Researcher out to gauge impact of wild boar population

Colony appears to be thriving in the countryside near Alyth

While beavers might have been grabbing all the headlines as far as reintroduced species are concerned, a university researcher is keen to gather information on the extent of what he believes is a growing population of wild boar located in the Perthshire and Angus area.

With a thriving colony believed to have taken up residence in the countryside near Alyth, a wildlife population scientist from University College London, Gavin O’Donnell, is keen to speak to farmers and locals in the area to gauge the level and type of interaction between these animals and farming operations in the area.

Mr O’Donnell said his first step in studying the current colony was to determine how many of these animals were actually living in the wild.

He said that while the herd might not yet have reached the proportions of that believed to be living in Dumfriesshire – which is reported to be in the region of more than 200 animals, making it the second largest grouping in the UK – no one knows the exact number living wild in the Angus and Perthshire area.

“We simply don’t know how many are out there, but estimates vary between about 20 and 40, depending on who you speak to,” said Mr O’Donnell.

“Nor do we have any real idea where they came from,” he added.

“Unlike in the beaver population, so far no animals have been trapped, or shot ones recovered, to carry out the sort of DNA tests which would allow us to use genetic information to give us some idea where the animals originally came from.”

And while he admitted this lack of evidence might have had something to do with pigs being tastier than beavers, he said samples would also be useful to identify the actual species.

“Some people refer to the population as wild boar, while others refer to them as feral pigs,” said Mr O’Donnell.

“But that’s probably more of a reflection of how they feel about the animals, with the latter description indicating that they’re likely to look upon the animals as a pest rather than an asset.”

He said while there were indications the beavers had been deliberately released in central Scotland, with the reputation wild boar had for escaping it was more likely the population of pigs had bred up from runaways from commercial operations.

“And while these animals can quickly adapt to different habitats, given their substantial litter size, the population numbers can quickly swell.”

Mr O’Donnell can be emailed at gavin.o’donnell.17@ucl.ac.uk

We simply don’t know how many are out there, but estimates vary between about 20and40

Picture: Volodymyr Burdyak. Wild boar are often viewed as a pest by many in the farming industry.