Boar war: Marksmen called in to cull 1,200

EXTRA marksmen have been called in to help control more than 1,600 wild boar said to be wreaking havoc in rural Gloucestershire.

Numbers have boomed in the Forest of Dean, with the animals (pictured right) said to be digging up sports fields and graveyards and even attacking pets and people.

The usually shy feral hogs venture out of the forest on to residential streets, where they have learned how to tip over dustbins to root out food. Villagers have been ordered not to put out their bins until the morning of collection to stop them being ransacked.

Locals have been told to use lockable containers, and a housing association has put up extra fences around its properties.

The Forestry Commission says it needs to bring down numbers to nearer 400 to stay within agreed limits. Officials have decided to increase the number of wildlife rangers involved in the annual boar cull from four to six for the second time in a number of years.

Figures suggest that despite ten annual culls, which have wiped out around 2,500 animals, the number of boar continues to rise. And experts warn there is enough food in the area to sustain 10,000 of them.

The commission’s Kevin Stannard told councillors that increasing the number of rangers with rifles would not necessarily kill more boar as the large number of ramblers, dog walkers, joggers and cyclists made it difficult to get a safe shot.

A spokesman for The Forest of Dean Wild Boar Cull Saboteurs said: ‘Increased culling in the deep forest will only push the boar out to the edges and increase human-boar interaction. The wild boar should be seen as a triumph of rewilding rather than a menace to be culled.’