protests from the Mayor of Cefalu, Rosario Lapunzina and the Mayor of Pollina, Magda Cullota. They accuse the Forestry department of not acting earlier to manage the boar, and now appear to be suggesting a criminal manslaughter investigation be opened. Obviously someone wishes the Forestry department to be held accountable and charged with this man's death!<br />
<br />
Italy has an estimated Wild Boar population of between 600,000 and 1,000,000. It is a cultural icon giving Italians both meat and hunting. It is the same in Germany where Boar are now becoming a problem and have been entering cities like Berlin for many years to escape the hunters and take easy handouts from people who feed them.<br />
<br />
Reading the comments in the <i>Corriera della Sera</i>, we appear to agree with most of them. Commentators repeatedly say that it is the HUNTING that CREATES the problem. Here's a few:<br />
<br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Tu sei uno tra quelli che non ha ancora capito che la caccia è la causa del problema e non la soluzione ?">1. You are one of those who does not understand that hunting is the cause of the problem and not the solution? </span><span title="Mi sà di sì.">I think so. </span><span title="In cinghiali già vengono cacciati anche fuori dal periodo venatorio..
">In boars already they are hunted even outside the hunting season ..</span><span title="Che però finora con la caccia hanno contribuito alla proliferazione dei cinghiali
"> </span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Che però finora con la caccia hanno contribuito alla proliferazione dei cinghiali
">2. But so far with hunting they have contributed to the proliferation of wild boars</span>.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Si, ma se permetti la carne di cinghiale la mangio io anziché darla ai bambini poveri ... Poi forse non hai ancora capito che il problema sono i cacciatori che vogliono il cinghiale in sovrannumero per poterlo cacciare ... Già ora comunque il cinghiale viene">3. Yes,
but if you allow the boar meat I eat it instead of giving it to the
poor children ... Then maybe you have not yet figured out that the
problem are the hunters who want to be able to hunt wild boar
supernumerary ... Already, however, the boar is </span><span title="cacciato anche al di fuori dei normali periodi di caccia, quindi quello che tu speri già avviene
">hunted even outside of the normal hunting season, so what you hope is already the case</span><span title="Finalmente qualcuno che DICE LE COSE COME STANNO."> </span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Finalmente qualcuno che DICE LE COSE COME STANNO.">4. Finally someone SAYS HOW THINGS ARE. </span><span title="Non vi rendete conto che al mondo venatorio interessa solo che il cinghiale ci sia e sia sempre abbondante?">Do not you realize that the hunting world only care that the wild boar and there is always plenty? </span><span title="Chi credete che abbia diffuso il cinghiale ovunque?">Who do you think has spread everywhere the boar? </span><span title="Esempio... sull'isola d'Elba (Dove crea problemi toh che caso)... il problema andrà risolto ma finché ci si affida ai fucili, ci sarà SEMPRE e sarà sempre peggio, com'è stato finora.">...As long as you stick to the guns, it
will always get worse, as has been so far. </span><span title="Non è questione di essere animalisti, è questione di etologia, scienza e buon senso.
">It's not about being animal rights, it is a matter of ecology, science and common sense.</span><span title="in Italia ci sono 1Mio."> </span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="in Italia ci sono 1Mio.">5. In Italy there are 1Million </span><span title="di cinghiali e 7Mio.">boars and 7Million</span><span title="di cani."> dogs. </span><span title="Quest'ultimi si vedono e sentono ovunque.">The latter are seen and heard everywhere. </span><span title="Oltretutto, questi animali domestici, ogni anno fanno molte più aggressioni e vittime di qualsiasi altra bestia.">Moreover, these pets each year cause many more attacks on people and victims than any other animal.</span></span></i><br />
<br />
<br />
Interestingly, we learn from these commentators that wild boar are now being hunted all year round, with no safe period offered in a "closed season".<br />
<br />
<u>Furthermore, hunting year round and without any scientific method as to which animals should be "culled", animals such as wild boar (along with humans, foxes, rats, rabbits and many more) will begin reproducing even more, making the initial population increase in the longer term. </u><br />
<br />
Friends of the Boar fought hard to get our Forestry Department to realise the sense of this, but it seems that fear and bloodlust can defeat common sense and ecology, and make matters worse by reverting to hunting year round.<br />
<br />
Commentator #5 makes the pertinent observation about dogs being the number one animal that causes more injuries and deaths of people each year. So again, we need a sense of perspective too rather than any knee jerk reaction and call to kill the wild boar. So crazed are some hunters and mayors of Italy, they are now wishing to see the extermination of indigenous Brown Bears too! Bears must die because of the Wild Boar!!!<br />
<br />
But as a final food for thought on all this, we ask the question of just what was Salvatore Rinaudo doing to get so badly injured? Where his injuries as terrible as we are led to believe even, because sometimes a minor cut which gets infected can kill an elderly man who maybe was suffering from other health issues? Was Salvatore a hunter? He was 77 years old and, given Italian culture and the fact he was living in the woods alongside the boar, was likely to have some persuasions for hunting.<br />
<br />
Another commenter ("Newgreen") in Corriere della Sera claims this:<br />
<br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span class="hps">It was a</span> <span class="hps">couple</span> <span class="hps">with puppies</span> <span class="hps">and dogs</span>, but<span class="hps"> evidently not</span> <span class="hps">pet dogs</span> <span class="hps">but</span> <span class="hps">hunting</span> <span class="hps">dogs. When wild boar</span> <span class="hps">attacked them</span> <span class="hps">he</span><span class="hps"> reacted</span> <span class="hps">to defend</span> <span class="hps">the pups</span>. <span class="hps">When the owner</span><span class="hps"></span> <span class="hps">reacted</span> <span class="hps">to defend them</span>, <span class="hps">he got hurt too</span><span class="hps">.</span> <span class="hps">We must remember that</span> <span class="hps">the</span> <span class="hps">house</span> <span class="hps">of the</span> <span class="hps">unfortunate victim</span> <span class="hps">was</span> <span class="hps">close to a</span> <span class="hps">forest</span> <span class="hps">that</span> <span class="hps">is</span> <span class="hps">also</span> <span class="hps">the nature reserve</span> <span class="hps">and</span> <span class="hps">wild boars</span> <span class="hps">attack</span> <span class="hps">only</span> <span class="hps">for</span> <span class="hps">defense</span> <span class="hps">and</span> <span class="hps">that the problems</span> <span class="hps">of Sicily and</span> <span class="hps">certainly not</span> <span class="hps">the wild boars</span><span class="">!</span></span></i> <br />
<br />
If he wasn't a hunter, he was the first innocent bystander in history to have been even injured, let alone killed, by a wild boar. Hunters and their dogs commonly abuse and intimidate wild animals such as boar, especially with dogs.<br />
<br />
Here is just a small sample of videos of what we think you should know about hunters with dogs:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQXNcziFS6k" target="_blank">Pet dogs and their owner terrorising a wild boar (what if owner intervened?)</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUlp0EznIZQ" target="_blank">Hunters proud to set dogs on Wild Boar - some nasty injuries sustained</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W68nogo8vk" target="_blank">Owners of two pet Alsatians happy for them to intimidate Wild Boar in a Forest - could this be Salvatore's home?</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo62lP-Qx20" target="_blank">More pet dog owners laugh at antics of little dog chasing wild boar!</a><br />
<br />
These stupid people will very quickly call for the death of all wild boar if their dogs get killed. They will petition the mayor of their town, claiming it is only a matter of time until someone gets killed!<br />
<br />
Who else should be on trial in court in Sicily for manslaughter - for the killing of an Italian Pensioner whilst taking out his dogs for a walk? <br />
<br />
Answer: Irresponsible dog owners on these videos and the hunters. That is who. They ARE INDIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF SALVATORE RINAUDO.<br />
<br />
<br />
And this is why many people in the Forest of Dean will do everything they can to stop unecessary killing (culling) of the wild boar. We are continuosly kept from the truth about the boar, their importance to the ecosystem, our culture and their true behaviour. The fight to stop you getting injured by a boar because of stupid dog owners and irresponsible hunters.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/21/wild-boar-forest-of-dean-activists-vow-to-stop-cull" target="_blank">Animal Activists Vow to Stop Planned Wild Boar Cull in Forest of Dean.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Here is the original story in <a href="http://www.corriere.it/cronache/15_agosto_08/sicilia-aggrediti-cinghiali-morto-ferito-c147abac-3da2-11e5-9df9-e4a39ac26db0.shtml?refresh_ce-cp" target="_blank">Corriere della Sera</a>:<br />
<br />
Here is the translation:<br />
<br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Due anziani coniugi sono stati aggrediti da alcuni cinghiali mentre si trovavano presso Cefalù, in provincia di Palermo.">Elderly couple were attacked by some wild boar while they were at Cefalu, near Palermo. </span><span title="Salvatore Rinaudo, 77 anni, è deceduto.">Salvatore Rinaudo, 77, died. </span><span title="La moglie Rosa, 73, è stata ricoverata in ospedale per le ferite.">His wife Rose, 73, was hospitalized for wounds. </span><span title="I due si trovavano nella loro casa di campagna tra le contrade Ferla e Mollo, sulle colline a qualche chilometro dal centro abitato ea chiamare i soccorsi è stato il figlio.
">The two were at their home in the countryside between the districts
Ferla and Mollo, in the hills a few kilometers from the town when he called
for help. </span><span title="Cercava di salvare i cani
">He was trying to save the dogs</span><span title="«Mio marito è uscito con i cani questa mattina per una passeggiata.">, "My husband came out with the dogs for a walk this morning. </span><span title="Ho visto che si era fermato perché i cani hanno iniziato ad abbaiare a un gruppo di cinghiali».">I saw that he had stopped because the dogs began to bark in a group of wild boars. " </span><span title="Questo il racconto di Rosa Rinaudo, che ha parlato con gli investigatori per cercare di ricostruire quando successo.">This is the story of Rosa Rinaudo, who spoke with investigators to try to reconstruct when successful. </span><span title="Salvatore Rinaudo ha cercato di mettere i cani in salvo, ma è stato assalito dal branco di cinghiali ed è caduto.">Salvatore Rinaudo has tried to put the dogs to safety, but he was attacked by a pack of wild boars and fell. </span><span title="Mentre gli animali continuavano a caricarlo la moglie è intervenuta per difenderlo e per trascinarlo in casa, ma è stata a sua volta aggredita.">While animals continued to load his wife stepped in to defend it and to drag it into the house, but was in turn attacked. </span><span title="Ha riportato ferite in tutto il corpo, ma non è in gravi condizioni (le è stata data una prognosi di 15 giorni).">Suffered injuries all over the body, but not in a serious condition (she was given a prognosis of 15 days). </span><span title="«Mio marito ha cercato di salvare i cani», ha aggiunto la donna, «ma i cinghiali gli sono saltati addosso.">"My husband tried to save the dogs," she added, "but the boar jumped on him. </span><span title="Io per cercare di recuperare il corpo sono uscita fuori ma mentre cercavo di portarlo in casa sono stata aggredita anch'io.">I try to recover the body I went outside but as I tried to take him into the house I was attacked too. </span><span title="Non ci sono parole per descrivere quello che ho visto.">There are no words to describe what I saw. </span><span title="Sono distrutta».
">We are devastated. "</span><span title="L’allarme dei sindaci
"> </span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="L’allarme dei sindaci
">The alarm of Mayors</span><span title="Da tempo i sindaci dei Comuni delle Madonie segnalano i rischi dovuti al numero crescente di cinghiali nel territorio."> </span></span></i><br />
<i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Da tempo i sindaci dei Comuni delle Madonie segnalano i rischi dovuti al numero crescente di cinghiali nel territorio.">For
some time the mayors of the municipalities of the Madonie indicate
risks due to the increasing number of wild boars in the territory. </span><span title="«Più volte è stato segnalato il pericolo dei cinghiali ed è stata chiesta anche una campagna di abbattimento controllato, ma non è stata mai adottata alcuna misura», dice il sindaco di Cefalù, Rosario Lapunzina.">"Many
times it has been reported the danger of wild boars and there's also been
called a campaign for controlled killing, but it was never adopted in any
measure," says the mayor of Cefalu, Rosario Lapunzina. </span><span title="«Siamo colpiti e profondamente addolorati per quanto accaduto, ma anche molto arrabbiati perché questa è una tragedia annunciata».">"We are shocked and deeply saddened by what happened, but also very angry because this is a tragedy waiting to happen." </span><span title="«Da più di un anno abbiamo avanzato una richiesta alla Regione perché il fenomeno si è ingrandito e ci aspettavamo che potesse accadere qualcosa di grave», aggiunge Magda Culotta, sindaco di Pollina.">"For
over a year we have made a request to the Region because the phenomenon
has grown, and we expected that something serious could happen," adds
Magda Culotta, mayor of Pollina. </span><span title="«Il nostro è un grido di allarme perché, trovandoci all'interno di un'area parco, è la Regione che deve agire.">"Ours is a cry of alarm because, as we stand in an area of the park, is the region that has to act. </span><span title="Abbiamo fatto molti incontri con gli assessorati all'Agricoltura e al Territorio, l'ente parco, il prefetto, ma ancora nulla di concreto è stato fatto.">We
had many meetings with the departments of Agriculture and Land, the
park authority, the prefect, but still nothing concrete has been done. </span><span title="Speriamo che dopo questa tragedia le cose si muovano in tempi brevi», conclude il sindaco di Pollina.
