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 Boar sow with three piglets born this year

 

Farmers have battled with boars through the ages. Scarecrows, fences, dogs, smell deterrents etc have been used. The present trend is electrical fences. About all these means it may be said that sometimes they work, and sometimes not.

 

The most reliable method for avoiding agricultural damage is hunting. It is something that the boars understand clearly. As intelligent animals they will keep away from fields where they are hunted.

 

At present young pigs can be hunted. Piglets are so small that a majority of hunters haven’t the heart to take a shot at them. A shot fired into the air at close quarters may also have the desired result.

 

In forests, away from cultivated fields, hunters set up forage fields for game animals. The aim of the enterprise is to reduce the damage by game animals on field crops. Knowledgeable hunters will not hunt boars in the forage fields. Abandoned fields and hayfields of derelict forest farms and the lanes for powerlines are used for the forage fields.

 

To reduce the damage caused by game animals cooperation between hunters and farmers is crucially important.