The Boars are back !!

[sydnie7]

Lol we have wolves in Texas, and they cannot stop the pigs... The Mexican Lobo was reintroduced, and there have been more and more sightings of the jaguar, which was once thought to have died out... of course it's not uncommon to spy the mountain lion or bobcats, anymore..

One time driving north of Houston towards Corsicana.. I counted an excess of 10 pigs that lost the duel with autos on I45

Problem is, with the size of most autos in the UK, the boars will win. . . or at least it will be a lose-lose.

BTW great to hear about the jaguar sightings, I read of one years ago in ?Smithsonian? that was the first in decades, hadn't heard anything more.

[skauwt]

I'm a bit confused, Skauwt. Wouldn't deer be native there?

they may be native but when you have large estates letting them breed and breed for the sake of a few pounds for stag hunting and so on they become a pest, the deer cattle and sheep have destroyed more young saplings than mankind in Scotland which ends up in loss of forest habitat some parts of Scotland are just nice looking green deserts

[Phil]

I think the idea is that the piggies will root out the bracken which is choking out any re-forestation. Of course the deer and sheep will then probably come along and much the saplings before they can grow into trees. Scotland for the last 150 years or so has been a playground for wealthy individuals to come and shoot deer, grouse, pheasants, partridge, virtually anything that moves, and the whole management of land has been directed towards producing these species for sport. A tragic side issue of this has been the ruthless decimation by poisoning and other means such as trapping and, of course, shooting of all sorts of natural predators, buzzards, eagles, hawks, kites, foxes, stoats, polecats even badgers to maximise the yield with the result that there is no longer any ecological balance. The elimination of wild boar allowed the proliferation of bracken, the elimination of wolves allowed the proliferation of deer and so on and the proliferation of sheep ensured that any new saplings were quickly munched to prevent any re-forestation.

[YoungMan]

IMHO, the reintroducing of wild boar is always a gamble. I don't think there is a place in the southern United States where anyone would speak fondly of boars. They might sort out the bracken issue, but they're just as relentless in destroying crops and mucking up any grassland worth planting on. And, you know they're dangerous when the pitbulls that hunt them are wearing kevlar.

[piperdbh]

There are no wolves in the wild in Scotland these days. There is a chap who is intending to release some into a large(umpteen thousand acres) electrified pen.There are mixed views on whether this should be attempted.

Didn't Archie try this in series 3? Golly told him not to do it. Maybe the gentleman mentioned above can learn from Archie's mistakes.

[skauwt]

I think the idea is that the piggies will root out the bracken which is choking out any re-forestation. Of course the deer and sheep will then probably come along and much the saplings before they can grow into trees. Scotland for the last 150 years or so has been a playground for wealthy individuals to come and shoot deer, grouse, pheasants, partridge, virtually anything that moves, and the whole management of land has been directed towards producing these species for sport. A tragic side issue of this has been the ruthless decimation by poisoning and other means such as trapping and, of course, shooting of all sorts of natural predators, buzzards, eagles, hawks, kites, foxes, stoats, polecats even badgers to maximise the yield with the result that there is no longer any ecological balance. The elimination of wild boar allowed the proliferation of bracken, the elimination of wolves allowed the proliferation of deer and so on and the proliferation of sheep ensured that any new saplings were quickly munched to prevent any re-forestation.

phil i think you summed up the situation perfectly here, my hats off to you sir ,perhaps one day this country`s landlords will start thinking of the folk who live here more often... rather than the ones who come and visit

[Inchessi]

And, you know they're dangerous when the pitbulls that hunt them are wearing kevlar.

Is that a Pit, or is it a Dogo? The picture angle and kevlar makes it hard to tell. I have seen Packs of Dogo and a cur used for pig hunting.

[Jock Scot]

phil i think you summed up the situation perfectly here, my hats off to you sir ,perhaps one day this country`s landlords will start thinking of the folk who live here more often... rather than the ones who come and visit

Whilst you both are generally right about the past,although I would argue that the employment of the rural population of Scotland would have been even more dire without the "big estates". It would be a great mistake to ignore, underestimate, or scorn the outside money, past and present, spent on sporting activities(love or hate them) that have and still do help many estates provide much needed income and employment for the local population.

[Deil the Yin]

Yeah... I dunno about Tennessee, but here in Georgia there is no season and no limit for hunting feral hogs- they're considered a virtual blight. I'm not sure they are the same thing as a wild BOAR, but certainly close enough.

IMHO, the reintroducing of wild boar is always a gamble. I don't think there is a place in the southern United States where anyone would speak fondly of boars. They might sort out the bracken issue, but they're just as relentless in destroying crops and mucking up any grassland worth planting on. And, you know they're dangerous when the pitbulls that hunt them are wearing kevlar.

[skauwt]

Whilst you both are generally right about the past,although the employment of the rural population of Scotland would have been even more dire without the "big estates". It would be a great mistake to ignore, underestimate, or scorn the outside money, past and present, spent on sporting activities(love or hate them) that have and still do help many estates provide much needed income and employment for the local population.

your true to a extent but can those locals children who are between 18-30 buy a house that some tourist has bought for the odd visit to hunt or stalk ...chances are no most tend to move to the city's to survive ,alot of the students in the unis and college`s are from the estates that you speak of unless its a estate job which many tend not to want they are kinda trapped in the central belt ,i know this from experience as every course Ive taken in any glasgow college 70% of the class dont come from central scotland at all
even my own great grandfather had to move from kirkhill to coatbridge just to find a job my grandmother would speak of how much he missed Inverness-shire and its surrounding regions how he would always try visit when he could the only job that was on offer was estate work something he didn't want as his father and his fathers father did estate based work
and he was adamant he wasn't going to follow there footsteps
ended up he lied about his age to join the army to get away from the trappings of estate life

im wondering is kirkhill farm anywhere near your home area jock? i know my great granddad was born on that very farm