Sightings of wild boar on Dartmoor have raised suspicions a guerrilla rewilder has been releasing them – and prompted a debate over whether they should be allowed to remain.
Videos of a group of boar on the moors in Devon were posted online earlier this month, and a dog walker has recently complained of a close encounter with one of them, which frightened his pet.
Experts suspect the boar could have been illegally reintroduced, possibly by people who want to repopulate the moors with the once indigenous species. Boar used to roam Dartmoor but were later hunted to extinction in Britain by the 17th century.
Guerilla rewilding suggests, as with the recent lynx releases, that someone has a load of these stashed somewhere and is driving them across the country to dump them. “Wild.boar?” “Ye, they were furious”.
Police said their chief suspect is a big fat Gaul with blue & white striped trousers.
As my Y chromosome is Gaulish, I feel I should take offense at this, but they do make for good eating.
Surely it’s boat rewilding? I don’t reckon a guerrilla would like it on Dartmoor that much. Levity aside, I’d love it if someone came and rewilded our woods with some pine martens, to get the grey squirrels to bugger off
I’m not sure moors are an ideal environment for boats either tbf.
This is clearly bore rewilding
Sounds a nice idea. Boars are intelligent animals and have been badly treated over millenia.
a dog walker has recently complained of a close encounter with one of them, which frightened his pet
Yes. And I’m pretty sure the walker and his dog frightened that wild boar.
