Hunting wild boar for population control in China

A member of a government-approved hunting team shoots at a wild boar on a mountain on back in February 23, 2005 in Huoshan County of Anhui Province, China [source:LIFE]. But despite this, five years on the wild boar population in China continue to be a threat to farmers, and on occasion the boars have also entered urban areas. The problem is more acute in southern China.

In northeast China, wild boar, spotted deer and other animals have reduced sharply, forcing tigers to feed on livestock in nearby villages. In southern China, however, with no tigers and leopards to hunt them, the wild boar has become the "king of the forest". The method to control this exploding population is still the same.

"The best way is hunting," said Song Zhiqiang, with the forestry administration of Chun'an County. "We allow villagers to hunt wild boars," he said, noting that there were 1,000 hunting teams in Zhejiang with 13,000 people holding hunting permits and shotguns. Although about 10,000 boars have been hunted each year since 2005, the boar population has kept growing. Farmers are resorting to vuvuzelas, gongs, firecrackers and bombs to scare away the wild boar. Read More......

Wild Dogs of India

A pack of dhole, the Indian wild dog, which had an extensive range covering India, SE Asia, and China, in the past, but is now concentrated in the wildlife sanctuaries of Central and Southern India (photo from The Peacock Stall). The dhole is also known as the Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, or the Red dog. Instead of the usual 42 teeth of other dog species, the dholes have only 40 teeth and also one cusp (pointed end) instead of two in other canines.

The Indian wild dog measures 90 cm (35 inches) from head to body with a tail of about 40-45 cm (16-18 in). It is about 50 cm (20 in) at shoulder height and weighs 12-20 kg (26-44 lbs). The dhole has a broad, domed skull. The Himalayan dhole have a yellowish fur, while those in Myanmar and Thailand have brown fur. In the Indian mainland the dhole have rusty red flanks and back, while the throat and chest are white, and the tail bottoms bear a black streak. The Indian wild dogs live in packs of 5 or 12, sometimes going up to 25 members, when they become a threat to every other animal in the wild, including the tiger. In India, the dhole or Indian wild dogs keep strictly to the forests where there is food, shade from the sun, and water to drink or lie in, writes SH Prater in "The Book of Indian Animals".

The film Wild Dog Diaries follows a pack of wild dogs for years on end through their 80 square kilometre territory in Bandipur and Mudumalai national parks in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively. Read More......

Wild boar kills but rarely

The wild boar fights when cornered, sometimes against such animals like tigers and leopards. Sometimes it clashes with, and inadvertently kills, humans. A 2009 study by the Wildlife Institute of India on the "Human–Wild Pig Conflict in Selected States in India" found that 309 humans were killed or injured between 1990-2008 by wild boar. But only 12 cases of these 309 were of wild boar killing humans.

More importantly 73.8% of human-wild boar conflict cases occurred in forests where humans ventured for collection of forest produce, wood, fodder, medicinal plants, or to graze their livestock. In the reverse case, when wild boar invade human settlements, they mostly damage crops and only attack humans when cornered.

In Himachal Pradesh, wild boar caused maximum damage to maize crop (14%), followed by wheat/barley (6%) and rice (5%). In Rajasthan state, damage to maize crop was highest (32%), followed by damage to guar (25%), oil seeds (17%), wheat/barley (15%), pulses (13%) and jowar/bajra (12%). In Madhya Pradesh, wild pigs caused maximum damage to rice crop (26%), followed by wheat/barley (20%), maize (18%), jowar/bajra (13%), groundnut (9%) and oilseeds (6%). In Uttar Pradesh, damage to madua crop by wild boar was highest (38%), followed by damage to cholai and katu (30%), maize (29%), sugarcane (25%) and jowar, bajra and pulses (23%).

When wild boar grow in numbers and invade human settlements, their numbers can be controlled through culling. But humans provoking the wild boar by intruding into forests for grazing livestock and collecting forest produce should definitely be discouraged. Read More......