">Hopefully after this tragedy, things move quickly," concluded the mayor of Pollina.</span></span></i>Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-89792702724611809912015-06-08T18:25:00.002+01:002015-06-11T10:40:40.619+01:00The NEW ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRICY IN THE 21st CENTURY AGENDAThe Boar are doing ok. Travelling about the Forest of Dean the diggings at the roadsides are at their usually low-rating or "obviousness" for summer, as it has been for the last 5 years.<br />
<br />
The population is low, low, low..... perhaps below 100 now. Piglets are being born faster than ever to catch up to ecological capacity! Piglets in June!!! Never before have the Forestry Commission created such a disaster with their ill-founded unscientific lust to kill the boar.<br />
<br />
The Tindle scaremongers at The Forest Review and Forester are quiet on the subject - as they have been every summer since 2010.<br />
<br />
At last, the residents are awakening to the reality and truth of this subject - that Wild boar are an asset and not as dangerous nor as problematic as the Forestry Commission and anti-wildlife residents in the Forest of Dean would have us imagine.<br />
<br />
Reintroduction programmes are all the rage now! And it comes as a sort of cathartic process to us at Friends of the Boar, that we have been correct all along, not just with the Wild Boar and their effects on "our" forest, but where we see "the public" accepting other reintroductions of perhaps less sizable and less notorious species.<br />
<br />
Take just one example - The Water Vole.<br />
<br />
An upsurge of interest in this animal has exploded across the media and Internet pages over the last 5 years too - just like the boar.<br />
<br />
One is small and furry, the other is large and pig-like. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XBFvMZt4NtQ/VXhT51jjBvI/AAAAAAAAAPc/7ARvi_PHzns/s1600/Water%2BVole%2B63.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XBFvMZt4NtQ/VXhT51jjBvI/AAAAAAAAAPc/7ARvi_PHzns/s320/Water%2BVole%2B63.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Re-introduced water voles are populating many nature reserves at the moment. They are being bred in captivity by consultants such as Derek Gow and released on site. Mink surveys were supposed to have been undertaken beforehand, but the mink often reappear when the food does.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Losses of 90% of the water voles' original (?) extent due to a contribution of habitat loss and mink predation grabs the "Consensus Reality" headlines. No evidence is ever produced of course. It is convenient for this programme to get its advocates aboard the gravy boat! And there is lots of gravy here, thanks to the EU.<br />
<br />
Does anyone say that 99.9999999% of the Wild Boar are now gone! No. Of course not. There's little money in Wild Boar, especially from the EU pot. And DEFRA does not care about the environment at all - it's all about the money and Corporate support from the likes of the NFU to them!!!<br />
<br />
The wild boar money didn't arrive because the reintroduction was without scientific or community consensus and now funding bodies turn their back. So too did (and still do) the Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Mammal Trust and others we contacted for support back in 2011. They can't bite the hand that feeds them, which in the Forest of Dean is often the Forestry Commission.<br />
<br />
And what is this Water Vole boat?<br />
<br />
A boat of mass destruction of mink. Bloodlust, where game-keepers and neck-breakers come out of the wordwork appearing to be conservationists. Neck breakers and between-the-eyes shooters of stoats and weasels and anything that water voles don't like. Architects of the countryside of course!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pK1ogrtqpxo/VXhT2-WpeFI/AAAAAAAAAPY/_SujF1mvCzM/s1600/Mink%2B01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pK1ogrtqpxo/VXhT2-WpeFI/AAAAAAAAAPY/_SujF1mvCzM/s320/Mink%2B01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mink are enemy number one after mink farms released them accidentally into the countryside.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Over to Slimbridge and the WWT. Accidental reintroduction there of the Common Crane leads to what? Of obliteration of habitat of warblers and anything that likes cover so that the cranes see the foxes approaching! But we digress and must keep this short, in case the reader gets bored - his conditioning may be to only read executive summaries and not the details!!!<br />
<br />
Back to the Water Vole then. An army of mink-killers patrols the Wildlife Trust reserves around the country. Blood lust is now the name of the game for conservation. It always has been, secretly of course, but it is surfacing like never before.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-71adIcleqi4/VXhZX5wl-LI/AAAAAAAAAPs/_kKGEo7MV3o/s1600/Mink%2BRaft.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-71adIcleqi4/VXhZX5wl-LI/AAAAAAAAAPs/_kKGEo7MV3o/s320/Mink%2BRaft.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Mink Rafts" like this are checked daily for footprints or captives. Otters are usually released if caught but if mink are found it is illegal to release. Other captives are at the discretion of the game keeper.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
In the name of conservation, more animals are killed than saved. THIS IS FACT!!!! <br />
<br />
Volunteers are getting involved in this killing machine. Game-keeper mentality has taken over.<br />
<br />
Minks have taken the old niche of the polecat and pine marten, but still, the mink must go! We don't like things with teeth and a lust for blood do we - ummm, let's not count people in this argument - humans are un-natural to some, from outer space or somewhere ? We're special though aren't we Mr Vole Man? And despite being natural or alien, our gardens, roadside verges and lovely thoughts about nature MUST be "conserved" at all cost.<br />
<br />
Favourite reserves, once barren of interest, now has furry little foreigners re-introduced to their land, and everyone is salivating at their hard fought afterthought.<br />
<br />
Devotees are not quiet anymore. The Vole is NATIVE!!! The mink is NOT! Kill the mink, kill the Stoat, the Fox, the Weasel, the Polecat. Most stop short of killing the real problem species like the HERON, the BITTERN, SNAKES, KESTRELS, OWLS, DOMESTIC CATS and HUMANS!!!<br />
<br />
All this will be stated at you on "their" patch, as you watch over their shoulder amusingly as the Prezwalski Horse grazes the exotic grasses of the Local Wildlife Trust reserve, a Little Owl screeching in the background and the rabbits and fallow deer nibble at the edge of the field as a pheasant flaps noisily overhead, landing on the banks of a man made ditch by the tarmac of a road. <br />
<br />
The behavioural adjustment machine of DEFRA and the neo-environmentalists aggressively belittle anyone not conforming to their paradigm of Water Vole conservation! Let's get back to how it used to be they will propose. Water Voles used to be here God-damn It!!! "The community voice has spoken and your opinions are not worthy unless you agree", they seem to say under their self-righteous breath.<br />
<br />
But so did Wild Boar! "But they are big and dangerous, they invade crops, and won't they eat water voles? They all wonder.<br />
<br />
I wonder if they know that water voles also eat crops and are treated as pests in some European countries?<br />
<br />
And don't they realise that water voles are food for the predators. Stock the larder and the diners will thrive be it mink or kestrel or adder. Get rid of the mink by all means - but be sure to reintroduce the polecat in its place, or the otter. Stop the neighbouring pheasant keeper trapping weasels and stoats and allow these predators back too.<br />
<br />
"Sod the rest of the ecosystem, sod humanity, this is about ME. ME, ME and my photos and my status on this reserve as some expert in his / her field", is what they really wish to say.<br />
<br />
Breathe.....<br />
<br />
When you meet this type of self-appointed conservationist, be it Mr Joe Blogs or a reserve manager for the 21st Century trendy "educational" Wildlife Trust Reserve manager and its minions of volunteer scouts, you wonder about their wider knowledge of wildlife, history, archaeology and political shenanigans that led us to this point.<br />
<br />
We often alert the would-be expert about the latest strap line species to be thrown into the ditches of a wetland reserve, such as the Water Vole. We alert to the fact that native species include WOLVES, HYENAS, BEARS, LYNX, PINE MARTEN, GOSHAWK, and other killers of Water Voles.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hPGN7QU4qS0/VXhfU-uKPrI/AAAAAAAAAQM/nHNsE1D-994/s1600/Pine%2BMarten%2B11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hPGN7QU4qS0/VXhfU-uKPrI/AAAAAAAAAQM/nHNsE1D-994/s320/Pine%2BMarten%2B11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pine Martens need to be re-introduced over much of Britain and may also see off the mink.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uOuGfaLbzRo/VXhfVF_Tz_I/AAAAAAAAAQU/dxki626rpfw/s1600/Polecat%2B03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uOuGfaLbzRo/VXhfVF_Tz_I/AAAAAAAAAQU/dxki626rpfw/s320/Polecat%2B03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Polecats were once widespread and need to be reintroduced to control rodent populations in many places.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m_3c9FMQI9g/VXhfU9bGo0I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/i51qnE66uHc/s1600/Bison%2BEuropean%2B01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m_3c9FMQI9g/VXhfU9bGo0I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/i51qnE66uHc/s320/Bison%2BEuropean%2B01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our ancestors were used to Bison as well as Hyena, Elk, Bear and .....</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-suSZESu78M4/VXhfUv7qQjI/AAAAAAAAAQY/GxyM1D8ug2I/s1600/Grey%2BWolf%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-suSZESu78M4/VXhfUv7qQjI/AAAAAAAAAQY/GxyM1D8ug2I/s320/Grey%2BWolf%2B4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">of course the Wolf, a sadly missed predator to our shore.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The look you get back is priceless. "We made the problem so shouldn't we do what we can to correct the problem?" This is what the "neo-cons" advance next to dodge agreeing the wild boar and wolf are also needed on their "vole" reserve.<br />
<br />
If we must destroy mink because they are not native, then surely we need the reintroduction of the above animals and of course the boar to rid this island of those infernal PHEASANTS, RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGES, FALLOW DEER, GREY SQUIRREL, EDIBLE DORMOUSE, CATS, DOGS , BUDGERIGARS, SHEEP, COWS, TURKEYS, CHICKENS...... and last but not least....GARDEN FLOWERS !<br />
<br />
But we agree that man is the true problem - and it's mainly his thinking that does the most the damage, unwittingly granting public license to the gamekeepers. We hope they can see the similarity between vole and boar - and do let's destroy anyone with pretentions of being God Almighty - stop them making the ecosystem chaotic with all this killing to save one species!<br />
<br />
Shouldn't we now allow the Boar to be reintroduced and kill all of the boars' enemies, just as the Water Vole advocates are doing with such gusto and mouth-dribbling concern.<br />
<br />
Kill the monarchy, the aristocracy, the Forestry Commission!! Not our words, but surely those who wish to preserve their acre of genetically impure and re-introduced water voles?<br />
<br />
The hypocrisy stinks folks.<br />
<br />
The boar are doing well despite the simpleton thinking of some amateur "conservationists". Conservationists that we feel would be the first to demand the death of the Wild Boar because they may also eat Water Voles, or Adders, or dig up some butterfly larval food plant as part of its survival in an ancient process called woodland ecology.<br />
<br />
Let the animals get on with their lives. Humans have enough to sort out amongst our own species. Kill off the non-native humans? Kill off those killing the re-introductions! Ask these people to repeat themselves, letting them know that man killed off the water vole, not the mink. Man killed off the Wild Boar too - for fun, sport and a Crimbo meal fit only for the privileged. Man is the problem, and you cannot the solve a problem with the thing that created it - Einstein's words, not ours!<br />
<br />
This sounds alarmist we agree, but listen to the hypocrisy of how humans react when a pet and lovingly furry creature gets introduced to the "pet's corner" or "biodiversity subsidy stream" of your local Wildlife Trust Reserve and you will understand how we feel when it comes to Wild Boar - or the wolf or lynx or hyena or bear, any other species with a long history of acceptance and known ecological advantage such as the wild boar has - and you will understand our frustrations.<br />
<br />
It's not that we're against the water vole but it's the hypocrisy that baffles us in our attempts to understand people and why they believe what they do when it comes to the environment.<br />
<br />
Awaken to the majesty and beauty of the Wild Boar and all the benefits it brings to our woodlands and communities.<br />
<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-89853888856354025932014-11-29T19:30:00.003+00:002015-06-11T10:31:48.995+01:00ROADSIDE DIGGINGS ALMOST GONEA survey carried out by Friends of the Boar has revealed that road diggings are 90% down on the same time last year.<br />
<br />
"Both the area of diggings and degree of diggings is down to 2007 levels," states David Slater, Founder of Friends of the Boar.<br />
<br />
The Forestry Commission has for years attempted to portray the length and degree of roadside diggings as some sort of population indicator. Using the Forestry Commissions own method of census, today's findings point to a huge population reduction.<br />
<br />
This flies in the face of the Forestry Commission's recent Census using distance sampling and night-vision equipment.<br />
<br />
"If the Forestry Commission succeed in promoting their scientific fraud of a census to the Forest of Dean District Council, with their aim of killing 400 wild boar next year, then the Forest of dean would not only loose all the boar, but the public confidence in the Forestry Commission too," says Slater. "Our roadside diggings survey would suggest there are nowhere near 400 boar to kill right now, but of course that won't stop the Forestry Commission." "They all too readily know that the mismanagement techniques they purposefully employ only lead to increase boar numbers for next year because of a natural rebound response in boar breeding behaviour."<br />
<br />
Maybe it's time for the Forestry Commission to release some boar into the Forest? Yes, that's right, just like they have done in the past.Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-52731183211405633392014-11-15T23:10:00.003+00:002014-11-29T19:15:13.332+00:00ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS TO FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AGAINST NEEDLESS SLAUGHTER OF WILD BOAR IN THE FOREST OF DEANThe phrase "Animal Rights Activist" has long been used to create in your mind a form of anti-social, often aggressive and bullying behaviour. The phrase rolls of the tongues of those who wish to harm or otherwise profit from animals for their own interests. We are increasingly encouraged to believe that the people and groups who stand up for animals are operating under a dangerous form of anarchic, tree hugging, greasy-haired and subversive ideologies just for the hell of it.<br />
<br />
Nothing could be further from the truth. Such people are activists not just because they get off their arses and attempt to make the changes they wish to see, but because they also take the time to research and understand the topic.<br />
<br />
This is the last thing our Forestry Commission in the Forest of Dean wish you to do - to become educated. It is the time-honoured method by which our national government wishes to keep the populace in ignorance by dumbing down the would-be dissenters. They operate via the printed media and education system, the TV and via committees that are easily infiltrated with unscrupulous place men who are employed to push an agenda.<br />
<br />
The worst form of "activism" may well, of course, refer to that minority of people we know must exist, whom have reached their wits end at the injustices foisted upon living creatures that have no legal protection or voices. They can and sometimes do over-react. This is not their intention but when the red mist descends you can find yourself doing things you never thought possible.<br />
<br />
The anger felt by well-meaning people, can and does manifest as direct action at times. This form of direct action is certainly not limited to counter and stop the abuses upon animals, but upon humans as well. These people will just as readily stand up for YOUR rights in a totalitarian, fascist or communist regime.<br />
<br />
They need your moral as well as physical support, because when these people are silenced and criminalized, there will be nobody left to defend YOU when corrupt governments come knocking on your door to get rid of YOU.<br />
<br />
Friends of the Boar understands this frustration and deep seated anger that can be created when innocent animals are mistreated by those with vested interests and low empathy - often those in positions of power who feel they are untouchable and unaccountable.<br />
<br />
Although Friends of the Boar are NOT an animal rights group, we strongly sympathise in the case of wild boar.<br />
<br />
Animals Rights groups are now enraged enough at the recent calls by the Forestry Commission for the unnecessary mass slaughter of wild boar that the local population and tourist industry have now come to accept, promote, welcome and tolerate.<br />
<br />
This new emphasis of acceptance of the boar by residents in the Forest of Dean threatens the sustainability of profits and blood-lust by our government's animal "managers".<br />
<br />
Over the last year, Friends of the Boar and other groups have been asked by the national and international media for their views on the ongoing slaughter and mismanagement of a much needed and loved animal - the wild boar.<br />
<br />
Friends of the Boar know the proposed 2015 slaughter is unnecessary simply because the Forestry Commissions guess at a population of wild boar is absurd and a scientific fraud.<br />
<br />
Because of this fraud, we have no choice to but to support any person who bravely converts their thoughts into actions. The public no longer has any other recourse to justice. The Forestry Commission is using immoral and unjustified tactics to get the unsuspecting public and the media to portray a non-existent problem of over-population of wild boar in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
We cannot but help compare these actions of injustice against innocent animals to that of a wider political type of social-engineering - that of creating terrorists due to the outrageous foreign policies of the UK Government.<br />
<br />
Although Friends of the Boar are a conservation group and remain strictly apolitical, we do agree that action is often needed to counter a political injustice, an action that those responsible will often brand as terrorism.<br />
<br />
