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Wild Boar

Woman, 80, saves pet dog from wild boar on Dartmoor

An 80-year-old woman fought off three wild boar as they tried to savage her dachshund during a new year walk on Dartmoor. Rosemary Hamilton-Meikle told yesterday how she used her dog's lead to frighten two of the wild pigs away and hit the third on the snout with it.

The incident is the latest in a spate of brushes with wild boar on and around the moor in Devon, which has prompted police to issue warnings about them.

Mrs Hamilton-Meikle was walking her dog, Bosun, at Buckland Monachorum, near Plymouth, on the edge of Dartmoor, when he vanished into gorse bushes. She said: "I heard a terrible screaming noise and I thought he had got into a fight with some other dogs. I rushed into the bushes and found three wild boar with Bosun lying down on the ground in front of them. They must have tossed him and were coming in to attack."
Mrs Hamilton-Meikle, of Plymouth, admitted she had been terrified, but had been determined to save her dog. She swung Bosun's lead around her head, which sent two of the boar scuttling away. But a male boar stood its ground, a metre from the pensioner.

She said: "The dog lead has a heavy metal clip so I swung it again and caught him on the nose. Then I picked up Bosun, turned around and walked out. Fortunately, the boar did not follow. It's the first time I've seen the boar, though I know a man who was chased up a tree by them. I only saw three, but locals say there are up to 15 around Buckland Monachorum."

Another walker who was close by at the time said: "We could hear the pigs grunting. It was evil. They were only 10 yards from a pathway that walkers use. It could easily have been a child that was attacked. There should be warning signs up."

In the past year animal activists have released two lots of wild boar from farms in Devon and many of the animals are still at large. On New Year's Day, the same day as Mrs Hamilton-Meikle's encounter, a man and his two dogs were confronted by the animals on Dartmoor.

Pauline Boon, 36, a taxi driver from Buckland Monachorum, said she had seen wild boar worrying sheep recently. "I was driving past a field near the village when the sheep in it suddenly scattered," she said. "I stopped the taxi and saw a wild boar chasing the sheep - they were terrified."

Jo Barr, spokeswoman for the RSPCA in the south-west, said attacks on people were rare. In the past eight years there had only been two cases in Britain in which a boar made contact with a person, she said. "They are shy creatures and frightened of humans. They are only a danger if they are cornered or if they are protecting young."

Guardian
 
I for one thing it's brilliant that boars have re-established themselves in the UK and hope one day we will see the reintroduction of wolves, bears and the like.
 
Hogzilla II Gets Taken Down
Georgia Hunter Bags 'Hogzilla'

FAYETTE COUNTY -- An urban legend comes to life, and meets its death in northeast Georgia.

A boar weighing 1,100 pounds was shot and killed in a Fayette County neighborhood. Residents say the wild hog had been tearing up their yards for years.

These so-called "hogzillas" have been spotted and killed in south Georgia in recent years, but the Department of Natural Resources is trying to determine if the pig shot in Fayette County this week is a state record.

People passing by the Coursey house are amazed by the boar hanging from a tree in the front yard. William Coursey, an avid hunter, shot the pig in a neighbor's yard.

Coursey says the boar is one of four that had been roaming the neighborhood, uprooting yards for seven years. He says the other three animals may have been killed previously.

He says he thought it was myth until now. Coursey and his son took the hog to a local weigh station, where it weighed in at 1,100 pounds. It's an estimated 9 feet long.

The Courseys believe the hefty hog may be the biggest ever, based on statistics they say they found in a local hunting magazine.

Experts say the large pigs are "feral," meaning they were once domesticated but now run wild. They can be dangerous, and the DNR urges that you call wildlife experts to remove the animals.
 
Here's a slightly FOAF story - A friend of my friend's family was driving in the south of France, when she hit a boar. The front of the car Ruckled up, and the boar just picked itself up and walked off.
 
H_James said:
Here's a slightly FOAF story - A friend of my friend's family was driving in the south of France, when she hit a boar. The front of the car Ruckled up, and the boar just picked itself up and walked off.

