In 2021, the winter hunting period in the mountainous area of southern Anhui will start later than usual. Here, only one kind of wild animal is allowed to be hunted in a planned way-the wild boar.
Data shows that, except for extremely arid, extremely cold and extremely high altitude areas, wild boars are widely distributed on all continents of the world.
In my country, in addition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Gobi Desert, wild boars have been found in many provinces, especially in mountainous and hilly areas.
The story between wild boars and humans is reflected in ancient myths and legends. In recent centuries, the field of activity of wild boars has been greatly reduced due to the development of human society, and wild boars have even disappeared in some countries and regions.
In the mid to late 20th century, the concept of human protection of wild animals has generally strengthened, and the population of wild boars has gradually recovered.
But then they were regarded as "harmful animals" by the agricultural departments of many countries and carried out planned hunting again.
In our country, wild boars are listed as terrestrial wild animals with important ecological, scientific, and social values, referred to as "three animals".
According to the "Wild Animal Protection Law", it is illegal to hunt wild boars without approval.
In 2021, the National Forestry and Grass Administration announced the launch of pilot work to regulate wild boar populations through hunting.
Huangshan City is making careful preparations before launching winter hunting.
Nowadays, human hunting activities are subject to more and more stringent restrictions and supervision.
Lao Li, Lao Hong, and Dai Xuhui came from different villages. Because of their rich hunting experience, they were organized by the local government to become hunting team members specializing in hunting wild boars.
Next, they need to be patiently trained, waiting for the individual's hunting license and gun license to pass the annual review, and the government department has issued a hunting plan before they can start their operations.
People who have never "contested" wild boars can hardly imagine their ferocity.
Lao Li said that it is very difficult to hunt wild boars with a shotgun in his hand.
Studies have shown that in areas where hunting has been implemented, it is generally found that the difficulty of hunting wild boars is increasing year by year. The reason is that wild boars are very smart and quickly learn how to avoid humans.
The experienced Lao Li said that the hunting process is still full of dangers.
Lao Li said that a few days ago, villagers in Xia Village, Wushi Town, reported that they found traces of wild boars.
In fact, Lao Li and the others are not responsible for that area, but Wushi Town does not have its own hunting team, so Lao Li and the others went to Xia Village after obtaining permission from the government department.
The hounds become excited as soon as they enter the village, what will happen next?
Why do people take so much trouble and risk hunting wild boars?
Destroying farmland and hurting villagers, the conflict between people and pigs continues to escalate
Huangshan City is located in the southernmost part of Anhui Province. It has a humid subtropical monsoon climate with towering peaks and interlacing ridges and valleys. The unique natural endowment makes it a prestigious tourist attraction.
In recent years, with the continuous strengthening of ecological construction and protection, the forest coverage rate of Huangshan City has reached 82.9%, which is among the best in the country.
A good environment has promoted the development of local tourism, but it has also added unexpected troubles.
Xu Laifa is a villager in Ferry Village, Taipinghu Town. The homestay run by him and his wife is located on the island of the lake, so Xu Laifa often takes boats to pick up tourists.
Xu Laifa said that there have been wild boar activities on Huxin Island, but in recent years the number has obviously increased.
Perhaps because the guesthouse is quite lively with people coming and going, the wild boar always hides from people.
However, other villages are not so lucky.
Xiong Liangen: My hand (injured), now I am afraid of wild boars, and my fingers have been bitten off (by wild boars).
Xiong Liangen is a villager in Baishikeng Village. He said that one day a few months ago, he was working in the field when a male wild boar suddenly appeared. Before he could react, the wild boar rushed towards him.
When he woke up, the wild boar was gone. He reluctantly touched the cell phone to make a call. Later, the 120 ambulance drove him to the hospital for treatment.
Xiong Liangen's home is in the most remote part of Baishikeng Village. His wife and children work outside all the year round, and the children live in the town. Only a few elderly people like him remain in the village.
The wild boars nearby seemed to understand the situation and became more and more bold.
According to "Anhui Beasts" (238 pages): "Wild boars are omnivorous animals, mainly plant foods, like to eat underground rhizomes, but also eat twigs and tender leaves, seeds, fruits, insects and animal carcasses. Wild boars. Harm to crops is serious, most like corn, yam, peanuts and rice. According to the survey, a wild boar can eat 10 to 15 kilograms of corn or other grain in one night, and even the spoiled grain can reach 40 to 50 kilograms."
Zhang Daifu is the head of the new generation of Tongqianling Family Cooperative.
He said that this mountain forest was deserted by fire more than 10 years ago, when his father was the secretary of the village branch.
Back then, his father thought about it repeatedly and decided to plant the torreya tree with high economic value and relatively easy to manage.
According to "Yixian Chronicles" (published in 2012, page 474): "Yixian County has a long history of producing torreya. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Yixian selected the'Monk torreya' as a tribute. The fruit is crispy, delicious and nutritious. The tree grows slowly. , The first fruit takes 15 to 20 years to grow".