This kind of verbal diarrhea comparing animal rights activists to terrorists has recently been employed by Kevin Stannard of the Forestry Commission in the Forest of Dean (Bank House) attempting to silence and distance these brave people, who will go out at night in all weathers to protect the killing of innocent animals, from the rest of society.<br />
<br />
The Guardian newspaper is but one newspaper that has become actively involved in the debate, and we would like you to have a read so you may judge this debate for yourselves.<br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/21/wild-boar-forest-of-dean-activists-vow-to-stop-cull" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/21/wild-boar-forest-of-dean-activists-vow-to-stop-cull" target="_blank">THE GUARDIAN</a><br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-14455797684801939102014-11-10T21:57:00.002+00:002014-11-29T19:15:55.447+00:00WILD BOAR CENSUS 2014<b><u>INTRODUCING FOREST "BAD" RESEARCH</u> </b><br />
<br />
Forest Research, along with the Forestry Commission, published its latest guess work over the population of wild boar in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
We know it is guess work because they say so themselves in their own conclusion!<br />
<br />
But this has not stopped them promoting a scientifically indefensible argument about numbers to gullible councillors and the public alike.<br />
<br />
In what appears to be science, Forest Research's latest attempt to support the Forestry Commission's urgent need to increase meat sales is one of sheer incompetence and blatant cronyism.<br />
<br />
Here is the link to download the <a href="http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/WildBoarDeerCensusDean2014.pdf/$FILE/WildBoarDeerCensusDean2014.pdf" target="_blank">Forest Research document</a> that alludes to a wild boar population of 819.<br />
<br />
Now, we will ignore the amateurish style of the document and its footer margin claiming these survey results are for 2013. These numbers are a result of transects made by rangers in vehicles between 17th February and 11th March 2014. The length of transect totalled 167.4km about an area of 66.4km2 (almost the entire Forest area).<br />
<br />
It is a series of line transects the rangers have used for many years, principally to calculate deer numbers but now expanded to include wild boar too.<br />
<br />
The transects start in the evening as darkness falls and take place every other night and continue for up to 8 hours per night over the period. The transect of 167.4km is a cumulative total made over various parts of the Forest during the 3 weeks. Each transect is passed over once.<br />
<br />
They use sensitive thermal cameras to detect the boar and deer and put the observations into a program called "Distance", using the methodology according to Buckland <i>et al</i> (Oxford University Press, 2001).<br />
<br />
<b><u>DISTANCE SAMPLING</u></b> <br />
<br />
This methodology is known as "Distance Sampling". It is a method requiring great skill by the observers, for not only MUST they record EVERY boar seen on a transect, they must also ACCURATELY calculate its distance and direction from the transect using laser technology or using marked distances on the ground. <br />
<br />
It is a statistical method of counting that alleviates any need to count every single boar in the Forest, but a REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE that can be scaled up to the size of the entire Forest.<br />
<br />
Of course, driving along even 167km of track does nowhere near allow visible checks on the entire Forest even IF the surveys were done in the daytime. So only a tiny (<<1%) fraction of the Forest is surveyed.<br />
<br />
But the thermal equipment employed does allow the ranger to see very clearly if an animal is detected by a bright glow in the viewfinder. Of course, the further away the boar is, the smaller is the glowing object becomes. This often proves impossible to determine the difference between species of animal (say deer and boar) at even moderate distance from the vehicle. Additionally, animals beyond just 10 metres usually means the animal is in tree cover and undergrowth adding to the difficulty.<br />
<br />
Indeed, the FC in 2011 argued that wild boar often hide in the bracken out of the view of their thermal cameras. These were the words of Ian Harvey in 2011 after that year's census found only 16 boar (scaled up to equal several hundred of course!)<br />
<br />
Distance Sampling is a technique that actually grants bias to more distant observations - the more boar seen at greater distances, the greater becomes the population result. Can we trust rangers to observe small glowing animals in a viewfinder correctly after travelling a tiring 8 hours through the night?<br />
<br />
According to Buckland (2001): "<i>Sloppiness in detecting objects near, and measuring their distance from, the line or point has been all too common [in previous research]..{and] proper design and field protocol have not received the attention deserved</i>."<br />
<br />
Buckland (2001) states categorically that animals must be detected with CERTAINTY. "<i>Its importance cannot be overemphasized.</i>" (Chapter 2)<br />
<br />
<u><b>OH DEAR, THE BAD RESEARCH GETS WORSE</b></u> <br />
<br />
This difficulty is the LEAST of Forest Research's problems (which they purposefully keep from you)!<br />
<br />
Even a quick read through <a href="http://www.ruwpa.st-and.ac.uk/distance.book/download.html" target="_blank">Buckland et al (2001)</a> soon highlights several major requirements for the sample size to be anywhere close to accurate (Chapter 7):<br />
<br />
1. A pilot study is required to calculate starting assumptions such as encounter rates, distance bias, average boar group size, ratio of group to lone boar, and so on.<br />
2. Transects must NOT be along roads or tracks were animals may prefer to travel at night.<br />
3. The animals must NOT MOVE when observed.<br />
4. The actual observed number MUST be greater than 60.<br />
5. The distribution and density of boar must be equally distributed throughout the entire areas of sampling.<br />
6. Locations of groups of boar must be plotted accurately using a mid-point of the group.<br />
7. Every boar on a transect MUST be seen and counted (no hiding in the bracken this time please).<br />
8. Distance to the animal must be calculated accurately. <br />
<br />
In all 8 requirements, Forest Research have either broken these rules or could not have complied with them.<br />
<br />
Here's just a few blatant errors.... <br />
<br />
No pilot study has been done nor published.<br />
<br />
Counting an individual more than once (including over successive nights
if used) obliterates the accuracy of the result, increasing the final
total. Well, well. Forest Research seem ignorant of basic boar behaviour! <br />
<br />
Using tracks or roads is junk science for boar counting. Some boar prefer roads and tracks to move at night as witnessed by verge diggings.<br />
<br />
Some boar will readily move towards an observer for a closer look or sniff. Boar moving closer reduces the final population figure. Many boar prefer to run, especially from a noisy ranger's vehicles (they are smelly and have association with guns) and therefore, will increase the population figure - and quite significantly too!<br />
<br />
The wild boar in the Forest of Dean are NOT distributed equally - and even the Forest research document shows you this by way of a plot and its words even says so! <br />
<br />
Average group numbers on any night cannot be averaged as this changes throughout the seasons. Assuming too high a group size, or numbers of groups (put at 41 in the report) will massively exaggerate the final total. In some calculations within the distance-sampling method, individuals are allowed to be counted as a group of a predetermined size - but this doesn't work for boar - every boar MUST be counted.<br />
<br />
Forest Research admit in their report to calculating distance to boar by assessing the size of the boar! OUTRAGEOUS!<br />
<br />
Even the dim-witted Dougal McGuire and Father Ted have learnt about the difference between baby pigs near to, and big fat pigs far away.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>CONCLUSION</u><br />
<br />
According to Forest Research's own document, it concludes by saying that "...<i>clustering of boar has the effect of reducing the precision of the estimated density in the forest as a whole</i>."<br />
<br />
Sadly the very next sentence compares this year's scientific abomination to their 2013 guesswork for some form of mutual corroboration.<br />
<br />
"<i>The 2013 <u>estimate</u> is within 95% confidence limits obtained from the 2014 survey, indicating that it is plausible (although still unlikely) there has been no change in numbers AT ALL</i>."<br />
<br />
This last sentence regarding 2013 is both pseudo-scientific and intentionally misleading. 2013 was not a pilot study nor was it calculated using distance-sampling.<br />
<br />
<u><i><b>COUNCILLORS BEWARE</b></i> </u><br />
<br />
The Forestry Commission are increasingly relying on the gullibility and scientific ignorance of local councillors to support an unnecessary cull. The FC no longer care what the public think, they want the councillors to decide.<br />
<br />
The descent from science into the employment of "Localism" as a weapon against the boar is far too transparent a tactic for us to be conned. This is the government treating us like idiots folks. Infiltration into committees by government stooges to win debates is nothing short of "behavioural adjustment by propaganda" -something that 1930s Germany also sleepwalked into.<br />
<br />
Given that many requirements for distance-sampling could NOT have been met, and hence easily leading to vastly over-estimated numbers, the last sentence of Forest research's propaganda document should have stated (if there is any scientific integrity within Forest Research)..<br />
<br />
<i><b>Wild Boar numbers in the Forest of Dean cannot be calculated accurately using the method Forest Research have chosen, and boar numbers may have increased, stayed the same, or decreased compared to our previous guess based primarily upon a need to generate meat sales and roadside diggings.</b></i><br />
<br />
Buckland would not be impressed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-36490363274511594362014-10-30T22:49:00.003+00:002014-10-31T13:31:13.216+00:00TEN YEARS OF POPULATION TRENDS<br />
<br />
We have been silent for 18 months.<br />
<br />
We decided to stand back and observe, and let other groups try to get the message of boar conservation across here in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
We have busied ourselves with repairing gardens and showing people the boar.<br />
<br />
Nothing changes.<br />
<br />
The FC keep upping boar numbers and cull targets, the press spread more hatred and fear, the councillors get duped by all of it.<br />
<br />
Yet what we are told in the press never seems to agree with what we see in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
Here we will outline boar population dynamics again, because this appears to be gaining more momentum than ever since the FC published some outrageously deceptive figures from their so-called boar "census" of 2014 (more of which in the next post).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The Forestry Commission (FC) has proved time and again that it has a unique take on wild boar population dynamics - often claiming a need to kill 80% yearly just to "stand still".<br />
<br />
This year's population figure of 819 and rising is brought once again to us by the FC who really hope no-one notices their deception and crass methodology.<br />
<br />
Moreover, in attempts to propagandise the boar and create fear, the <b>FC wildlife "manager"</b> at Bank House in Coleford, Ian Harvey, is known to compare wild boar with rodents:<br />
<br />
"....<i>biologists have noted that boar are the only large ungulate in the world with the population dynamic of rodents</i>."<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
BBC Wildlife March 2013 </div>
<br />
<u>OH RATS!</u><br />
<br />
Animal population dynamics is complex, and elasticity is needed to account for variables such as food resources, loss of shelter, climate, predators and how each of these factors may biasedly affect the various ages of the boar (e.g. old versus young), etc. <br />
<br />
Some of the above variables are strongly limiting factors to population of boar (we have written about these previously), and for these reasons alone many animal populations do not keep increasing <i>ad infinitum</i> nor do they do so predictably.<br />
<br />
And it is for these reasons why many rodents are actually endangered..... <br />
- Short-tailed Chinchilla, Prarie Dog, Jerboa, Mountain Beaver, to name a few? <br />
<br />
In fact 16% of the world's rodents are endangered.<br />
<br />
So using the phrase "population dynamic of rodents" to suggest a rapidly increasing population is blatant propaganda aimed only at your irrational fear, and would NEVER be used by a biologist.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>NAIVE DYNAMICS</u><br />
<br />
The FC's continual insistence of using childish propaganda and simplistic pseudoscience with a year-on-year multiplication of a boar population just doesn't hold true for wild boar in the Forest of Dean nor anywhere else in the UK or the world where boar are not farmed.<br />
<br />
Sadly the FC and a few vocal groups and individuals, including some councillors, present pseudoscience to their cult followers in order to satisfy an agenda. This agenda promotes the fear of wild animals, a mythological belief of the dangers of overpopulation, or anger at allowing animals to make a mess of the countryside as much as we do.<br />
<br />
The ultimate reason is to make money and enjoy blood-sports, with the lesser ranking cult leaders actually believing the myths from the cult elders, the FC and those wishing to set up shooting companies.<br />
<br />
The cult members are misguided by the deception and naively repeat it often, until the myth becomes a fact in their minds,<br />
<br />
"<i>My arguments were based on an increasing population; the invasion of gardens, sports facilities and farms, and road traffic accidents</i>."<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
Councillor Pugh, Review 31/10/2014</div>
<br />
Facts: Population may be decreasing, gardens rarely get invaded, unprotected football fields have been nibbled a couple of times, and RTAs are low, much lower than sheep and deer. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>DANGEROUS CALCULATIONS</u><br />
<br />
Recently we learn that wild boar in Sussex and Kent may be on the verge of eradication. Presumptive high reproduction rates and cull figures based upon breeding mythology is dangerous for boar welfare and survival.<br />
<br />
Now, even the hunters are questioning the maths.<br />
<br />
The problem is, the cults ignore the <u>lack of evidence</u> for exponential population growth in the Forest of Dean, going back to the now infamous boar release of November 2004.<br />
<br />
We need a more educated viewpoint, and in the absence of any real science being done by the FC, Friends of the Boar, who have intimate first-hand experience of how the boar have populated the Forest of Dean can offer at least some intelligent reasoning.. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>THE BEER-MAT NUMBERS</u><br />
<br />
Let's consider what those like the FC who claim a doubling (2-fold) to trebling (3-fold) of boar number each year are actually saying:<br />
<br />
Firstly, doubling or trebling MUST account for a certain natural mortality.<br />
<br />
A no death scenario would increase the population by a factor of 4 each year (quadrupling), assuming normal piglet litters of 6:<br />
<br />
Year 1: 1 male + 1 female = 6 piglets + 2 original boar = 8<br />
Year 2: 4 male + 4 female = 24 piglets + 8 original boar = 32<br />
Year 3: 16 male + 16 female = 96 piglets + 32 original boar = 128<br />
Year 10: = 2,097,192<br />
<br />
So even with a starting population of just 2 boars, we get terrific increases in numbers within 10 years if no deaths occurred (and individual boar do live for more than 10 years!).<br />
<br />
Starting with a population of a single male and female, and double to treble them each year for 10 years (between the original release in Nov 2004 until Nov 2014), then by 2014 there <i>would have been</i> <u><b>between 2,048 (doubling) and 119,000 (trebling) wild boar living in the Forest of Dean if no hunting</b> ever took place</u>.<br />
<br />
Firstly we see a huge difference as to which factor we use to increase the yearly total, so we need to be more precise.<br />
<br />
We also get the image of fast breeding boars whichever above factor we use - even a doubling of numbers would result in the Forest of Dean becoming "over-run" if we were to do nothing. <br />
<br />
But death's do occur, either from natural processes, or at the hands of man.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>LET'S GET REAL AND STOP THIS SCAREMONGERING</u><br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>Let's look at a real example of what really happened to boar numbers to prove this paper game is dangerous.</u></b><br />
<br />
Nobody ever expands on the fact that <span style="color: red;"><u><b>no hunting occurred until March 2008</b></u></span> meaning <b>that for over 3 years</b>
after the infamous release here in the Dean in 2004 (of 60 animals
according to the FC in their management plan of 2011), <b>no significant number of boars were killed by man</b>.<br />
<br />
Boar
were very hard to see between 2004 and 2008. We know that poachers were not successful,
and farmers were the only ones shooting on the periphery of the Forest.<br />
<br />
<b>But in 2008, the FC wished to hunt. Residents were not making enough noise against the boar, despite efforts by the FC and other early cult leaders worrying the public about children being killed, giant hogzillas roaming the forest, and unprovoked aggression towards dogs.</b><br />
<br />
<b>A figure of 90 boar was notified to the Council by the FC at a liaison
meeting to determine a sustainable target population. They all agreed that this target was the population at that time</b> - i.e. no more boar allowed than already present, as 90 seemed an acceptable number to keep.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>The cults, which include the FC at Bank House in Coleford, need to explain
how you start with 60 animals, and end up with 90 after 3</b></span><span style="color: red;"><b>½ years. No boar were killed within the Forest of Dean in this time. </b></span><br />
<br />
This was the "real" world in 2008 and not some paper exercise!<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE RODENTS</u><br />
<br />
<br />
So we have a problem with the rodents. Surely after 3½ years of no culling, <b><u>the cultists
who promote a doubling to trebling of wild boar per year should be quoting a population
of 700-3,000 wild boar in the Forest of Dean in 2008</u></b>.<br />
<br />
3,000 boars down to 90 in real life....<br />
<br />
Where did the extra boar go? Maybe they were secretly led off by the Pied Pipers of the FC?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>IF BOAR CAN ESCAPE, WHY WOULD THEY EVER OVER-POPULATE THE FOREST?</u><br />
<br />
Here's an issue the FC and other cult leaders never point out when they say things like "the boar have no natural predators, they need murdering, erm... managing", or "boar numbers increase like rodents". <br />
<br />
The Forest of Dean is a natural and open system and wild boars are at liberty to leave when things get crowded or food and shelter begins to dwindle. <br />
