"Madrid Turns to Archers to Solve Its Wild Boar Problem " Topic

"It's a scene straight out of medieval times set in modern-day Madrid: an archer dressed in camouflage gear, stationed in a tree at night, waiting for the kill.

For five years, the authorities in the region have resorted to this unusual technique to cull wild boars encroaching on towns, relying on 55 volunteer bow hunters to eliminate pigs that take too much of a liking to urban life.

"The bow is a silent weapon and people who use it act in a silent way too, so we don't disturb the environment or people," explains Emilio de la Cruz, a 45-year-old business owner and keen hunter who volunteers for this form of population control.

The method is just one used to try and curb the proliferation of wild boar going further and further into populated areas, causing agricultural damage and road accidents…."
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Amicalement
Armand

We have a pig infestation in Texas. 55 bow hunters will not make a dent.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

We have a pig infestation in Texas. 55 bow hunters will not make a dent.

I wish these African safari hunters, like the Trump boys, would do their civic duty and get into the fight. If there was ever the need for hunters, it's right now in Texas.

BTW, who makes good boars in 28mm?

I was wondering how you could have a wild boar problem. I mean wild boar are made of meat and pig is tasty. Sounds like they have a not enough hunters and guns problem.

We also have the same problem here in Mississippi. But we've taken a stab at solving it by making wild pig hunting an any time, no bag limit proposition. But it is still not making a dent in the population. They just breed too damn fast.

I did read that a team was trying to develop a method to inject a sterilization hormone into boars to help curb the population growth. They are using food traps, facial recognition, and air powered injectors. Maybe that will work.

Jim

Sounds like they need more Gaul.

Huh.

There were camouflaged archers up in trees in medieval times?

Boars can easily spot non-camouflaged archers up in trees?

In what way is using hunters to kill wild animals an "unusual technique"? To my mind, trapping and relocating the animals (like they do around here) is unusual…and doomed to fail.

Bizarre , wild boar is delicious ….bacon sandwich time

Same problems in areas of western NY. They fall under a nuisance hunting license and you can shoot them year round. They'll tear up an entire farm field overnight and have no natural predators since they were 'imported'. I've watched videos of them being hunted from helicopters with semi-auto shotguns and the hunters can't reload fast enough there's so many of them.

Using archers is the unusual technique, I suspect.

Its a problem that has recurred for centuries.

In 14th century England towns had issues with feral pigs , and thats medieval towns with a population of only a few thousand folk. I'm still astonished the pigs could evade humans in such a small urban area. You'd have thought that during a famine they wouldn't last long, but even starving townsfolk wouldn't make a dent in the pig population…

"The La Fleche Airport in the Sarthe (region) regularly calls on bow hunters to control the number of boars near the airport,"

How appropriate!

Sir Walter,

Pigs reproduce at an astounding rate. We hunt (both from the ground and helicopters) and trap them. We kill them in large numbers and still they are costing thousands of dollars a year in damage. We do not consider them a game animal in Texas. They are vermin which can be hunted year around. Hog hunting has become big business yet we are still losing the war. I hate them.

I'd imagine they could get quite dangerous too in the wrong circumstances.

Pigs are gnarly animals from the experience I had with him as a kid on a farm.

Weasel,

I suppose they can be. I have heard stories about people being injured by wild hogs. However, I have hunted them for 42 years and have never felt threatened nor do I personally know of anyone who has been hurt by a pig. However, they are fully equipped to injure the unwary. I'm sure having your leg gashed by a 200 lbs pig sporting tusks wouldn't be fun.

I've had people tell me stories of being attacked but it's entirely possible they were being idiots and putting themselves in danger.

I know that people have been eaten here by wild pigs… but they are huge!… 400 to 650 kgs!…

And they are very difficult to kill…

Amicalement
Armand

Well, for the larger ones, you are allowed to use rocket launchers… ;-)

Ha!Ha!Ha!….

Amicalement
Armand

The Pokaloua Training Area on the big island of Hawaii has a large wild pig population. They are a nuisance and very destructive. It's open season on them year round. While stationed at MCB Kaneohe Bay, me and several of my friends made hunting trips over there, taking them with 12ga shotguns and slugs.

During one deployment for training to Pokaloua (back in 1998 I think), I got permission to conduct an "anti-pig" ambush as a training event. We baited them into the kill zone with MRE components, and initiated the ambush with two claymore mines, followed up by small arms fire, the range would only support 5.56mm and below so no MGs. We used 12 GA slugs to finish off the pigs. The ambush was conducted at night and used night vision devices, and star-clusters. Our platoon level ambush killed four big pigs (over 100#) and three little ones (under 100#) in the KZ, two other bigs ones were found several days later. It was overkill, and I'd rather have done three seperate squad level ambushes but the available time and training areas would only support one platoon level ambush.

The next night we roasted the pigs "Hawaiian Style" and had a warriors night.

Wow!… a military action to kill those pigs!…

Amicalement
Armand

You were able to lure sentient creatures with MRE? From what I hear that's an impressive achievement! There again, everybody used to moan about UK compo rations, but the chicken curry was really excellent. OTH I did once (feeling brave and being very, very drunk) open a tin of the infamous mock turtle soup. 40+ years later and I'm still in therapy.