Australia's battle against wild boars
Wild pigs are destroying farmland and forest. Controlling them is becoming serious business.
from the October 29, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
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Mr. Smith is on the frontline of the fight against the burgeoning wild pig population.
He set up his pig trapping business, Boar Busters, two years ago after retiring from the Australian Army. During his 17 years in the military, he served in Iraq, East Timor, and Somalia.
He grew up in this sugar cane country, hunting pigs as a teenager. The pig-trapping venture enables him to put something back into the community and use some of the skills he learned as a noncommissioned officer in the infantry, he says.
"Some of the field craft that I learned comes in useful when you're tracking an animal. And logistical skills help me organize a small number of staff so that we can have the maximum effect on the problem," Smith says.
He and his trappers have caught and shot 1,200 pigs over the past two years in the dense rain forests and open farmland surrounding the sugar cane towns of Innisfail and Tully.
Pigs can reproduce at an astonishing rate. A sow can produce two litters a year, with up to 10 piglets in each litter. Within six months the young pigs are ready to breed.
Where farmers once shot a dozen pigs a year, they are now bagging hundreds. "The numbers compound very quickly," says Smith, checking his traps along a rutted track where forest meets farmland.
"We can't shoot them because the forest is too dense and we can't bait them because that would kill native wildlife, too. So we trap them. Big or small, we catch 'em all, that's our motto."
The traps are positioned in the shade – so that the animals do not suffer from heat exhaustion – and are checked daily. The pigs are shot with a rifle. Sadly for such an abundant resource, their meat cannot be eaten, due to worm infestation and disease.
"It's not something we get a kick out of," says trapper Simon Kaukiainen, as the sound of a rifle shot rings out through the rain forest, scattering a flock of snow-white cockatoos. "But it needs to be done."
The pig problem has worsened in this region after cyclone Larry barreled through in March 2006, flattening large swaths of rain forest. This deprived pigs of wild fruit and fungi, driving them onto farmland.
"Over the last 12 months, there have been extraordinary numbers," says Wayne Thomas, of Queensland Canegrowers. "The cyclone destroyed their habitat and displaced them."
Pig hunting has been popular with rural Australians for decades. Amateur pig hunters use high-powered rifles, hunting dogs, and "pig rigs" – specially equipped trucks – and call themselves "grunter hunters."
The sport even has its own magazines, like "Bacon Busters."
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