<br />
Yes, boars leave each year ending up on farmland and then a burger with onions. Boar know the Forest can only sustain a few of them (3-4 per square kilometre), and each Autumn the ones sent packing from the sounders emigrate. Once at capacity, the density of boar does not and will not increase unless we do two things:<br />
<br />
Fence the animals in, and artificially feed them in order to increase their individual fitness and lessen piglet mortality. <br />
<br />
They leave in parties of 10 to 40 each Autumn-Winter, maybe three or four parties a year, but certainly they do not leave in the thousands as imagined by newspaper editors and boar-haters. Wouldn't
that be a sight! No need to watch wildebeest, come to the Forest of
Dean for the Earth's greatest migration of land mammals!<br />
<br />
The number that actually leave annually account for about 20% of the population, or the number the Forest cannot sustain naturally.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>TWEAKING TO FIT THE FACTS</u><br />
<br />
<br />
Can we find a population equation that is more realistic?<br />
<br />
What we need to know is the percentage of breeding females, the death rate of piglets, and the percentage of boar being killed plus those leaving the Forest.<br />
<br />
The first two factors are quite easy.<br />
<br />
From our long experience of boar, whenever you see a sounder (group) of
boars, it's common to see that ~15-20% are breeding females. Typically,
a sounder is something like 4 sows to 20 piglets + immatures + subordinate sows. <br />
<br />
Since females are rare outside of sounders and about 5-10% of the boar population are single males or bachelor groups, the population fraction for breeding sows is 10-15% of the overall number of boar.<br />
<br />
Those 20 piglets soon die off to 10, often within a month of birth, by <u>natural predation</u>. A loss of 50%, something we have observed every year for a decade.<br />
<br />
Natural predation may take the form of parasites, bacterial infections, hunger, cold or death by other boar. <br />
<br />
The loss factor is the biggest unknown and is likely to be variable each year - the percentage loss of boar emigrating out of the Forest or by man-made death such as traffic accidents, poaching and killing by the FC.<br />
<br />
We believe that figure to be about 20%, as already stated. <br />
<br />
But actually, given that the percentage of breeding sows and piglet death is fairly well known and doesn't vary by much (lest you disagree), the natural loss factor can be estimated from pre-2008 figures and extrapolated thereon to indicate if any boar at all need culling.<br />
<br />
Using observed piglet
loss of 50% of a 6 piglet litter each year (the mean and mode of a piglet litter) and 15% of the population are breeding sows, we arrive at a more
plausible population dynamic that would get us from 60 boars in
2004 to 117 boars in 2008 with no losses.<br />
<br />
Reducing that 117 by <b>20% </b>gives us a figure of 94 for 2007 - a figure the FC agree with before the culling began in March 2008.<br />
<br />
Starting with 60 boars, here's how the population grows using the above figures:<br />
end 2004 = 60 boar (60)<br />
end 2005 = 70 boar<br />
end 2006 = 80 boar<br />
end 2007 = 94 boar (90)<br />
end 2008 = 109 boar (135)<br />
end 2009 = 126 boar (150)<br />
end 2010 = 146 boar (250)<br />
end 2011 = 170 boar (350)<br />
end 2012 = 197 boar (515)<br />
end 2013 = 228 boar (819)<br />
end 2014 = 265 boar<br />
<br />
Figures in brackets are those estimated by the FC.<br />
<br />
A 20% loss of the population would actually match nicely to many other observations, such as numbers seen within a group leaving the Forest, claims made to us by poachers and hunters, and road traffic statistics. <br />
<br />
Working Equation is:<br />
α1 = 0.8(0.45α + α) where α= original population<br />
α2 = 0.8(0.45α1 + α1)<br />
α3 = 0.8(0.45α2 + α2)<br />
<br />
This calculation makes a 16% yearly increase of boar.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><u>Here we have at least an observation matching a plausible theory!</u> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>WHAT ABOUT BAD YEARS?</u><br />
<br />
<br />
Changing the factors just slightly reveals one interesting scenario:<br />
<br />
If piglet deaths rise slightly from 50% to a not implausible 59% in one year (or 2.46 out of 6 piglets survive) and only 10% of the entire population are breeding sows, then with the 20% net reduction for emigration and other losses, <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">We get a STATIC population!</span></u></b></div>
<br />
<br />
No need to cull - the population remains the same due to loss by emigration, natural deaths and deaths on the road.<br />
<br />
We believe this happens once the maximum population density is reached at 3 or 4 boar per square kilometre.<br />
<br />
In the early days, the boar population was continuing to rise at 16% in order to populate the entire Forest. If they had been left alone without the hunting, the birth rate would have slowly fallen and/or the loss rate increased.<br />
<br />
<u>Equilibrium may have been occurring about now, in 2014</u> with 265 boar living in the Forest (available forest area = 70 sqaure km), with about 60 leaving each year.<br />
<br />
The reduction in birth rate has been observed. We did observe a huge reduction in sows with piglets during the snowy winters of 2011 and 2012, either because sow fertility reduced or most of the piglets died. Was it due to the weather, or due to the forest ecosystem being full? Did the population within the Forest start to stabilise or reduce? We think so.<br />
<br />
But caution, when we have 2 or 3 variable non-independent coefficients in an iterative equation, the sensitivity of the result can be easily way off-course when just one of the variables is wrong.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>SO WHAT HAPPENED AFTER 2009?</u><br />
<br />
From our population growth above, 2009-2010 showed a significant change between predicted and observed, and more so if we use the FC estimates for those years.<br />
<br />
The population became suddenly perturbed towards higher numbers with lower ages.<br />
<br />
This neatly coincided with the start of culling by the FC.<br />
<br />
As we have repeatedly claimed, from around 2010, the population of boar became skewed towards younger and younger boar due to adults being shot and compensatory rebound giving rise to more piglets (see earlier posts for explanation).<br />
<br />
Due to propaganda by the FC that boar numbers were increasing rapidly above the agreed 90 in 2008, mismanagement of the boar began in earnest.<br />
<br />
Zealously the rangers began shooting every boar they saw in private, either for personal pleasure (at least for one ranger in our opinion) or to generate "meat sales" income for the FC at Bank House.<br />
<br />
This is the hunters dream and why large parts of Germany and Europe have boar problems. Indeed, the FC took advice from German hunters in the early days and still do today - advice of how to increase meat-sales and shooting revenue!<br />
<br />
<b><u>You need to be VERY careful when listening to the rodent-folk so you are not being duped.</u></b><br />
<br />
From 2010 onwards, the natural system became distorted by hunting, with tame boars and piglets showing up due to orphaning of piglets before their mothers could teach them to run away from us.<br />
<br />
Sadly, no-one heeded our caution about over-zealous hunting, and the rapid cull of 100 boars in late 2012 (the FC applauded themselves) disrupted the balance once again. The FC's German advisers must have been thrilled.<br />
<br />
Calls to drastically cull reappeared that Autumn as the boar ran from the Forest and onto the verges again, much to the delight of the local press.<br />
<br />
This has been the pattern for the last few years. Inflated population estimates, and now the easily fudged pseudoscience of distance-sampling is rearing its ugly head (see the next post). <br />
<br />
Madness.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>THINGS STILL NOT CONSIDERED</u><br />
<br />
So statistics need to be based upon observation and not on crude paper exercises to support the removal of boars.<br />
<br />
What we need is to stop the hunting within the Forest. Allow the natural balance to be restored back towards a density of 3-4 boar per square kilometre. We need baseline monitoring - as suggested by us in 2011 at the boar scrutiny meeting, but it was ignored.<br />
<br />
With 264 boar in the Forest, is this what the public can tolerate? What is the Cultural Carrying Capacity of the boar? No-one knows because the FC constantly propagandise and lie about population figures as well as disturb the natural boar behaviour. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>WE KEEP TRYING TO GET THIS MESSAGE ACROSS</u><br />
<br />
We have proposed on many occasions, that all of the killing of wild boar could be achieved by farmers as compensation for damages. In a well managed system, this could amount to as little as 50 boar per year, but is dependent upon the other environmental variables noted above.<br />
<br />
Let's not cull to fulfil meat contracts and revenue anymore....<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>CONCLUSION</u><br />
<br />
Rodents need Friends too!<br />
<br />
Rats and boar may have high birth rates compared to some mammals like deer or sheep.<br />
<br />
But animals with high birth rates do so because their death rate is high, not because they want to starve themselves or destroy their own environment.<br />
<br />
Animals do not like overcrowding and there are controls within their own natural dynamics to help.<br />
<br />
The boar, having been re-inroduced without proper scientific scrutiny, is a concern for all and what is needed is calm and rational behaviour.<br />
<br />
Birth-to-Loss ratios vary. In an empty forest, population rate of boar is about 16% higher than loss.<br />
<br />
As the forest fills, the Birth-to-Loss ratio reduces.<br />
<br />
In a full forest, loss rate equals that of birth rate.<br />
<br />
In an overpopulated forest, loss rate becomes higher than birth rate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>We believe Nature finds the balance with minimal to no help from mankind. </b><br />
<br />
<b>Yes, some species of wildlife may presently be overpopulated or underpopulated in Britain, but is it due to hunting and/or the long absence of boar....and wolf, lynx, elk, auroch, marten.....? </b><br />
<br />
<b>Ecologically, things are also currently unbalanced within our heavily managed forest here in the Dean, constantly cleared for profit and rotated for re-planting.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Old-fashioned conservation ideas also are no longer useful, proving to be ineffectual. We cannot play off one animal against another. Is a boar worth 2 adders or 200 ? How many frogs for a boar? Should the boar leave the frogs for the snakes to eat! How many goshawk are allowed to eat adders and slow-worms - or should we cull these endangered animals too? How about bringing back wolves to eat the boar? Then tackle other newt and frog eaters like hedgehog, heron, otter, fish? And when boar become endangered maybe the badgers can be blamed for everything - they're used to it! </b><br />
<br />
<b>Remember, the most unbalancing and dangerous ecological force is man himself and his folly to play God.</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<u>THE FUTURE</u><br />
<br />
We see the introduction of wild boar to The Forest of Dean as a restoration of a damaged ecosystem and also a test. Can humans live with creatures like these?<br />
<br />
We believe there is a requirement for extroverted long-term thinking, not introverted and short-term vanity conservation or blood-sports. If one species begins to truly suffer due to the wild boar, then yes, something must be done, but it needs evidence rather than a pre-emptive strike.<br />
<br />
The resumption of heavy culling of boar will make even more boar next year.<br />
<br />
It will also hinder our knowledge of boar, their population dynamics, and their ecological relationship with this habitat and its animals including, of course, Man.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-43543520586338707232013-04-11T14:57:00.001+01:002013-04-11T15:24:08.588+01:00CALL FOR INCREASED CULL OF WILD BOARJust as we were all relaxing after the last cull, the usual suspects are calling for an increase in cull numbers of boar.<br />
<br />
After a successful year-long period of no hunting between September 2011 to September 2012, the Forestry Commission decided to vetoe the Boar Scrutiny Meeting's findings and went all-out to secure a bag of 100 boar for themselves. This has been outlined previously, but in essence the Forestry Commission came to an agreement with Friends of the Boar, Martin Goulding and the Verderer Ian Standing to continue the closed season until a new census had been undertaken.<br />
<br />
It was remarked at that meeting that over the year long peace, boar sightings were down, as were complaints and even the boar diggings. Waiting a few more months for a better census to be undertaken seemed appropriate.<br />
<br />
But the day after the meeting, the Forestry Commission went ahead with a cull of 100 animals between September 2012 and January 2013 with no such census.<br />
<br />
We had just witnessed a very peaceful forest with little diggings from the boar. On exactly the 1st September 2012, hunting began and boar instantaneously came back into villages and began to dig at the roadside verges again. This is precisely what Friends of the Boar had predicted would happen and we were right. it is now a pattern of behaviour that we cannot ignore.<br />
<br />
We warned of more problems if another cull were to take place, and of course it did. From September 2012 until early March 2013, roadside diggings and digging at picnic sites resumed. The Forestry Commission killed 78 boar plus another 25 boar killed by other non-speciefied means in the space of 5 months. If our estimates of population were correct this amounted to a 50% loss of boar. <br />
<br />
The spectre of population rebound may still be felt if it were not for a huge toll on piglets over this harsh winter, with many sows losing all their litter or presumably aborting due to the lack of nutrition available this winter (due to both recent cold and a poor acorn / nut harvest in the Autumn)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qg_xfvXVmLw/UWbG7RvAlaI/AAAAAAAAAME/WiZa-Fn0Mds/s1600/Wild+Boar+195+group+snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" bua="true" height="216" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qg_xfvXVmLw/UWbG7RvAlaI/AAAAAAAAAME/WiZa-Fn0Mds/s400/Wild+Boar+195+group+snow.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The prolonged cold spell plus the diminishing extent of suitable shelter due to tree felling has resulted in many sows losing theor piglets or aborting them.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="center">
</div>
<br />
The culling halted in January 2013. What happened next was a repeat of the aftermath of the last cull. Diggings at roadsides continued for 2 months and then stopped. It is now difficult to see a boar or new roadside / village diggings.<br />
<br />
What is so frustrating in our fight to stop the needless and unscientific culling is the severe lack of knowledge about the boar. This lack of knowledge underpins the calls for culling based upon nothing other than opinions about road diggings.<br />
<br />
Here is some facts about road diggings.<br />
<br />
It takes only 1 adult boar to dig up many square metres of soil in one night. If the digging is along a road a single boar may have dug along 5 miles or more of verge, possibly more. If this happens in the winter months when the grass is not growing, the exposed soil remains for maybe 4 or 5 months. The nightly addition of diggings over the winter months can result in what seems to be total destruction of some road verges. The fact is that this digging could be the reselt of very few boar.<br />
<br />
By the end of the winter after many frosts and much rainfall, the diggings have slumped into small mounds and eventually the grass will begin to grow back through. In the next month or so, by late April or May, the roadside will once again be verdant with new grass growth and hopefully new flowers hitherto dormant in the compacted and neglected roadsides and woodland rides.<br />
<br />
Ignorance is the greatest weapon against the boar. The Forestry Commission are actively promoting press attention at the moment here, reeling off their usual mantra of populations doubling (it used to be a trebling) and an inflated population estimate of 600 boar or more, based upon no evidence whatsoever.<br />
<br />
Yes, the Forestry Commission undertook a secret night census recently (March 2013), claiming to find 30 boar in one night. Friends of the Boar did the same, in the very same area, and found just 7 boar. That is, 7 boar in an area of 2 square kilometres. This area is known to be a hot spot for boar due to its quality of shelter for the boar. What we are confident of is that we did not count the same boar more than once! It was undertaken during the time that many sows were having piglets and so this figure is a maximum and not some average. <br />
<br />
Maybe by extrapolation, the Forestry Commission are happy to decieve the public once again by stating half-truths about doubling numbers, but we are not.<br />
<br />
There is no need for a cull. There is no evidence of booming numbers and no evidence the boar are affecting other animals. We will provide this proof when appropriate.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iem9xI7A0aI/UWbG70UAUCI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/HSy4it7xdww/s1600/Wild+Boar+198+sow+snow+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" bua="true" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iem9xI7A0aI/UWbG70UAUCI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/HSy4it7xdww/s400/Wild+Boar+198+sow+snow+crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sow having a scratch in the snow, March 2013. This mature sow had no signs of having had piglets.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="center">
</div>
<br />
As an aside, it was amusing to read in a local rag today (11th April 2013) that many people are in support of an increase boar cull because of the mess the boar make. In the same issue was a story of a lady having to be rescued by the Fire Service after she became stuck up to her thighs in the mud left behind by Forestry Commission operations! How so very true. The Forest of Dean is currently in a digraceful state thanks to tree felling - and from what we can see this is NOT felling to combat Ash dieback or Larch infection, but felling of healthy oak and spruce.<br />
<br />
There is an urgent need to highlight the hypocrisy.<br />
<br />
DJSFriends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-59064839888960570762013-03-15T21:59:00.003+00:002013-03-15T23:27:29.283+00:00WILD BOAR LIKE FROGS!<br />
It's been 9 years since a (still) unknown person released approximately 60 wild boar into the Forest of Dean in November 2004.<br />
<br />
Over these years, both professional and amateur conservationists have speculated upon the potential problems that wild boar may create with regards a few species of animal and plant.<br />
<br />