In 2020, the torreya trees here finally began to bear fruit. When everyone went to pick them with joy, they were dumbfounded.
The hoof prints and empty shells all over the ground show that the fruits that everyone has worked so hard and carefully guarded for more than ten years were eaten by wild boars.
Zhang Daifu and the villagers began to think of ways to deal with wild boars.
Zhang Daifu: It also installed a strobe light, which is a solar-powered strobe light. It flashes and flashes. At first, it still has an effect. After a long time, it has no effect. It still eats.
In the autumn of 2021, Tongqianling's torreya berries were once again covered with branches. According to Zhang Daifu's rough estimate, the output could double last year to 40,000 catties.
Estimated at a market price of 10 yuan per catty for fresh fruits, the income can reach 400,000 yuan.
But the "tragedy" was staged again.
According to the insurance company's calculations, the loss of torreya fruit at Tongqianling Family Farm in 2021 will be about 20,000 jin, accounting for 50% of the total output.
What worries Zhang Daifu even more is that he heard that in some places, wild boars still dig three feet in the ground, even the roots of trees.
In Sixi Village not far from Tongqianling, the villagers said that the water and soil climate here is very suitable for the growth of torreya trees.
There are many ancient torreya trees around Sixi Village, among which this one is the longest tree over a thousand years old.
But wild boars have no interest in old trees. They prefer the young small torreya trees planted by the villagers.
She Hongyuan, Deputy Director of Huangshan Forestry Bureau: During the four years from 2016 to 2020, the city’s wild animals caused more than 71 million losses in agricultural production and market property. There were 26 incidents of wild boar injuries and 30,028 incidents of damage to crops. s damage.
We hired a team of experts from Anhui Normal University to conduct a background survey on wild boars and beasts in our city. We have carried out control and investigation on all the hazardous areas reported by the farmers.
Wu Hailong is a professor in the School of Life Sciences of Anhui Normal University. In 2019, he was invited to investigate the distribution of wild boar populations in Huangshan area.
The survey results show that the total number of wild boar populations in Huangshan City is about 29,000, with an average of 2.8 heads per square kilometer.
According to the "Technical Points for Prevention and Control of Wild Boar Hazards" issued by the State Forestry and Grassland Administration in 2021: "The control standard of wild boar population control density is: It is recommended to follow the control standard of 2 per square kilometer in the southern hilly area, and the specific hunting volume should be based on actual conditions. Calculate on the basis of density".
Wu Hailong: Generally speaking, the hunting index does not exceed 20% of the population, which has little impact on this population. It can play an effective regulatory role and reduce crop damage to the common people.
According to the ratio given by experts, the upper limit of hunting wild boars in Huangshan area is 5,800 per year.
It is understood that there are currently 276 hunting team members in Huangshan City, with an average age of 51 years old.
According to this set of figures, in theory, each team member can hunt 21 wild boars per year.
So what is the actual situation?
The double dilemma of administrative costs and human resources caused by wild boars
On the morning of November 13, 2021, Lao Li's hound team found traces of wild boar as soon as they arrived in Xia Village.
The experienced Lao Li said that the forest near Xia Village is dense, with puddles and mountain cols, and it is suitable for wild boars to hide during the day.
This is a situation that Lao Li did not want to see, because the hounds rely on team combat to contain the wild boar, and once they are dispersed, it is likely to be a waste of effort.
At that time, Lao Li discussed with his partners that they had to adjust their tactics first.
The barking of the hounds from the valley was mixed with the sound of wild boars.
Lao Li quickly made a judgment.
Lao Li and the others judged that the other wild boars that the hounds had not caught up just now were probably still hiding in this forest, and they planned to take a rest and continue hunting.
At about 1 pm, Lao Li and the others still adopted a strategy of outflanking. One person took the hound to search from the hill to the direction of the col, and the other with several other hounds searched from the col to the direction of the hill.
Soon the hound found the wild boar.
The hunt has not really ended. According to regulations, Lao Li and the others cannot dispose of the two wild boars by themselves. They must be sent to the designated place and handed over to the government for unified and harmless burial.
For hunters who have been running around in the mountains and forests for a whole day, this is a more difficult task than hunting.
Lao Li and the others handed over all the wild boars to the local government in accordance with the regulations.
The government department will provide compensation at a price of RMB 10 per catty.
On this day, the total income of old Li, Lao Hong and Dai Xuhui from hunting was 2,200 yuan.
For government departments, the costs to be paid are far more than these.
Wang Fudong: All hunting team members must participate in personal accident insurance, (wild boar) ten yuan a catty subsidy to the hunting team members.
The second is (harmless burial) disposal costs. The disposal costs (a wild boar) are about 200 to 300 yuan.
The township government paid the money.
According to Wang Fudong, since 2020, nearly 500 wild boars have been hunted in Huangshan District, and the district and township financial expenditures have exceeded 1 million yuan.
