Category: West TV
Date: 09.01.2006
Printable version
After an absence of 300 years wild boar are back in the English countryside - and one of their new strongholds is the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. But should we let them stay?
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Presenter Tessa Dunlop opens a new series of Inside Out West tonight on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE West (7.30pm, 9 January) by examining one of the UK's hottest conservation debates.
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Despite their notoriously belligerent persona, wild boar are typically shy animals seen only fleetingly in their natural habitat.
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Inside Out's team uses a specially erected hide in a clearing and, after two days of silently waiting, their efforts are rewarded as they spot eight wild boar foraging for food on the forest floor.
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To many people, wild boar are a menace. Farmers particularly are worried about the possibility they could spread disease.
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Forest of Dean farmer Richard Vaughan keeps a herd of rare breed pigs and is not a fan of wild boar.
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"Disease is a major concern," he says. "We don't have classic swine fever in this country - thank goodness. It would be a ghastly problem. It would make the foot and mouth thing seem fairly small in comparison and there are heaps of other diseases that pigs can have."
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Richard has no sympathy for a pro-boar conservation message.
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"The current population of wild boar should be exterminated. Then the Government should stop and consider how it goes forward. It's easy enough to introduce them - but very hard to get rid of them."
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So what about the risk these impressive, powerful animals can pose to humans or to the environment?
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There have been incidents where wild boar have attacked and injured people who disturbed them.
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And it's not uncommon for farm land to be churned-up as the wild boar dig for food.
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But others say the wild boar - once a native species - should be protected.
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Inside Out West looks at both sides of the debate.
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The Government is about to decide what to do, following a sizeable public consultation exercise.
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One option is to eradicate the wild boar population entirely, but this would be costly, difficult and controversial.
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Another option is to do nothing and allow the population to re-establish itself.
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Or there may be a middle ground, introducing some form of population management.
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Notes to Editors
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Boar Facts...
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An adult boar can weigh up to 200kg
They can run faster than Lindford Christie
They can be up to one metre in height
After two years of age the male boar grows tusks
Wild boar are omnivorous, eating plant and animal matter
They have poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell and exceptional hearing
In captivity boar can live for 25 years.
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Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Bristol Press Office
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