First was the worry about wild boar digging up bluebells here in the Forest of Dean, a location that shows off an amazing spectacle of these endangered plants each year in May. But as always, it isn't just the experts that speculate, because as soon as a potential problem is mooted in the local press or on an equally ill-informed social networking forum, the public who do not like the boar are quick to condemn.<br />
<br />
Friends of the Boar would like to assure its followers that we do not jump to any conclusions without first considering facts and published scientific evidence. In the case of bluebells, what seemed a plausible concern, after 9 years of close observation, we can conclude that bluebells are not under any threat at all. In fact recent research in 2011 by Defra confirmed that wild boar do not threaten the bluebells (Harmer, Straw and Williams, Royal Forestry Society Quarterly Journal of Forestry, July 2011).<br />
<br />
And then we have had some concerns from Butterfly Conservation regarding wild boar digging up larval food plants of several species of butterfly, the most prominent of which are wood white and grizzled skipper.<br />
<br />
But Friends of the Boar are not complacent in this research either, and we have spoken to a few branches of Butterfly Conservation that have both these butterfly species and wild boar on their reserves. To date, it would seem that wild boar have had no detrimental influence on these butterfly species, but may in fact be enhancing the populations. The Sussex branch of Butterfly Conservation have been in contact and they say that they have been holding both Wild Boar and Grizzled Skipper walks in a local woodland for some years now, and there has been no noticeable affect upon the butterflies. Our local Gloucestershire group also say that although research is ongoing, to date no evidence is forthcoming on the detrimental impact of wild boar upon butterfly populations.<br />
<br />
Sadly, here in the Forest of Dean we are now hearing from a new group of amateur reptile and amphibian recorders from GlosARG who are calling for a "management" (a.k.a. cull) of wild boar on the grounds that the boar destroy amphibian and reptile habitats, and more astonishingly, they claim that the eating of frogs, snakes and lizards by wild boar will endanger them! Any good biologist would call this the food chain.<br />
<br />
We have asked the founders of this local amphibian and reptile group for the evidence of how boar are detrimentally affecting herpetile numbers, but they have responded with simple quotes from "authorities" such as Wikipedia that boar eat frogs, etc. and adders need help!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yLkpw3LjeGQ/UUOpItwpSYI/AAAAAAAAALw/VRxl-A01oco/s1600/Common-Frog-04-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" psa="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yLkpw3LjeGQ/UUOpItwpSYI/AAAAAAAAALw/VRxl-A01oco/s320/Common-Frog-04-cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frogs breed prodigously and amourously because they are predated.<br />
As a general rule, the more offspring an animal has is a response to the harshness of it's environment.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="center">
<br /></div>
For snakes such as the declining adder, they are claiming it is prudent to cull boar in such a way that achieves some notion of "balance" within nature. What and who decides this balance isn't proposed, but there is an assumption that the claimant is happy to play God in formulating such a "balance".<br />
<br />
We feel that playing God by any individual is not the correct way forwards.<br />
<br />
There is actually a scientific paper that addresses predation of American herpetiles by boars (D. B. Jolley 2010 et al., Journal of Mammalology, 91(2):pp519-524). It studied the stomach content of feral American boar and showed that boar do indeed eat lots of frogs (spade frogs) with less than 10% of the boars' herpetile consumption being anoles (non-venomous tree snakes) and other herpetiles. Anecdotal evidence suggest that boar sometimes "hunt" spade frogs emerging from winter burrows. Maybe true?<br />
<br />
But we are concerned with UK boars and how they inter-relate with other animals here in the UK.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, there is now another voice with an emotive and unscientific judgement call to cull the boar. They believe in pre-emptive strikes upon boars and attaining some mythical "balance" between species is called for, and they are promoting this vague viewpoint to the local press and other wildlife enthusiasts (all part of their publicity campaign).<br />
<br />
Little do they seem to recognise that a multitude of other predators also eat frogs, reptiles and snakes, including some endangered raptors such as Goshawk. Furthermore, the complications rise (with artificial management) when one considers that snakes eat frogs too, not to mention other endangered species such as water voles.<br />
<br />
What is never highlighted in such predation studies (including even boar predation by wolves) is the obvious fact that stomach contents can be derived from scavenged animals too - the frogs were already dead when eaten! No good scientist utilising "stomach" evidence of a predator or omnivore will ever claim it proves predation of living animals! When did you last eat a live cow or live sheep - but your stomach may well have a lamb chop or steak digesting within!<br />
<br />
Friends of the Boar have witnessed many times newts and frogs thriving in woodland puddles and even wild boar wallows! Many amphibian species can walk many hundreds of metres in search of new habitat.<br />
<br />
Below are photographs of such a boar wallow with frog spawn.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dQLnkI_3dw0/UUNrv6pSRSI/AAAAAAAAALE/RF-qFE0VojE/s1600/Wild+Boar+wallow+with+Frog+Spawn+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" psa="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dQLnkI_3dw0/UUNrv6pSRSI/AAAAAAAAALE/RF-qFE0VojE/s320/Wild+Boar+wallow+with+Frog+Spawn+01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bS6u5LXEJAQ/UUNruHFzznI/AAAAAAAAAK8/LjTGdlq1sCE/s1600/Wild+Boar+wallow+with+Frog+Spawn+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" psa="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bS6u5LXEJAQ/UUNruHFzznI/AAAAAAAAAK8/LjTGdlq1sCE/s320/Wild+Boar+wallow+with+Frog+Spawn+02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FHyuwWHth8Y/UUNrrufpHoI/AAAAAAAAAK0/1YjSeRUTZC0/s1600/Wild+Boar+wallow+with+Frog+Spawn+03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" psa="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FHyuwWHth8Y/UUNrrufpHoI/AAAAAAAAAK0/1YjSeRUTZC0/s320/Wild+Boar+wallow+with+Frog+Spawn+03.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frog spawn in a wild boar wallow, March 2013.<br />
Wild Boar are engineers of biodiversity and ecological balance.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
A wild boar had wallowed in this puddle in the last few hours, with some spawn splashed outside the wallow. We observed that the boar had not eaten all the spawn, if any. There was no other pond or water body for maybe 1 mile away. </div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
In conclusion, wild boar may very well eat newts, frogs or snakes but does that make those populations threatened? Are they eating dead herpetiles in preference to live ones? Evidence is required before any claim to cull the boars even if the self-styled Utopian vision is a "balance" for nature. We need quantitative evidence that includes reptile populations pre- and post- boar arrivals and qualitative evidence that boar take significant live animals or adversely affect habitats. We don't believe this evidence exists yet.</div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
Perversely, however, the wild boar can be <strong><u>proven</u></strong> to create entirely new habitats (a pond or even just muddy ground) for some herpetile populations to thrive, in this case the common frogs' survival and dispersal. </div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
Can the boar also achieve some redress to any species population currently overpopulating an environment, given that boar and many other predators have been absent for hundreds of years? </div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
How difficult is it to propose that soil mootings of boar create dark patches of warm dark earth exposing invertebrate food sources for herpetiles and also help to warm snakes before a hunt? Has anyone out there any evidence of this?</div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
David J Slater</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-72211637235143002802013-03-09T15:21:00.002+00:002013-03-09T15:27:05.754+00:00TURF TEAM - Still in Operation!<br />
Friends of the Boar have been out and about over the last 4 months actually meeting with real people who have requested help with boar damage to their gardens.<br />
<br />
<br />
We now have a team of about 12 people who will happily visit you if you have a problem with the boar, and we will talk to you about how to possibly prevent a recurrence.<br />
<br />
<br />
Obviously, we will listen to people's views about the boar and respect them. Not everyone's cup of tea to have boar outside your house, but we have found that a reassurance on the unlikeliness of any aggression from the boar is welcoming.<br />
<br />
<br />
Our list of people helped include several individuals, but also Drybrook Rugby Club, The Rising Sun public house in Moseley Green, and Joy's Green Parish Council.<br />
<br />
<br />
Allied to this, we have given talks on the subject in the efforts to spread real information and talk about our experiences when out looking or photographing the boar. <br />
<br />
<br />
We really want to meet people out there rather then just communicate in hyperspace!<br />
<br />
<br />
We have had some offers of support and we hope to get some community involvement soon too in helping us repair damage.<br />
<br />
<br />
If there are any groups out there who would like to participate in helping repair damage to gardens, meet us, and in the process do a little conservation help for the boar please let us know. It's really not that difficult to repair the grass.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here are a few photos of projects to date:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PqLRCxPF7Fs/UTtRx8VRWsI/AAAAAAAAAKk/nKJk9OopCtU/s1600/Wild+Boar+194+garden+damage+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" jsa="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PqLRCxPF7Fs/UTtRx8VRWsI/AAAAAAAAAKk/nKJk9OopCtU/s320/Wild+Boar+194+garden+damage+small.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Private garden in Pillowell Village, repaired and assistance with boar security.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZTdswcIC_c/UTtRryoXLKI/AAAAAAAAAKU/6qRN9PYn_uA/s1600/Drybrook+Rugby+Club+repair+after+02+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="269" jsa="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZTdswcIC_c/UTtRryoXLKI/AAAAAAAAAKU/6qRN9PYn_uA/s320/Drybrook+Rugby+Club+repair+after+02+small.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drybrook Rugby Club, grass banks and roadside repairs.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vw_m6fgLR6s/UTtRvAJYOhI/AAAAAAAAAKg/pkvfHLtZDGA/s1600/Turf+Team+repairs+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" jsa="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vw_m6fgLR6s/UTtRvAJYOhI/AAAAAAAAAKg/pkvfHLtZDGA/s320/Turf+Team+repairs+01.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Private garden near brierley in middle of forest. Paths and repairs to garden.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
PLEASE NOTE - we have been told by a Highways spokesman that we cannot repair roadsides even if we wanted to, so sorry about that. And before you ask us to repair picnic sites or any other bit of public forest estate, please understand that this is just not feasible for such a small group of volunteers, but we will always try our best. Our focus is on private gardens for the time being.<br />
<br />
Thanks for your support in advance,<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-5111396936898869622013-03-05T17:37:00.000+00:002013-03-05T21:50:15.753+00:00Respected Viewpoint - and a note on population dynamics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Timely! This month's BBC Wildlife magazine (March 2013 vol 31/3) features an interesting article on the Cull Debate for several UK species of animal. Included in the piece is a section on wild boar that we feel you may be interested. Friends of the Boar were interviewed.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OCeIU4KHWm0/UTZlIMM8NAI/AAAAAAAAAI8/P_VwS6H3czY/s1600/BBC+Wildlife+Culling+march+2013cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" jsa="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OCeIU4KHWm0/UTZlIMM8NAI/AAAAAAAAAI8/P_VwS6H3czY/s320/BBC+Wildlife+Culling+march+2013cover.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE March 2013<br />
Click to enlarge</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Here's the relevant boar text:</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
"At least cormorants have the RSPB to fight their corner. In any discussion of culling, it's noticeable that birds have more friends than mammals. The wild boar of the Forest of Dean, for instance, have just a few die hard activists, in the shape of Friends of the Boar, campaigning to stop an ongoing cull.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
The differences between this issue and the cormorant one is striking. Though views about how to deal with cormorants may be polarised, there is at least agreement about the impact they're having. In contrast, nobody can even agree what status the wild boar has in Britain.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Historically, the wild boar was native, bit it had probably died out here by the end of the 13th century. The animals that have recolonised areas such as the Forest of Dean escaped, or were let loose, from game farms, and are described as "feral" by some (but not all) scientists. So are today's boar native or non-native? Wild or feral?</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Then there are disagreements over boar numbers. The Forestry Commission says there are more than 600 in the forest of Dean; it wanted to reduce that number to 400. Friends of the Boar says there are only 100-200 animals: quite a difference.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
There's also the issue of what impact boar have. When they first recolonised, botanists voiced concerns that Britain might lose its bluebell woods. According to David Slater of Friends of the Boar, this has not been the case.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
"Boar dig up grassy amenity areas, picnic spots and gardens," he tells me, "but not only are they good for forest ecology, they provide wildlife watching and photographic opportunities. The Forest of Dean sorely needs sources of revenue like this."</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
But there are other issues to consider, not least the impact of boar on agriculture. Ian Harvey, the Forestry Commission's wildlife manager in the Forest of Dean, says that one farmer lost £20,000 over 3 years through boar raiding his wheat field. What the government and farmers fear most, however, is the transmission to pigs of diseases such as classical swine fever.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Since the Forestry Commission began shooting boar in 2008, the cull target has risen steadily - from 30 in the first year to more than 150 in the fourth - in response to the target species' perceived population increase. "The problem," Harvey says, "is that wild boar numbers can increase very sharply over a short timescale."</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
"Indeed," he adds, "biologists have noted that boar are the only large ungulate in the world with the population dynamics of rodents. We've seen litters in every month of the year and we've killed sows with up to 12 foetuses. You need to cull 70-80% of the population just to stand still."</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MsA_GEnXBRo/UTZnSRlZEzI/AAAAAAAAAJk/aJ2OzzmNf_Q/s1600/BBC+Wildlife+Culling+march+2013a+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" jsa="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MsA_GEnXBRo/UTZnSRlZEzI/AAAAAAAAAJk/aJ2OzzmNf_Q/s200/BBC+Wildlife+Culling+march+2013a+crop.jpg" width="103" /></a> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FZ7F2D6JNvk/UTYeQrnh9dI/AAAAAAAAAIo/fZWxRVoLd74/s1600/BBC+Wildlife+Culling+march+2013b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" jsa="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FZ7F2D6JNvk/UTYeQrnh9dI/AAAAAAAAAIo/fZWxRVoLd74/s200/BBC+Wildlife+Culling+march+2013b.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">click to enlarge</span><br />
-----------</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
The rest of the article covers other animals, and if you wish to read it click on the images and hopefully you have good eyesight to read the small print!<br />
<br />
Friends of the Boar gave answers to many of the questions the author preferred to leave unanswered, such as feral versus wild, and this we will cover in a forthcoming post very soon as promised.<br />
<br />
We will also post a piece shortly on how the population dynamics cited in this piece is simply a nonsense.<br />
<br />
The Forestry Commission met with Friends of the Boar and this topic was discussed. So we are disappointed that Ian Harvey can present such silly population figures to BBC Wildlife. It seems that some people just cannot understand simple maths or concepts, and this now includes one new animal "welfare" group here in the Forest of Dean who now support the Forestry Commission in the promotion of large numbers of boar being culled each year based upon such silly estimates on paper.<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-9299465184397921862013-02-05T13:53:00.002+00:002013-03-05T21:18:36.417+00:00CULL ENDS but does the KILLING?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
The Forestry Commission have just announced that they have ceased their cull of wild boar having achieved their target of 100 animals.<br />
<br />
Although still to be confirmed, we believe that rangers killed about 75 animals, with another 25 or so succumbing to road traffic accidents since the cull started back in September 2012.<br />
<br />
We are happy to see that road casualties are now being taken into consideration by the Forestry Commission. This is a positive move forwards in the management and conservation of wild boar. Up until now boar casualties have never been considered in the cull undertaken by the Forestry Commission, and neither has boar killed by poaching, legal shooting or moving out of the forest.<br />
<br />
It has been a past criticism of the Forestry Commission that the failure to take account of boar disappearing by other means was promoted by the income stream that the FC are gaining from sale of boar meat. It may interest people that road casualties are not sold for meat. So this is hopefully a sign of improvement in managing the boar.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, boar sightings have been way down since last September when culling was resumed, but rather than worry about numbers of boar falling to unsustainable levels, the small degree of grass diggings lends support that the boar are in no danger of eradication, but certainly depleted in numbers as we come up to the main birthing season.<br />
<br />