In February 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the "Decision on the Total Banning of Illegal Wild Animal Trade, Elimination of the Bad Habits of Wild Animals, and Effectively Protecting the People's Life, Health and Safety". The "Three Animals", including wild boars, are also banned. Eat and trade.
This puts higher demands on government departments.
She Hongyuan: In the pharmacopoeia, wild boars have many medical uses. We are thinking about whether the country can study them at the policy level, which means that after the wild boar has passed quarantine, it can be used for medicinal purposes or used as animal food medicine. If the amount of animal protein is controlled by 10%-20% (hunting amount), this amount is very large nationwide.
The reporter noticed that the “Notice on Further Doing a Good Job in the Prevention and Control of Wild Boar Hazards” issued by the State Forestry and Grass Administration proposed to “coordinate and explore the use of hunted species for breeding sources, medicinal purposes, leather, animal feed, and health care. Properly solve the problem of the way out for non-edible use methods such as food."
The deadline for this winter hunting period is until the end of January 2022. Lao Li and the others will go up the mountain to hunt as long as the weather permits.
However, not every village can be protected by hunters.
Are humans paying for the wild boar? Or pay for your own fault?
Zhang Longhua is an old forest policeman with more than 30 years of work experience.
He said that in recent years, his work has shifted more toward combating wild animal poaching, which also includes investigating illegal hunting of wild boars.
He said that in February of this year, he received an alarm that someone was going to power a wild boar on and off the power grid in the mountain.
After investigation, it was Wang Sanshun, a 66-year-old villager in Changbiao Village, who installed the power grid privately.
Wang Sanshun has never studied and is illiterate, but he is ingenious, able to weld, understand electricians, and make a living by making stoves.
Surprisingly, when interviewing Wang Sanshun, the villagers came together to speak for Wang Sanshun.
The villagers said that wild boars love to eat crops, and almost no harvest in one year, so they had to ask Wang Sanshun to pull up the power grid.
Wang Sanshun said that he reached a tacit agreement with the villagers to only power on the grid from 8 pm to 4 am the next day. During this time, no one should go up the mountain to avoid electric shock.
But in the end, the power grid was short-circuited and caused forest fires.
It is understood that Wang Sanshun himself took the initiative to call the police at that time. The remaining villagers in Changbiao Village went to fight the fire, and people from surrounding villages and towns also rushed to help overnight.
Due to the timely extinguishment, the fire loss is not large.
The Criminal Judgment of the People’s Court of Shexian County stated: “The defendant Wang Sanshun was hunting wild boars and he did not obtain a hunting license. He installed a net in the mountain farm. In early February 2021, a wild boar was hunted. The defendant Wang Sanshun committed the crime of illegal hunting and was sentenced to three months of detention and four months of probation."
Not long ago, Shexian also started the work of confiscating illegal hunting gear.
So what about the losses caused by wild boars to the villagers?
According to my country's Wildlife Protection Law, the government should provide reasonable compensation for casualties, crops or other losses caused by wild animals.
It is understood that since 2014, various counties and districts in Huangshan City have successively implemented the "Measures for Compensation for Human Injury and Property Loss Caused by Wild Animals", but the minimum payment for compensation is around 500 yuan.
According to Wang Limin, the main property loss caused by wild boars in Xiuning County in 2020 is rice. The total compensation is more than 200,000 yuan, and it is estimated that it can reach 300,000 yuan in 2021.
Xiong Liangen did not apply for compensation to the township government because the loss of sweet potatoes was not enough to compensate him; however, he was bitten by a wild boar and received corresponding personal injury compensation.
At present, different districts and counties of Huangshan City compensate for the damage caused by wild boars and other wild animals according to their actual conditions, or through the purchase of commercial insurance or payment by government finances.
Forest is a complex ecosystem.
The existence of wild boars plays an important role. For example, its feeding behavior helps to regulate the density of forests and maintain the diversity and dynamic balance of tree communities; in the food chain, they are also the trays of carnivores such as jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards. Chinese food.
In the "Anhui Beasts" published in 1990, there is such a description: "Jackals inhabit the forests and mountains in the mountains of southern Anhui and Dabie mountains. They are brave, fierce and flexible in nature. They use groups to besieged and hunt. Fearless. Because it preys on economic and precious animals in large numbers and bites and bites livestock and poultry, it should be eliminated and the number growth should be strictly controlled."
Today, what makes people sigh with emotion is that the jackal not only disappeared completely in the Huangshan area, but also nearly extinct in most parts of our country.
In 2021, jackal will be adjusted from the national second-level protected animal to the national first-level protected animal.
Different countries and regions have adopted different strategies on how to control the number of wild boar populations, but the results are not satisfactory.
As for how to rebuild the ecological chain once the carnivores in a certain area are extinct, the current attempts by humans are rarely successful.
On December 10, 2021, the State Forestry and Grassland Administration released the "List of Terrestrial Wild Animals with Important Ecological, Scientific, and Social Value (Draft for Comment)". It was discovered that the wild boar that was listed in the list in 2000 Was deleted times.
The final result is yet to be announced.