Consumption of wild boars should be allowed, experts say

Experts recommend amending current laws to permit the consumption of captured wild boars that have been deemed fit through quarantine to address the increasing numbers of this animal and the population's rising clashes with humans, reported The Paper in Shanghai.

On the evening of Oct 27, a wild boar trespassed onto the high-speed rail line between Nanjing South Station and Zijinshan East Station, colliding with the passing train D5515.

This collision led to equipment failure and the train coming to a halt, causing delays for trains passing through Nanjing South Station, according to a post on the Nanjing Railway Station's microblog.

Following the halt, an onboard mechanic inspecting and addressing the malfunction was struck by a passing train on the adjacent track and tragically lost his life despite rescue efforts.

Instances of wild boar appearances are becoming increasingly common.

Wang Hongjie, a member of the wild boar control expert team of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and director of the animal population control committee under the China Wildlife Conservation Association, told the Paper that wild boar numbers are on the rise. Due to the lack of natural predators and their robust reproductive capabilities, existing control methods are outdated, primarily relying on trapping or netting, which is deemed inefficient.

"Wild boars are not considered suitable for consumption, dampening public enthusiasm for hunting. Moreover, there is a lack of stable financial support, and population control agencies or hunting teams are not adapting to the demands of the work," Wang explained.

Jin Kun, head of the institute of natural protected areas research at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, noted that recent years have seen progress in protecting wild boar habitats, leading to a rapid increase in their population and the gradual expansion of their habitat range, increasingly overlapping with human residential and industrial areas.

"While some provinces are indeed grappling with issues related to wild boar damage, it is crucial to recognize that the majority of these incidents occur in specific localized areas," Jin said.

Statistics show that 857 counties and districts across 26 provinces and autonomous regions, including Shaanxi, Shanxi, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hebei, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Anhui, and Ningxia Hui autonomous region, have been impacted by wild boars.

Since 2017, the former National Forestry Administration, now the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, has issued notice and established special committee to control the wild boar population.

In 2021, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration collaborated with the relevant committee of the National People's Congress and related departments of the State Council to conduct a special investigation and launched measures to curb the population on experimental basis in 14 provinces.

The insufficient funding, low hunting efficiency, and unprofessional teams remain bottlenecks, the Paper noted. In January of this year, 15 ministries devised a plan with specific measures to control the wild boar population.