Since the cull began back in September, there has been an almost continual furore here about wild boar invading farms and villages. Boar behaviour is such that they prefer to group together before leaving the safety of the Forest in search of new territory, so reports have tended to be of boar numbering up to 30 at a time. This of course distorts public perception of boar numbers in the Forest. Little do people realise that only a few groups of boar (2 or 3) leave the Forest each year, but when they do, they leave in largish numbers. Nor do they always leave immediately and forever, but may go back to the Forest if they sense danger.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NTnWN-HhaPo/URELkEZrthI/AAAAAAAAAH8/ZxOqy1ElhQE/s1600/Wild+Boar+188+Farmalnd+Digging+Blakeney+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" jea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NTnWN-HhaPo/URELkEZrthI/AAAAAAAAAH8/ZxOqy1ElhQE/s320/Wild+Boar+188+Farmalnd+Digging+Blakeney+02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Farmland dug by several Wild Boar in October 2012. <br />
This farm borders the Forest of Dean and is evidence that wild boar do leave the Forest each year.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Friends of the Boar can corroborate some of the reports of boar in farmland. These reports of course are firm evidence that boar do leave the Forest and should be taken into account in a scientifically defensible management plan.<br />
<br />
What is slightly worrying to us is the huge increase in road casualties in just 4 months (October - January). Research in the US indicates deer casualties rise during culling seasons due to panicking animals being pursued or shot at. We cannot confirm this here because only a single closed season as occured. We await further information to arrive at a reason for rises in road casualties. <br />
<br />
Other factors that increase road casualties may be orphaned piglets having no road sense. This has been previously blogged here, and may still be valid. Other reasons may be when entire sounders with little piglets cross roads and casualties are numerous in single incidents with lorries for example, and even half-dissected carcasses being thrown from poachers' vehicles may also be considered.<br />
<br />
In December 2012, Friends of the Boar received information and photographs of a boar shoot in the Forest of Dean. Details are still being sought, and we cannot at the moment say if this shoot was legal or not and must assume that it was legal. But we post the photos here for your perusal if only to highlight the entirely distasteful and disgusting way that some hunters see our wild boar as trophies to be propped up and teeth ripped out for its bragging value.<br />
<br />
We appreciate these may be shocking images, but it is important that people know what is taking place in their public Forest and near their homes. At the moment we do not believe people are informed enough about the shocking reality and image of boar hunting.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9p6gqlmJcH4/UREOqDjZYiI/AAAAAAAAAIM/LjDRJWIvNOs/s1600/Hunted+Boar+03+gimped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" jea="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9p6gqlmJcH4/UREOqDjZYiI/AAAAAAAAAIM/LjDRJWIvNOs/s200/Hunted+Boar+03+gimped.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ldXojjKPHRs/URECoNX8pvI/AAAAAAAAAHM/c_F26yM4WJg/s1600/Hunted+Boar+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" jea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ldXojjKPHRs/URECoNX8pvI/AAAAAAAAAHM/c_F26yM4WJg/s200/Hunted+Boar+01.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T4rP3MwJsOM/URECqVNBnnI/AAAAAAAAAHU/lObigJtQADE/s1600/Hunted+Boar+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" jea="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T4rP3MwJsOM/URECqVNBnnI/AAAAAAAAAHU/lObigJtQADE/s200/Hunted+Boar+02.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y5fiqDAGOyM/URECrxpx_mI/AAAAAAAAAHc/1tnk3LvsbBE/s1600/Hunted+Boar+04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" jea="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y5fiqDAGOyM/URECrxpx_mI/AAAAAAAAAHc/1tnk3LvsbBE/s200/Hunted+Boar+04.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(<em>Photographs of hunted male boar used under Fair Use doctrine for critique and discussion</em>)</div>
<br />
Anyone with comments please do leave them for all to see, or get in touch with us via e-mail which you can find in the side-bar under Contact.<br />
<br />
Look out for the next posting, which will follow unusually quickly, so we can bring you up to date on what we have been doing to help local residents with boar rooting in gardens.<br />
<br />
We also urgently need to tell you what has happened over Christmas regarding Friends of the Boar itself. We may need your support more than ever if we are to continue.<br />
<br />
We also want to present evidence about the genetic purity of wild boar here in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
Take Care everyone and come back very soon,<br />
<br />
<br />
DJS<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-75337512228236634352012-11-26T17:53:00.001+00:002013-03-25T10:19:50.397+00:00REJOICE THE FIRST CLOSED SEASON (- and ignore what you read in the press)We have been very busy here at Friends of the Boar since culling was resumed. We have felt it necessary to attempt to answer lots of queries and press articles that appear to be focused upon one topic only - BOAR DIGGINGS.<br />
<br />
In the years leading up to the formation of Friends of the Boar, a few passionate wildlife enthusiasts and photographers who had first-hand experience of the boar were kept busy attempting to allay public fears of how dangerous the boar are. The press, as always, were siding with the authoritarian view of the Forestry Commission, presenting stories of dog attacks as if they were commonplace, fretful of boar attacking children, and of boar numbers becoming so high there would be no space for humans.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, after a lot of patience and education, not to mention the fact that maybe 50% of local residents have now experienced the boar at close quarters, these fears have faded. People are now resentful at being duped with front page stories of hogzillas and the promoted image of the boar by the fake experts, namely the Forestry Commission.<br />
<br />
Many locals seriously believed that boar looked something like the Looney Toons character "Taz the Tasmanian Devil", a muscular tusked hairy beast that delights in unprovoked frenzied charges at everything in his path!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="249" id="il_fi" src="http://www.cartoonshdwallpaper.com/wp-content/uploads/images/1999-tasmanian-devil-wallpaper-cartoon-looney-tunes-tasmanian-devil-taz_531x331.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"TAZ" is NOT a WILD BOAR!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Almost universally included within the press stories of boar diggings in the last month is the totally illogical connection that they are somehow correlated with boar numbers. <br />
<br />
Ian Harvey, head ranger of the local FC, as been quoted several times linking increasing levels of roadside verge activity to increasing numbers of boar (2009-2010). At one point his conditioned mantra seemed to be the only census technique he was capable of....although some people would still say it is!<br />
<br />
This is typical rhetoric of those who delight in hunting the boar. Time and again we hear the same old nonsense from hunters, including the Forestry Commission, that boar have no predators and will over-run the place with a compounded <u>trebling</u> of numbers each year, and of course digging up everything in sight. <br />
<br />
Loaded language is almost second nature to these conditioned individuals, who no doubt got their lessons in ecology from their hunting daddies and mummies: phrases like "rampaging boar", "devastation", "fury", "invasion", roll from their tongues at the slightest bit of grass damage found by residents.<br />
<br />
Since the infamous release of boar in 2004, wildlife enthusiasts had been using the diggings to find the boar. Noting their positions daily, using new diggings to start searches for the boar. Roadsides have been continuously monitored as part of their hobby, and in some cases their professions.<br />
<br />
They can confirm that road diggings are massively down compared to the last 3 years (2009), thanks to the closed-season. Before that, boar numbers were so low (20-100) that road diggings were less conspicuous.<br />
<br />
We have just had a YEAR-LONG closed season when no boar were hunted except a small number of road casualities. The closed-season began in September 2011, and the following 2 months saw the usual road verge diggings taking place.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDw_KyW5Z48/ULO2ZafAJTI/AAAAAAAAAGY/ckdxN3Cc4Lk/s1600/Wild-Boar-137b-piglet-pair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uDw_KyW5Z48/ULO2ZafAJTI/AAAAAAAAAGY/ckdxN3Cc4Lk/s400/Wild-Boar-137b-piglet-pair.jpg" tea="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For the first time since 2007, little piglets have not been hunted or their mothers shot by the Forestry Commission.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Residents will hopefully remember the long stretches of roadside down the Cannop Valley, along the Speech House to New Fancy View road, and down into Parkend and onwards into Coleford being an almost continuous "dig". Speech House road between Coleford and Cinderford, similarly had a lot of road diggings for all to see. Picnic sites at Wenchford, Beechenhurst, Linear Park, Mallards Pike and Cannop had all been severely dug.<br />
<br />
<u>Remember</u> - this was when the Forest had the Beechenhurst Six roaming about the centre of the Forest, a family of tame boar and piglets we have previously blogged about. This family were digging at Beechenhurst and around Speech House for all to see, and it was the threat that the FC had announced they were to kill these boar that added to the protests and the decision to have a year-long stop on killing the boar.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--cBeWijhLJs/ULO2-Mu96VI/AAAAAAAAAGg/2Lgb-FzZDz0/s1600/Wild-Boar-48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--cBeWijhLJs/ULO2-Mu96VI/AAAAAAAAAGg/2Lgb-FzZDz0/s400/Wild-Boar-48.jpg" tea="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another sow with her family relaxing in the heart of the Forest of Dean.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div align="center">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
So the bloodsport halted. The FC were confident of uproar by the public (witnessed at a meeting between the Friends, Councillors and Kevin Stannard of the FC), and hunters began writing to the nationals warning of a Berlin style onslaught of boar raiding towns. <br />
<br />
BUT NOTHING HAPPENED.<br />
<br />
THE CLOSED SEASON was a resounding SUCCESS. By the new year, roadside grass activity had almost completely disappeared. The boar left the villages of Parkend and elsewhere. An environment of peace and relaxation took over. The boar moved back into the deeper parts of the Forest where high seats stood empty as reminders of the past. <br />
<br />
THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD BE.<br />
<br />
The Forestry Commission were putting the population at 450 animals at the start of the closed-season (September 2011). They predicted, that the population would TREBLE. By September 2012 when they will resume culing, that means 1,350 boar will be here.<br />
<br />
By contrast, we were claiming only 100 boar were present in the Forest of Dean at the start of the closed-season. This met the usual tuts and sneers from those who think they know best. We predicted the population would stabilise according to the studies from European boar that give densities of 3-4 boar per square km. In terms of the Forest of Dean, this would equate to 180 - 240 boar provided no artificial feeding took place.<br />
<br />
Censuses were done by both the FC and Friends of the Boar as previously outlined in this blog. The FC census concluded a population as of August 30th 2012 at 600. The Freinds census put it at 200.<br />
<br />
<u>NOW NOTE</u>. <u>The FC had just reduced the population from 1,350 to 600 (more than a halving)! The Friends had increased the population from 100 to 200 (a doubling).</u><br />
<br />
<u>No shooting for full year!</u><br />
<br />
ASK: WHO HAS THE MATHS RIGHT?<br />
<br />
What are we now seeing and hearing? Well, the FC now suddenly begin claiming that boar numbers only double each year! <br />
<br />
REALLY! Don't you mean a decrease of 56% per year, or are you just taking our figures now, hoping nobody notices? This statement was provided both by Kevin Stannard in a recent press piece, and by Robin Gill, Forest research scientist at the Boar Scrutiny Meeting in August 2012 (also documented below on this blog). Talk about changing goalposts, and in the face of their own contrary predictions!<br />
<br />
We really feel sad to keep highlighting the apparent cluelessness and hypocricy of the local government here residing at the Forestry Commission in Bank House in Coleford, but we can only report honestly as this is our way (remember that we are not-for-profit).<br />
<br />
On the ground we saw almost an ENTIRE YEAR of NO ROAD DIGGING. From around January - August 2012, the roadsides were free of overturned soil. The Cannop Valley, for the first time in 7 years, was free of soil. Soudley, Parkend, Whitecroft, Ruardean, Sling, all villages traditionally dug, were now free of dirt! Visitors to picnic sites would be hard pressed to find a single hoof print of a boar.<br />
<br />
THE BOAR WERE NOW WHERE THEY BELONG - IN THE DEEPER PARTS OF THE FOREST.<br />
<br />
Sightings collected by the Friends were showing conclusively that the boar poulation may have reached 400 in April, but had declined to 200 by August. A 50% mortality seems to have occurred - all without the presence of wolves or guns!!!! The Friends' estimates at the start of the closed season of 200 were vindicated, albeit by our own census (we understand how critics may ignore this).<br />
<br />
But hunting resumed in the first week of September 2012. Immediately a single boar came into Coleford town centre. "Fury as Boar Run Amok in Town centre" was plastered everywhere by The Forester newspaper. The loaded language had resumed by the press and hunting fraternity!<br />
<br />
Boar came into villages almost overnight. Sling and Ruardaen were hit, as was Soudley and Blakeney. And what did we learn?<br />
<br />
THE BOAR WERE NOW BEING HUNTED DEEP IN THE FOREST BY THE FORESTRY COMMISSION!<br />
<br />
Oh yes, hunting at baited places in the remoter parts to make the cull easier! Alternatively, some rangers feel free to shoot on-sight any boar they stumble across in broad daylight on public land, as they did near to Speech House that first week of the cull, much to the shock of a very fightened tourist nearby. Thankfully, a Friends of the Boar supporter was there to help them return to their car, visibly shaken.<br />
<br />
When challenged by the Friends in an open letter to Ian Harvey, the FC claimed (via the press) they do not kill nuisance boar by villages due to health and safety! <u>WOW</u>, it's now ok to shoot in the daytime in the Forest near Speech House with many visitors nearby, but shooting near villages to help farmers and villagers is a no-no!<br />
<br />
GO READ - the FC have always said, including in their OWN Boar Management Strategy (see link to this on main page), that problem boar will be prioritised in any cull.<br />
<br />
No mention in the press of how the FC had got their sums wrong. No mention of how we had just witnessed a quiet year with regard to boar diggings. ALL FORGOTTEN by those who wish to profit from the boar by either hunting or the selling of local newspapers. <br />
<br />
The Forester and especially The Review newspapers (both owned by Sir Ray Tindle of Tindle newspapers) delighted in presenting unrepresentative and very rare and localised stories of people upset at some digging by their houses or in their gardens, as though the Forest was entirley dug to bits!<br />
<br />
The Forester and Review both published highly misleading stories and letters from anonymous writers, with editors getting in on the act in an attempt to dismiss and mock our efforts to promote truth and promotion of wildlife. Letters sent by us were ignored or delayed by weeks to appear ineffective and random. Press releases announcing our intentions to help those with diggings on private land were also ignored. This would obviously negate the hatred these two Tindle newspapers were fostering, and so decided to ignore us on purpose.<br />
<br />
Without any investigation into the truth or validity of their correspondence, these papers quoted residents saying that boar numbers were too high and out of control. Anonymous opinions were published without question to fuel an agenda. Not once did they ask us to comment. Because if they did, this type of scaremongering and last ditch attempt at getting the public to support hunting would be a failure. They have tried their very best to present UTTER RUBBISH in order to get people here angry. To us the Forester and Review Newspapers have acted not only immorally and unfairly but maliciously towards the boar and to those who support them. <br />
<br />
We only hope they will apologise and make every attempt to tell the opposite view and also to present veryfiable facts about the boar.<br />
<br />
One of these FACTS is that WE SHOULD REJOICE THE SUCCESS OF THE FIRST WILD BOAR CLOSED SEASON IN THE UK, for it alleviated ALL that people fear, from attacks upon dogs and people to roadside grass damage.<br />
<br />
HOORAY THE BOAR!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Nv41tZJeG3U/ULQAZq7BMCI/AAAAAAAAAGw/JFfKIz5lPHU/s1600/Wild-Boar-113-sow-crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Nv41tZJeG3U/ULQAZq7BMCI/AAAAAAAAAGw/JFfKIz5lPHU/s320/Wild-Boar-113-sow-crop.jpg" tea="true" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thank You Mrs Boar for your efforts to make the Forest of Dean and all UK woodland a pleasure to visit.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
(Apologies if some of you sense frustration, but the fight to spread truth for wildlife is a hard one here in the Forest of Dean, with much zoophobia amongst residents and some entrenched habits of poaching and wanting the forest to look like a country park. All with little reward. Please help out if you can by contacting us.)<br />
<br />
For researchers who wish to investigate the substance of this article, with some press examples, please contact David Slater via this blog - go to contact.<br />
<br />
<br />
Can we please urge all residents to submit sightings of the boar via our contact page (in the side panel). The data we receive is strictly confidential and will never be seen by any hunters.<br />
<br />
DJS<br />
