Wild boar hunting in Russia, wild boar hunting methods

Recently, the so-called African swine fever has caused enormous damage to the wild boar population in Russia, and the reduction of its numbers is now not even a matter of natural processes, but of compulsory regulation of the numbers for shooting most of the wild population. In many cases, this is done not even for the purpose of carrying out preventive measures, but, I would say, to reduce the competition of wild boar to the products of local pig farms. Because wild boar in the regions sometimes constitutes a significant source of food for the local population.

Of course, a wild boar, as a peddler of ASF, is preventively destroyed with great zeal in precisely those areas where there are large pig-breeding farms. In some areas, this year it is planned to forcibly reduce the number of wild boar populations by 75% relative to the existing population.

Wild boar is one of the most common species of wild game animals living both in our country and abroad. By the degree of importance and by the duration of the terms of the hunt for him, he is a leader. The hunt for various mature boar groups officially begins on June 1 and ends on February 28 (29).

Wild boar is distributed mainly in the European part of the country, most numerous in the western and southern regions, especially in the zone of deciduous forests, mountains and foothills of the Caucasus and Primorye. The wild boar lives even in the Arkhangelsk region, its northern border of the range passes there. But here harsh, often deep snow winters, negatively affect its livestock. For many years, the boar has been a fishing species in the Urals and in Western Siberia, in the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, as well as in the south of the Irkutsk and Chita regions.

Wild boar hunting, trophy wild boar hunting, the largest wild boar, giant wild boar.According to the FGU “Tsentrohotkontrol”, the number of wild boar in Russia in 2007 amounted to 323.6 thousand heads, and otsterl – 31578 heads. For analysis, one can cite the following data on the registration of the numbers of this species: 1967 – 42 thousand heads, 1977 – 155, 1987 – 172, 1997 – 165. Large-scale reacclimatization, which began in 1928, contributed to the increase in the population of this species. and continues to this day. Issues were made in Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, the Baltic States. Until the 1990s, about 9.3 thousand wild pigs were reintroduced in the USSR, including 7.7 thousand in Russia (A. Danilkin “Wild ungulates in a hunting farm” – 2006).

Much work on the settlement of wild boar was carried out in the central regions of the European part of Russia. Only in the Moscow region before 1988, more than 4 thousand heads were released, among them Zavidovo hunting economy in the period from 1935 to 1971 more than a thousand individuals were brought from different regions of the USSR. Large batches of boars were produced in the Yaroslavl, Smolensk, Kaluga regions. Most of the issues were made in state forest-hunting facilities. In 1970-80, these animals were settled in the Urals and Siberia: 463 individuals in the Orenburg region, Sverdlovsk – 834, Tyumen – 326, Novosibirsk – more than 120, Omsk – 172, in Krasnoyarsk Krai – 223 heads (A. Danilkin “Wild ungulates in hunting” (2006). There were also boar deliveries to other regions of our country. Their area began to expand, the number increased, and naturally, they became an object of hunting in these areas.

Boar hunting with dogs, chasing a boar, driving a boar

Wild boar as a hunting trophy and species
The boar in our country deserves the closest attention both as a species – the ancestor of the domestic pig, and as an object of hunting. Boar refers to omnivores. It eats succulent land and underground parts of grassy plants, roots, fruits, grain, grain wastes, acorns, berries, nuts, earthworms, mollusks, rodents, eggs of birds and chicks. Wrong, it would be easier to say what the boars do not eat. But still, the composition of the preferred feed depends mainly on the habitat of these animals and the time of year.

In places where boar numbers are high, they cause significant damage to agricultural crops, so oats, wiko-oat-pea mixture, corn, sunflower, Jerusalem artichoke and other crops are sown especially in boar farms on small forest fields and glades. These glades serve as a protective buffer against the wild boars of agricultural crops.

To ensure the normal existence of this species, biocomplexes are created in hunting farms, on which there are fertilizing grounds, storage facilities for feed, and towers are also equipped here for hunting. It is especially important to feed a wild boar during the winter period of time, when the depth of snow cover reaches 50 cm or more and it becomes problematic to get food for the wild boar.

The largest percentage of wild boar in hunting farms, mainly in the European part of the country, is based on visits to this animal feeding places.