In Thursday's Ottawa Citizen newspaper "Wild boars are back in Eastern Ontario"
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/shoot-to-kill-the-wild-boars-are-back-in-eastern-ontario
Shoot to kill: Wild boars are back in Eastern Ontario
ROBERT BOSTELAAR More from Robert Bostelaar
Published on: September 23, 2014Last Updated: September 24, 2014 8:54 PM EDT
Killer bees. Wild (and ###-crazed) turkeys. And now, Eastern Ontario’s latest danger: wild boars.
Should you cross paths with one of the fierce feral hogs that have been sighted east of Ottawa and are thought to have escaped from a game farm, Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry recommends that you shoot to kill.
If, that is, you’re a farmer or hunter. Fall under some other category, and you probably shouldn’t be strapping on six-shooters and riding off in pursuit like cowgals Kristal and Lea of Wild Women Hoggers, a television reality (ish) series.
Those tusk-brandishing (male), nest-protecting (female), 90-kilograms-of-gristle-and-muscle-weighing (male AND female) boars are nothing for the non-outdoors type to mess with. Better, says the ministry, to call the pros to deal with an animal it says can damage crops, transmit diseases to domestic swine and “be a threat to human safety.”
Africanized “killer” bees never made it past the U.S. sunbelt and wild turkeys — reintroduced to Ontario in the 1980s — have been a boon to hunters and no more than a nuisance to everyone else (and especially to the pedestrian who chronicled on video her encounter with some mating-minded gobblers in Barrhaven).
But wild boars? They’re a problem. Never native to North America, the big-headed, short-legged swine were brought in from Europe and Asia for their savoury meat and soon pushed through or dug under their game-ranch fences. Now millions are on the loose in Texas and other southern states as well as Canada’s Prairies. Manitoba, waging a “boar war,” permits open hunting throughout the year.
Eastern Ontario had a scare in 2008 when 16 boars broke out of a farm near Embrun — spurring a $1,000 fine for the farmer for failing to notify game officials of the escape — but all were killed by cars, predators or hunters.
Since late summer 2013, however, the MNRF has had six reports of boars rooting and running in Alfred-Plantagenet Township or farther east in Voyageur Provincial Park.
How big might the population be?
“We don’t know,” admits biologist Mary Dillon of the ministry’s Kemptville office. “We’ve had no reported escapes, so we can’t say how many are out there.”
The ministry’s ideal number is zero, so it is authorizing hunters and landowners to shoot any boar they see under provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. It’s even distributing a tip sheet that suggests the shooter “aim for the shoulder (or slightly ahead of the shoulder) on a broadside boar, as the vital area of a pig is more forward than that of a deer.”
Should the boar be running away or toward (!) the shooter, the advice is to aim for “the vitals between the shoulders,” thus, one hopes, bringing the prey down with a single bullet, Atticus Finch-style.
If you encounter a boar unarmed — you, that is, not the boar — don’t panic. “Normally they go away from you,” advises Hans Lindenmann of the Trillium Meadows Red Deer and Wild Boar Farm near Vankleek Hill.
But boars, he quickly adds, can be dangerous if cornered or chased by a dog, or if the boar has been injured or is a mother defending a litter. “Don’t go close,” he says.
Lindenmann, by the way, is certain there have been no escapes from the well-fenced farm where he has raised boars since 1999. He was among the first to bring the animals to the area but says there now are several herds in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
A Swiss immigrant, he notes that boars have become a major nuisance in Europe, even intruding into cities as wild turkeys have here. And while some wildlife experts suggest boars cannot survive the harsh Canadian winter, Lindenmann thinks the thick layer of fat they build up will see them through cold weather here just as it does elsewhere.
Customers, he reports, line up for boar cuts at his booth at the Ottawa Farmer’s Market at Brewer’s Park.
“It’s darker and there’s more iron in it. It’s really flavourful meat.”
Wild boar (sus scrofa)
Also known as: Wild pig, razorback, feral hog
Appearance: Dark grey to black or brown, with thick bristly hair. Males may have tusks
Adult weight: 90 kg or more
Diet: ‘Opportunistic omnivore’ eats roots, fruit, nuts, insects, birds, small mammals
If you see one: Do not approach; leave area by same route with which you entered. Keep dogs leashed in wooded areas or farm fields that boars are known or suspected to occupy. Report any encounter to Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry at 613-258-8267 (toll-free 1-800-668-1940; ask to be connected to Kemptville district office)
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/shoot-to-kill-the-wild-boars-are-back-in-eastern-ontario
Shoot to kill: Wild boars are back in Eastern Ontario
ROBERT BOSTELAAR More from Robert Bostelaar
Published on: September 23, 2014Last Updated: September 24, 2014 8:54 PM EDT
Killer bees. Wild (and ###-crazed) turkeys. And now, Eastern Ontario’s latest danger: wild boars.