<br />Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-65935445384493543272012-09-26T18:58:00.001+01:002013-01-23T19:48:19.566+00:00FORESTRY COMMISSION VETOES DEMOCRACY WITH INDEFENSIBLE ACTION<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">It is with regret that FotB have to announce that the Forestry Commission (FC) has once again ignored our estimation of boar numbers in the Forest of Dean, but have instead chosen to cull 100 animals between September 2012 and January 2013.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They unequivocally reject any debate, carrying out their own unfounded beliefs of what should be done.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Population?<o:p></o:p></em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">We say 200 boar are present, they claim 600-650.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A cull of 100 in such a rapid way may be again disastrous with respect to the future existence of boar, their health, compensatory rebound effect and amenity grass damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will no doubt return to the conditions of 2009 when we witnessed a huge spurt in piglet numbers, increasing numbers of tame boar and widespread overturning of road verges and picnic sites.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Methodology</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">For your information, the FC has used the same method as us in arriving at population estimates: the FC used just 3 rangers and an anonymous independent; we used over 100 local residents including naturalists and wildlife photographers. Both surveys were carried out over the summer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">The FC alleges 150 “sightings” this summer and plotted them on a map. We were shown this map at the recent Boar Scrutiny Meeting (more later), and it clearly had many duplicate sightings of the same boar groups. In fact, no other details of how these sightings were logged were given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As far as we know, the FC logs fresh diggings to count as a sighting? Whatever, we just knew the FC would come up with some ridiculously high figure, because this is what they have always done to scare the public and justify bloodshed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Boar Scrutiny Meeting to Decide Future Management</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">We learned of the FC estimate at the recent Boar Scrutiny Meeting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was chaired by Verderer Ian Standing in late August 2012, and was the result of a year-long effort to get a wider view of boar and their management officially heard, with a view to take any findings to the Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Council are now to decide on a new limit to numbers of boar allowed to live in the Forest, and for the management process to be more transparent and democratically led (still to be done). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">The meeting involved two FC employees, Dr Martin Goulding of the British Wild Boar organisation, and Dr David J Slater of FotB (please contact via the side panel). All other interested parties were declined a hearing at the last minute by Ian Standing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">The meeting concluded that boar numbers were unknown, and it was recommended to wait until the next census before making any decisions on a cull. The FC, using inadequate explanations of why last year's thermal imaging census did not provide them with the number of boar they were expecting, could only offer a better standard of thermal imaging equipment for the year ahead! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Dictatorship</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">So we are even more incensed at the news of a cull, because the FC was knee-jerk in dishonouring the recommendations of the meeting – it was not supportive of the cull they so desperately need / want.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">And will they stop at 100?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The FC has pushed this year to increase the previous acceptable number of boar in the Forest of Dean from 90 to 400. This may seem like a victory and in one sense it is, but to reduce their 650 imaginary boars down to 400 means that up to 250 animals may die! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">This of course is more than FotB are claiming to exist!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is now clear that the FC has called for an increase in the Forest population because they wish to argue that more boars will be born and therefore come under their gun sights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Breach of Contract?</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Coincidentally, this cull target would satisfy the legal agreements the FC has with meat dealers. At least three contracts existed up to October 2011 that obligated the FC to provide each with 500kg of boar meat. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Now, we know that the FC sells piglets directly due to direct admissions they gave us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since 2008 when the FC began to shoot boar, we know from the FC’s own figures that 77% of their cull has been piglets in the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, a cull of 100 boar would comprise 77 piglets plus 23 adults at an average of 65kg each (a typical adult weight) - or 3 contracts of 500kg each (23 x 65kg = 1,500kg).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Too coincidental we think.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Institutional Arrogance</em></h4>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</h4>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">At the Council meeting last September (2011) when the FC agreed to stop culling for a year, the FC claimed that after their cull of 153 animals, 450 boar were still at large (hence their arrogance with the prediction of high number counts in their subsequent census).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So this amounted to an estimate of 650 animals for late 2011.</span></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><em> </em></span></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</h4>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Red-Faced</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">The FC duly conducted a nighttime census programme in November and December (2011) to try and achieve a more accurate number of boar in the area. Using high-tech equipment such as infra red and thermal imaging scopes they were confident that they would prove there were hundreds of boar in the Forest of Dean. However, after two months of conducting these surveys with independent witness, including FotB, they shelved it. Why? Because they only found a tiny handful of boar and were left red-faced. The only excuse they gave was bracken got in the way – in the winter! Now correct us if we are wrong, but isn't this same equipment used by the Military and Police to catch terrorists and criminals?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"></span></div>
<em>Indefensible Reasoning for Cull</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Their current number of 650 boar conclusively means that they claim the population of boar in the Forest has not increased since the last cull. They also tell us that complaints are very much down, and everyone can see that grass damage has also been hugely decreased in the year that no killing took place (Sept 2011 – Sept 2012). In other words, the situation has improved on all counts as a direct result of no culling for a year - just as FotB has persistently predicted. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">So why cull 100? What possible reason can they have to kill animals that are receiving less and less complaints and are increasingly leaving the grass alone?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Real Population Dynamics</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Here’s our population dynamic analysis:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">FotB estimated at the meeting of Sept 2011 that there were approximately 100 boar present in the Forest of Dean – at the start of the year-long closed-season. (The FC claimed 450).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">A sow gives birth to 6 young per-year on average (in the wild) and based on a figure of 100 animals with an optimistic 50 being sexually mature sows, we would get 400 animals by the following Spring.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">However, piglet mortality is high, maybe 50% in some years, but taking an average of 4 young making it to adulthood per sow this gives us a total number of 300 boar for summer 2012.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">At the end of each summer when all the piglets are now independent, there is always a migration of boar out of the Forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is due to family groups breaking up to find new territory, and the number leaving the Forest is dictated by food supply and shelter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Studies have long shown that at our latitude and climate, Forests will not support more than 4 boar per square kilometre, more usually 3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 60 square kilometres in aerial extent, our Forest will only support 180-240 boar.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /> </h4>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Always the Minority that Spoils the Peace?</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">So this year, we expect around 100 boars to leave the Forest and wander onto private land around the Forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These boar are always those that get the bad press each year as they move into urban areas, promoting poaching and lawful killing by landowners.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">We therefore predicted 200 wild boar would be in the Forest this Autumn and it is very gratifying when our census, where 100 or more people have been out and about sending us their sightings, also corroborates this number.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">So as you hopefully agree, if the FC takes out 100 animals from the Forest over the next 4 months, we will be left with, at most 150.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this is before anyone takes into account further natural deaths, poaching and RTA's. Research indicates that boar populations need to be much higher than this to be sustainable and to eliminate the danger of inbreeding.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Petition<o:p></o:p></em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><span class="ecxyui320181348388513168331"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Friends of the Boar have set up an e-petition to stop this cull. It may be too late, as we had no warning of the cull, which is happening right now, but if we can show them that united, we are prepared to stand up for these remarkable animals it could prevent future culls, which have not been based on scientific estimations. To control wildlife numbers that have reached a point of concern can sometimes be deemed as wildlife conservation/management. However, to cull a species when its numbers cannot be proven and when </span></span>there is no concern, it is murder!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Please help give our wild boars a reprieve by signing the petition today. Please also share this petition with other wildlife groups and on your Facebook/Twitter pages. Many thanks!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><a href="https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38945" target="_blank">https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38945</a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"> </span></div>
<h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Poaching on the Increase</em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Since the news of the FC starting culling, and their exaggerated claims of 650 boar at large, it seems that the poachers and vigilante landowners are scurrying about the Forest and surrounding land with guns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have been made aware of several incidents of poaching and of boys with guns roaming the public highway at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rest assured we give the Police as much information as possible whenever we are contacted by the rightfully alarmed public.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">FotB were recently offered the lower jaw bone of a boar, which was found in the forest by a member of the public (sign up to our newsletter to see it). There are many reasons why this animal died in our forest and one may have been from natural causes. Other causes may be from a poacher’s poor shot, leaving the animal injured to die slowly in the forest. It may also have been injured in an RTA where it was able to make it back into the forest where again it died. Who knows how this animal perished, but this proves that these animals do indeed die in our forest and that culling should only be considered as a last resort.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<em>Badger Cull<o:p></o:p></em></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Finally, the plight of the wild boar and the peace of the Forest are to be shattered even further this Autumn and Winter by the Badger cull.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">West Gloucestershire, including land around the Forest of Dean is part of a disgusting experiment by our government to see if farmers and employed marksmen can kill badgers at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is obviously taken up at length in the mainstream press and by action groups such as <a href="http://www.glosagainstbadgershooting.org/" target="_blank">Gloucestershire Against Badger Shooting</a> (GABS) and Brian May’s <a href="http://www.teambadger.org/" target="_blank">Team Badger</a>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">What we are afraid of is that as the badger population is stressed beyond all reason they will obviously flee to the Forest as cover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Injured and potentially unhealthy badgers will begin to disrupt badger territories within the Forest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any badgers with bTb (and these will be the badgers that survive the shooting – only the healthy badgers will roam about at night!) may begin to affect both the health of our existing badgers and the boar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, the coincidence of killing boar and badgers could very easily lead to an extremely dark future for all our wildlife.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #999999;">This is yet another coincidence of our government (the FC is a front organisation of DEFRA) acting in a totally indefensible and unscientific way that is truly detrimental to wildlife, and eventually to humans in due course.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;">Please give your support to halt the badger cull and to ask any landowners you know to say no to killing on their land.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #999999;"><em>The team would like to thank you all for your continued support for Friends of the Boar and for this remarkable animal.</em></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-88534129527086501012012-09-18T10:18:00.001+01:002013-01-30T23:46:55.769+00:00Wild Boar Scrutiny Meeting - September 2012So much has happened in the last week that the blog is finding it difficult to keep up. Here is the word for word report of a crucial meeting regarding the future of the boar in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
We had all agreed not to mention the content of the meeting until released to the press.<br />
<br />
Ian Standing (Verderer) asked 4 representatives to appear before him so that he could make a report based upon different viewpoints. The report shall be taken to the Council for futher consideration.<br />
<br />
It is already noted by Friends of the Boar that reference to a closed-season has been largely glossed over. Friends of the Boar and Dr Martin Goulding both commented on the value of closed-seasons, that they should be from February to June, and that last year's year-long cessation from culling has brought many benefits to both boar and people.<br />
<br />
Here is the final statement, released to the press last week:<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: lime;">Record of a Meeting on Forest of Dean feral wild boar. Held at Bank House Coleford, Friday 24th August 2012.</span></h3>
<br />
Present <br />
Dr Robin Gill Vertebrate ecologist, FC Forest Research <br />
Dr Martin Goulding British Wild Boar Organisation <br />
Ian Harvey FC Wildlife Manager, Forest of Dean <br />
Scott Passmore Friends of the Boar (observer)<br />
Dr David Slater Friends of the Boar <br />
Ian Standing Verderer, Forest of Dean; Chairman<br />
<br />
Apology for absence: Rob Ward was unable to attend and nominated David Slater in his place. Rob also asked that Scott Passmore be present. Scott was asked by the Chairman to act as an observer because attendance had been limited to those originally invited. <br />
Outcome statement: MG asked about reporting and media interest. It was agreed that a draft record and statement will be circulated to all for consideration. Any media requests to be deferred until the content of the record and statement were approved by everyone. <br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: lime;">Update of Boar in Dean and adjacent areas</span> </h4>
<br />
The Dean population is doing well and said to be thriving. Migration has been recorded between the Chase Hill/Penyard and Dean groups. There is also natural migration of animals from Dean into adjacent farmland and woods. Boar are present on the Welsh side of the Wye and a new group has been reported near Leominster. The Penyard group appears to have contracted.<br />
<br />
RG explained the methodology of thermal imaging and its application to animal abundance surveys. Although the boar are less easily picked up than deer due to their lower height and the intervening ground cover, distance sampling does provide sufficient data for scientific estimations to be made, subject to a confidence factor. Thermal imaging does not produce an exact population number but successive surveys will indicate changes in populations. <br />
<br />
Thermal imaging research in Italy using radio collared, and marked wild boar demonstrated that thermal imaging and distance sampling was a reliable tool. In the UK surveys so far made by thermal imaging will not have found all the animals in the Forest but those that are located can be used in statistical analysis to determine both estimated populations and population trends.. Better equipment is becoming available and a survey in the Dean Main Block is planned for this winter. <br />
<br />
Other methods of assessing population size relied on reported sightings. The Friends of the Wild Boar Website has enabled the public to register hundreds of sightings. FC staff are in the woods daily and record their sightings on maps. Different methods produce different estimates of the population. <br />
<br />
Negative effects of wild boar include problem animals (usually created by feeding), dog walking and horse rider encounters, and a steady increase in traffic accidents. Ecologically, wild boar may have an impact on small mammal populations.<br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: lime;">The Public’s view of wild boar in the Dean </span></h4>
<br />
There is wide range of views and reaction among the public, some of it strongly polarised. Fear, damage to roadside verges, dog encounters, road accidents and boar damage to recreational grassland and farm land bring negative reactions. This will increase if humans are injured by attack, or die in RTAs, although neither has happened. <br />