I can quite believe it. I lived in Germany for 11 years and had more than one face to face encounter with wild boar (I think I waffled on about it earlier in this very thread). I also heard one or two stories along the same lines as yours, and I've ne reason to disbelieve them; A fully grown male is a mean mofo'.
 
Giant boar pic is no hoax, say Pilbara witnesses
June 01, 2009

"The picture has been circulating on the internet alongside claims the boar was killed at various locations across Australia.

It was written off as a hoax by many, including WA's Department of Environment and Conservation, and sparked much debate when published on website PerthNow.

But The Sunday Times has confirmed that the pig was shot on a Pilbara cattle station near Newman, 1200km northeast of Perth.

Sources close to the family of the man in the photo have confirmed he is Pilbara pastoralist John Anick and the picture was taken on his property three years ago.

The family refused to talk about the giant boar earlier, for fear that illegal pig hunters would flock to the area.

The source said the 220kg beast was eating a cow when it was first seen by workers mustering cattle in a helicopter. "

RazorbacK!
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25 ... 77,00.html
 
I can believe that photo isn't a hoax, it looks the right size to be convincing. Pretty damn big, though.
 
As with a lot of 'mega sized beasts' the perspective of the photo makes the animal appear so much bigger than it actually is. The pig may well be big, but around the size of the farmer, not the hogzilla it claims to be. :imo:
 
The farmer is just standing a little bit behind the boar, so I think it really is that big.
This might be the best 'hogzilla' photo I have seen. Other ones I have seen from the US looked indistinct and had faked elements.
 
Mythopoeika said:
The farmer is just standing a little bit behind the boar, so I think it really is that big.
This might be the best 'hogzilla' photo I have seen. Other ones I have seen from the US looked indistinct and had faked elements.

I agree, it's not as if it's a fifty foot high, spawned by radiation monstrosity, it appears to be within the realms of possibility.
 
Sorry guys, look at the way the truck is angled and you'll see the farmer is stood about 4-5 feet away from the hind hoofs of the pig.

Clever photography, big pig, but not as big as they want everyone to think it is.
 
Irish wild boar makes a comeback
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/nort ... 411667.stm

Mad, bad and dangerous.. the Irish wild boar makes a comeback
The Irish wild boar - which died out hundreds of years ago - is back on the rampage.

Conservation authority, Biodiversity Ireland, has reported a number of sightings of boar in their old stomping grounds over the past year.

One 396lb boar was shot near a school playground in Tipperary this year, according to a report in the Irish Times.

Some lovers of wildlife argue that the boar should be welcomed.

But others believe they are a nuisance.

Farmers claim they damage farmland. They have also been accused of attacking dogs, charging at walkers and wrecking local land.

Sows, boars and piglets have been spotted in counties Kilkenny and Wicklow.

Some conservationists are concerned that, as the Irish wolf is extinct, there is no natural predator to keep the numbers of wild boar down.



Yes, he's cute... but wait until he grows up
Barry Coad, the game and wild life manager for Coillte -an Irish commercial company operating in forestry, land based businesses, renewable energy and panel products - told the Irish Times he had dealt with a number of wild boar over the past year.

He said the problem was "quite widespread throughout the country".

Mr Coad has been directly involved in removing nine animals from Piltown in County Kilkenny and Glenealy in County Wicklow.

"I think it is a serious concern for agriculture and also there is potential for spreading disease," he said.

Wild boar are known to uproot large areas of land, eliminate native vegetation and have the potential to spread disease to domestic livestock.

Colonies of wild boar have become established
 
Wild boar seem to be fairly endemic now all over the UK, I saw a couple of them crossing a field out by the RSPB at Sandy, Beds. In the Spring.
 
Lets reintroduce the wolf to deal with them. Might be good at culling the number of farmers as well.
 
FelixAntonius said:
Wild boar seem to be fairly endemic now all over the UK, I saw a couple of them crossing a field out by the RSPB at Sandy, Beds. In the Spring.