Should you cross paths with one of the fierce feral hogs that have been sighted east of Ottawa and are thought to have escaped from a game farm, Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry recommends that you shoot to kill.
If, that is, you’re a farmer or hunter. Fall under some other category, and you probably shouldn’t be strapping on six-shooters and riding off in pursuit like cowgals Kristal and Lea of Wild Women Hoggers, a television reality (ish) series.
Those tusk-brandishing (male), nest-protecting (female), 90-kilograms-of-gristle-and-muscle-weighing (male AND female) boars are nothing for the non-outdoors type to mess with. Better, says the ministry, to call the pros to deal with an animal it says can damage crops, transmit diseases to domestic swine and “be a threat to human safety.”
Africanized “killer” bees never made it past the U.S. sunbelt and wild turkeys — reintroduced to Ontario in the 1980s — have been a boon to hunters and no more than a nuisance to everyone else (and especially to the pedestrian who chronicled on video her encounter with some mating-minded gobblers in Barrhaven).
But wild boars? They’re a problem. Never native to North America, the big-headed, short-legged swine were brought in from Europe and Asia for their savoury meat and soon pushed through or dug under their game-ranch fences. Now millions are on the loose in Texas and other southern states as well as Canada’s Prairies. Manitoba, waging a “boar war,” permits open hunting throughout the year.
Eastern Ontario had a scare in 2008 when 16 boars broke out of a farm near Embrun — spurring a $1,000 fine for the farmer for failing to notify game officials of the escape — but all were killed by cars, predators or hunters.
Since late summer 2013, however, the MNRF has had six reports of boars rooting and running in Alfred-Plantagenet Township or farther east in Voyageur Provincial Park.
How big might the population be?
“We don’t know,” admits biologist Mary Dillon of the ministry’s Kemptville office. “We’ve had no reported escapes, so we can’t say how many are out there.”
The ministry’s ideal number is zero, so it is authorizing hunters and landowners to shoot any boar they see under provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. It’s even distributing a tip sheet that suggests the shooter “aim for the shoulder (or slightly ahead of the shoulder) on a broadside boar, as the vital area of a pig is more forward than that of a deer.”
Should the boar be running away or toward (!) the shooter, the advice is to aim for “the vitals between the shoulders,” thus, one hopes, bringing the prey down with a single bullet, Atticus Finch-style.
If you encounter a boar unarmed — you, that is, not the boar — don’t panic. “Normally they go away from you,” advises Hans Lindenmann of the Trillium Meadows Red Deer and Wild Boar Farm near Vankleek Hill.
But boars, he quickly adds, can be dangerous if cornered or chased by a dog, or if the boar has been injured or is a mother defending a litter. “Don’t go close,” he says.
Lindenmann, by the way, is certain there have been no escapes from the well-fenced farm where he has raised boars since 1999. He was among the first to bring the animals to the area but says there now are several herds in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.
A Swiss immigrant, he notes that boars have become a major nuisance in Europe, even intruding into cities as wild turkeys have here. And while some wildlife experts suggest boars cannot survive the harsh Canadian winter, Lindenmann thinks the thick layer of fat they build up will see them through cold weather here just as it does elsewhere.
Customers, he reports, line up for boar cuts at his booth at the Ottawa Farmer’s Market at Brewer’s Park.
“It’s darker and there’s more iron in it. It’s really flavourful meat.”
Wild boar (sus scrofa)
Also known as: Wild pig, razorback, feral hog
Appearance: Dark grey to black or brown, with thick bristly hair. Males may have tusks
Adult weight: 90 kg or more
Diet: ‘Opportunistic omnivore’ eats roots, fruit, nuts, insects, birds, small mammals
If you see one: Do not approach; leave area by same route with which you entered. Keep dogs leashed in wooded areas or farm fields that boars are known or suspected to occupy. Report any encounter to Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry at 613-258-8267 (toll-free 1-800-668-1940; ask to be connected to Kemptville district office)