<br />
Positive support comes from those who view the wild boar as a re-introduction of a former native wild animal. Many others gain excitement and enjoyment from the presence of wild boar. The Friends of Wild Boar Website receives hundreds of positive comments and requests for advice on where to see boar. The District Council features the animal as a tourism attraction. There has been a decline in complaints reaching FC.<br />
<br />
An unpublished survey of public reaction to wild boar was undertaken in 2009-10 by Dutton & Clayton of Worcester University. A summary is included in: Feral Wild Boar Management Plan Forest of Dean, 2011 to 2016. A further study is said to be planned for 2013.<br />
<br />
Further education of the public is considered to be an important need, to reduce fear, to discourage feeding and to promote safe practice for dog walking. <br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: lime;">The target population number for wild boar in Dean</span> </h4>
<br />
Following an anonymous release in 2004 of up to 60 animals near Staunton, the population increased steadily. This resulted in negative public reaction and the involvement of the District Council. In early summer of 2009 the population was estimated to be 90; that number was adopted as the target population agreed between the District Council and FC. <br />
<br />
The meeting noted that the Dean is the first substantial area of woodland in Britain used recreationally by the public to contain a sizeable number of boar. It further examined the many factors, including animal densities, poaching, and emigration that affect the size of the population and the inherent difficulty of achieving a scientifically verifiable population figure. Dean boar are not hunted but animals are known to be shot on adjacent lands..<br />
<br />
<h4>
<span style="color: lime;">The following observations / recommendations were made:</span> </h4>
<br />
* Robin Gill’s research is welcomed and, if possible, should be further funded and fast tracked <br />
* Maintaining a healthy boar population includes the need for prudent, humane control <br />
* Doing nothing is not an option because reproductive capacity is very high. With sows producing 4 or more young each year, a 50% reduction by emigration or humane control is needed to maintain numbers at an appropriate level. <br />
* The number of animals emigrating from Dean, or culled on private land and by poachers, is unknown. <br />
* Regarding a proposed closed season between March and June. RG comments: This subject was not discussed in sufficient depth in the meeting. While I agree it is important to try to find ways of achieving humane control, the dates (and sexes) for any proposed closed season should be chosen carefully. I would advocate the collection and review of more evidence of reproductive data before a decision is taken on a closed season, as well as discussion with stalkers who may be involved. <br />
* The Forestry Commission propose raising the target population from an estimated 90 animals to 400. The majority of the group agreed that raising the target population is acceptable. MG commented that he was not comfortable with adding numbers to the population on which to base any possible culling decisions because current numbers are based only on estimates or guesswork. Scientifically reliable numbers were needed. <br />
* Different sources offer different estimates of the population size. Friends of the Boar estimate 200 for August 2012. FC wildlife rangers estimate 500-600 for August 2012. <br />
* Culling targets may need reconsidering while numbers become clearer. <br />
* Transparency and sensible use of the media are to be encouraged. <br />
* Further education of the public will assist in keeping boar away from settlements and tourism venues. <br />
<br />
On closing the meeting the Chairman thanked everyone for their very helpful and expert inputs. He welcomed the positive nature of the discussion and hoped that it will continue.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: lime;">PRESS RELEASE</span></h3>
<br />
On 24th August a meeting was held in Coleford to discuss the present situation relating to feral wild boar in the Forest of Dean. It received contributions from expert mammal wildlife ecologists, members of the Forestry Commission and a representative of the Friends of the Wild Boar. It was noted that following an anonymous release of up to 60 animals in 2004 near Staunton, the population had naturalised and numbers of boar had spread to all parts of the Forest. This led the District Council after a period of consultation to recommend to the Forestry Commission and the Verderers to agree in 2009 that a population of 90 animals would be appropriate in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
Because the Forest of Dean is the first substantial area of woodland in Britain used recreationally by the public to experience a sizeable number of boar, research has been needed and is ongoing. Determining the exact number of boar in the Forest has proved to be very difficult and to date management of the boar has of necessity been based on estimated numbers. The meeting recognised the difficulty this imposes and it welcomed the new survey work planned for this winter.<br />
<br />
Doing nothing in the long term is not an option. There are no natural predators and the reproductive capacity of wild boar is very high. With sows producing 4 or more young each year, a 50% reduction by emigration or humane control is needed to maintain numbers at a stable level.<br />
<br />
The Forestry Commission has recommended increasing the target population from 90 to 400 animals. The majority of the group, agreed that the principle of raising the target population is acceptable, although one member commented that culling of the boar to target figures should only be considered once defendable, scientifically-derived population figures had been obtained. No increased target population figure was universally agreed, in part due the population figures being estimates and not exact. Different sources offer estimates of the current population ranging from 200 to 600.<br />
<br />
The meeting also favoured further education and information being made available on safety and on the importance of not feeding the boar. When boar are fed they become attracted to tourist spots and local villages, and at risk from traffic and non humane intervention.<br />
<br />
<br />
I. J. Standing, Chairman <br />
26th August 2012. Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-25991138465974004502012-08-24T13:02:00.001+01:002013-01-23T10:48:13.840+00:00AN UPDATEYes, it's been some time since the last posting, primarily because the closed-season provided little controversy!<br />
<br />
In these few months we haven't rested but the opposite. Friends of the Boar has grown in stature and now boasts many hundreds if not thousands of followers and supporters.<br />
<br />
Please note that the voluntary closed-season is coming to an end. We have had a whole year without a cull - something to really celebrate!<br />
<br />
Just as we predicted earlier in the year, including on this blog, when shooting stops so does piglet production and eventually less and less "tame" boars. Hardly any newspapers have received letters of complaint or worry about the boar this year, and yes, as we predicted, road verges are no longer taking the hammering they did only one year ago.<br />
<br />
As we approach a new birth season for all the first time sows, expect a little increase in "verge activity" soon, and with it the usual moans and groans of people who only drive around forest roads, blind to the litter in the grass and the oft total destruction of forest rides by logging operations.<br />
<br />
Since our last posting about the poached sow, many people came to the wild boars support. The piglets seemed to survive well for some time, sometimes becoming roadside attractions. The group appeared to split about a month after their mother died, with one group going missing, presumed dead. But the good news is that a group of four occasionally makes an appearance, all grown up now having lost their stripes.<br />
<br />
What is more, due to the message of not to feed them eventually percolating through to most people, these piglets learnt to rely on their instincts again and stay largely away from humans.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e_JicaJcu1o/UDdxaGaMwsI/AAAAAAAAAF4/bI9tIEe5Fvw/s1600/Wild+Boar+167+piglet+and+crowd+FOTB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e_JicaJcu1o/UDdxaGaMwsI/AAAAAAAAAF4/bI9tIEe5Fvw/s400/Wild+Boar+167+piglet+and+crowd+FOTB.jpg" width="400" yda="true" /></a></div>
<br />
Sadly, since this poaching incident, we have noticed a conspicuous rise in "dubious" vehicles driving around the forest at night, with some vehicles even becoming stuck. They have been reported to the police and the FC, but still the activity continues. Please report any night driving activities to the police or to us please, ideally with reg numbers and descriptions of the driver.<br />
<br />
All for now, <br />
<br />
Expect more from us shortly....<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MdByROSl1eA/UDdxUwOCdDI/AAAAAAAAAFw/CxzQkJxqcTE/s1600/Wild+Boar+164+piglet+FOTB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MdByROSl1eA/UDdxUwOCdDI/AAAAAAAAAFw/CxzQkJxqcTE/s400/Wild+Boar+164+piglet+FOTB.jpg" width="400" yda="true" /></a></div>
<br />
<u>NEWSLETTER</u><br />
<br />
<u>Wild Boar Liaison Group</u><br />
<br />
As the cull is due to commence this September and also due to pressure from FotB, the Forestry Commission and Gloucestershire county council have decided to form a wild boar liaison group. <br />
<br />
Also invited to form part of this group is a forest Verderer, FotB and Dr. Martin Goulding; the UK's leading boar expert.<br />
<br />
This is a massive step forward where this animals welfare is concerned in the Forest of Dean as there will be opinions, facts and recommendations from all sides. There will be compromises yes, but only in the animals best interests and FotB will now, for the first time have transparency where the management of this animal is concerned.<br />
<br />
FotB will not commit to or accept a cull target unless the Forestry Commission can provide accurate figures of boar numbers at present. There will be no guess work and we will be asking them for evidence as to numbers if they do come up with a realistic figure. The first meeting has been scheduled for 24th August and we will keep you updated via the website and Facebook page.<br />
<br />
<u>Cull is Looming</u><br />
<br />
FotB accept that the wild boar require management, however, what we do not accept is the fact that for many years this animal has been killed needlessly to meet the Forestry Commissions meat quotas, which has had nothing at all to do with the professional management of this animal. Like our deer, wild boar have no natural predators and for this reason we must control their numbers.<br />
Our deer are only culled when necessary and some years they are given the luxury of a year-long closed season. Wild boar are very different to our deer as they have multiple offspring, when compared to the fallow deer, which have a single fawn each year. For this reason the deer management plan will have to be adapted to suit wild boar management but FotB are confident that this is possible and we will be working hard to see this put into practise. <br />
<br />
<u>Feeding Wild Boar</u><br />
<br />
As the majority of you are already aware, the feeding of wild boar in the Forest of Dean has become an ever increasing problem and we have been working very hard to get the message over that this extremely bad practise can and usually does end in tragedy. By feeding these animals we take away their natural fear of humans and this results in them approaching people for a free hand out. This alone can cause serious problems, especially if they approach children, the elderly and dog walkers.<br />
Poaching is also an issue in the Forest of Dean and by habituating these animals we are handing them to the poachers on a plate as the boars will frequent feeding sites regularly waiting for food. If you are wondering what harm could be caused from losing the odd boar to poachers; the answer is simple. Every year suckling and weaning piglets are orphaned after the mother is poached. The piglets then slowly starve to death as the poachers will not hold back just because the sow has young present; they are in, shoot to kill and out as quickly as possible!<br />
<br />
Please help us by getting this message over and remember, helping ONE animal will not change the world, but it WILL change the world for that one animal.Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2787160331703156433.post-64545896045744892002012-05-16T13:00:00.004+01:002013-01-23T19:50:30.708+00:00POACHERS BUTCHER A SOW WITH DEPENDENT YOUNG<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><span style="color: red;">Please be warned that the photographs below are shocking and may upset you</span></u></span></div>
<br />
Since our last post on poaching, which some people may have taken with a pinch of salt, we now sadly report on a poaching incident in the Forest of Dean.<br />
<br />
Last Saturday, the 12th May 2012, a Friend of the Boar came across the butchered and hidden remains of a sow he had been following for weeks. The sow had been quite tame and so were the nine piglets she had with her. They were also accompanied by another non-lactating sow, presumably too young to have had her own piglets.<br />
<br />
She was a delight as were her piglets, and like the Beechenhurst Six last year, could have become a much loved presence drawing in tourists from far and wide. It is interesting to compare her to the Beechenhurst Sow because not only did she look like her, but was known to wander in an area adjacent to Beechenhurst Lodge - is there a connection?.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BXfFgaUVjhA/T7OPijiV3AI/AAAAAAAAAFM/LedjpOYoBUs/s1600/ScottPassmore+boar+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" kba="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BXfFgaUVjhA/T7OPijiV3AI/AAAAAAAAAFM/LedjpOYoBUs/s400/ScottPassmore+boar+01.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sow with piglets</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N62AMS-0w2M/T7OQ2-6EzEI/AAAAAAAAAFU/V0V_yQWejaY/s1600/ScottPassmore+boar+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" kba="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N62AMS-0w2M/T7OQ2-6EzEI/AAAAAAAAAFU/V0V_yQWejaY/s400/ScottPassmore+boar+02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Little piglets about 1 month old.<br />
Please see <a href="http://www.scottpassmore.co.uk/">http://www.scottpassmore.co.uk/</a> for more images.<br />
(please note that Scott is not the person in question who found the butchered sow but is equally saddened to hear of the loss of such a friendly sow he had got to know well).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div align="center">
</div>
<br />
Unfortunately her tameness was her downfall. She appears to have been killed at very close quarters (details still required). Her body was left, presumably on the spot where killed, minus her leg, and covered over with branches and rocks so has not to be discovered.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4u3VDEr7B-Y/T7OSjGzemqI/AAAAAAAAAFc/qIg_5nuEFD0/s1600/Poached+Sow+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" kba="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4u3VDEr7B-Y/T7OSjGzemqI/AAAAAAAAAFc/qIg_5nuEFD0/s320/Poached+Sow+01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YcttS2Elg_0/T7OTIgf19FI/AAAAAAAAAFk/6he3ltE6140/s1600/Poached+Sow+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" kba="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YcttS2Elg_0/T7OTIgf19FI/AAAAAAAAAFk/6he3ltE6140/s320/Poached+Sow+02.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Killed sow showing removed leg (warning - image not to be clicked or viewed large if easily upset)<br />
Photos Reproduced by Permission of photographer.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The person who had been following her had last seen her alive in that area the evening before her subsequent discovery in the morning.<br />
<br />
What is remarkable about this story is the worry that there are people wandering the Forest at night with weapons, yet do not have vehicles nor the planning to remove a smallish boar wholesale! Although expert at butchery, they seem otherwise at a loss with taking away the remains other than a leg! It is the sort of stuff more akin to an SAS survival course whereby the meat removed was for personal consumption rather than to sell. The taking of the life of a boar with dependent piglets seems of no moral consequence to them. Who knows the real minds of these sick and obviously intellectually-challenged people?<br />
<br />
The person who found the sow immediately called the police. They arrived at the scene, and although too squeamish to touch the body, at first attributed the death to a road traffic accident and appeared disinterested in pursuit of a poacher (the fact a leg was missing seemed unimportant to the officer in question). The police officer took photos and called for the FC to come and remove the body, which they did later that Saturday.<br />
<br />
So yes, the killers had left the boar there all night having removed just a leg. The boar remains was about 500 metres from the road and would not have been difficult to transport by 2 men. They clearly did not want the rest of the animal.<br />
<br />
The police and Forestry Commission have today released a document (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/gloucestershire-constabulary/police-warning-as-wild-boar-killed-and-nine-piglets-set-to-starve-in-cannop/10150786791741245" target="_blank">click here</a>) stating that indeed, they now believe the sow to have been killed illegally rather than run down by a car.<br />
<br />
Clearly, these people would not have been able to kill if the boar had not been tame. The tameness may be inherited behaviour, but these boar would quickly revert to wild and nervous if left alone. People who feed the boar are ultimately giving the boar a death sentence when people like the perpetrators of this cowardly poaching are at large.<br />
<br />
We are all united now, the police, the Forestry Commission and Friends of the Boar in condemning anyone who feeds wild boar.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z1tucc8hZ2U/T7OMvrtFAxI/AAAAAAAAAFA/dW8wuYp4cE4/s1600/Feeding+Wild+Boar+May+2012+sow+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" kba="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z1tucc8hZ2U/T7OMvrtFAxI/AAAAAAAAAFA/dW8wuYp4cE4/s400/Feeding+Wild+Boar+May+2012+sow+shot.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This van's driver regularly fed the sow (this side of van) and her piglets at a layby near to Speech House. The other boar is a young sow that was not suckling. <br />
<br />
This person is partly responsible for the sow's death and potential starvation of nine piglets. We know who this is, and Friends of the Boar will always photograph anyone feeding the boar.<br />
Reproduced by Permission of photographer.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: yellow;">As we speak, the piglets are still alive and being looked after by the other sow. Let's hope they learn to avoid humans!</span><br />
<br /></div>
Friends of the Boarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15967173870514754401noreply@blogger.com10