I saw one by the side of the road in the country lanes between Hemel Hempstead and St. Albans in Hertfordshire. What a thrill it was too.
 
ramonmercado said:
Lets reintroduce the wolf to deal with them. Might be good at culling the number of farmers as well.
In Sweden, we now have out-of-control wild boar (it’s mostly golf courses that complain, and it serves them right) and wolf, so plentiful we’re going to hunt it next year for the first time since the 1960s. And bear, so plentiful that people are mauled in the woods every year – that never happened even 15 years ago. (At our country house, last winter we saw bear tracks cross the road about 30 yards from the house ...) Both wolf and bear are spreading rapidly south, to more inhabited areas. As are both lynx and wolverine, perhaps the least unpopular two big carnivores.

And of course, when you hit the road in your car, you have to look out for crossing moose and deer. Except in the north, where reindeer is the biggest hazard: these guys don’t cross the road, they just stand on it, and don’t move.

Next up will be the raccoon dog, some stupid animal coming in from Russia by way of Finland.
 
I hope the bears, boars and wolves are culling plenty of golfers and farmers!
 
bosskR said:
And bear, so plentiful that people are mauled in the woods every year – that never happened even 15 years ago. (At our country house, last winter we saw bear tracks cross the road about 30 yards from the house ...)

Perhaps there are just more people like you, with country houses, coming into contact with bears, encroaching on their territory. Increased numbers of bear attacks doesn't mean there are too many bears, it means there are too many dumb people.

What a wonderful thing to have the possibility of seeing wolf, bear, wolverine and lynx in the wild, you should be pleased and proud.


Now, if you were thinking of culling Ulrika.......... :lol:
 
LordRsmacker said:
Perhaps there are just more people like you, with country houses, coming into contact with bears, encroaching on their territory.
Yeah, there are more people like me, with country houses ... because earlier, people were living in these very houses all year round, not living in towns and visiting the country a couple of weeks a year. Sweden, unsurprisingly, is becoming more urbanised, not less. And bear and wolf populations are growing for certain.
 
Wild boar are being shown on BBC1's Countryfile now. :D
 
As if wild boar aren't frightening enough already -

Radioactive wild boar roaming the forests of Germany

Tests by the state government of Saxony show that more than one in three wild boars gave off such high levels of radiation, thought to be a legacy of Chernobyl, that they were unfit for human consumption

... Even though Saxony lies some 700 miles from Chernobyl, wind and rain carried the radioactivity across western Europe, and soil contamination was found even further away, in France.

Wild boar are thought to be particularly affected because they root through the soil for food, and feed on mushrooms and underground truffles that store radiation. Many mushrooms from the affected areas are also believed to be unfit for human consumption.
 
Ever since reading the Asterix and Obelix books as a kid, I've always wanted to try roast wild boar. I wonder if it tastes more gamey than the normal hog roasts? ..
 
Swifty said:
Ever since reading the Asterix and Obelix books as a kid, I've always wanted to try roast wild boar. I wonder if it tastes more gamey than the normal hog roasts? ..

First catch a wild boar...
 
ramonmercado said:
Swifty said:
Ever since reading the Asterix and Obelix books as a kid, I've always wanted to try roast wild boar. I wonder if it tastes more gamey than the normal hog roasts? ..

First catch a wild boar...

Yep .. I'm sure they don't tend to volunteer to be roasted .. I'll have to youtube and just dream until then.
 
Probably tastes like chicken. I mean, ham.
 
Wild boar numbers in the Forest of Dean have nearly doubled since 2013 despite an increase in the number culled, according to the Forestry Commission.

Results of an annual thermal imaging survey estimate the population is now more than 1,000 animals.

The commission carries out a yearly cull in a bid to limit numbers to an agreed population of 400 animals.

In 2012 the cull was suspended over concerns the numbers were too low and the species could be eradicated.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-33648362
 
Eurostar passengers experienced delays after a train hit a wild boar that had strayed onto the track.

The 14:22 service from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord was delayed for about an hour on Sunday after hitting the animal in the Haute Picardie area of northern France.

A Eurostar spokesman said this led to minor delays as temporary speed restrictions were put in place.

He said the train arrived safely at the Paris terminus.

"The collision caused a few delays as the train was stopped to be checked," he said. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37537258?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
Nearly stumbled into one that was sleeping, could see it was a male as it ran ,luckily, away from me, must remember to make more noise when I'm going through tall undergrowth !.
 
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