About wild boar damage

Damage caused by wild boars is a familiar problem for people living in satoyama. In particular, for those who run agriculture, it is a big blow to suffer damage from wild boars while they have to grow and eat crops and sell them.

Due to the effects of aging and depopulation, farmers' management is already difficult, but the fact that the fields are destroyed is a further blow, and they are even deprived of their desire to farm. According to the announcement by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the amount of damage to agriculture, forestry and fisheries caused by wild boars was about 4.7 billion yen in 2018.

Examples of wild boar damage

In FY2018, agricultural crop damage caused by wild birds and animals nationwide was 15.8 billion yen. The birds and animals that cause damage are limited to some extent, and about 70% of all damage is caused by deer, wild boars, and monkeys.

Of these, about 30% of the total damage was caused by wild boars. *The damage that has been made public is limited, and accurate information may not be known, and there may be cases where the damage is small or minor.

Damage to crops

The most serious damage caused to humans by wild boars is the destruction of crops. In particular, the amount of damage to rice is extremely high, reaching 2.4 billion yen nationwide.

Since wild boars are omnivores, they damage a wide variety of crops. In addition, since they prefer parts that are highly nutritious and relatively easy to digest, they tend to choose crops in good condition each season and concentrate on feeding them. In addition to rice, damage to fruit trees, vegetables, and potatoes is remarkable.

In addition to feeding damage, there is also damage that the fields are dug up or trampled and ruined.

In terms of area, 3,600 hectares of rice and 1,000 hectares of fruit trees were damaged. By the way, 1000 hectares (ha) is the size of about 213 Tokyo Domes.

bodily injury

Wild boars have high physical abilities, and there are cases in which people are injured when they are attacked. It often occurs in urban areas, but there are also cases where it is difficult to catch with traps or use firearms in such places, so there are cases where it is not easy to solve.

The Ministry of the Environment has been compiling the number of casualties since 2016 , and according to that, the number of casualties is around 50 each year, and the number of victims is around 50 to 70. are excluded). Hyogo, Kagawa, and Tochigi prefectures were hit hardest.

As a background of such damage, it is thought that wild boars began to appear in urban areas, and that the wild boars became accustomed to people through garbage and feeding. In addition, in the case of wild boar damage in urban areas, the awareness of residents is low, and they often ask the government to respond instead of taking measures themselves, which tends to make it difficult for the whole community to take measures.

Living environment damage

In addition to personal injury, there are also cases of living environment damage such as traffic accidents, vandalizing garbage collection sites, and house invasions.

This is also the background to the fact that wild boars, which are accustomed to humans, have started to cause damage in human living areas as a result of feeding and leaving garbage. Based on this situation, in Kobe City, where many injuries and damage to the living environment occur, following the boar accidents that occurred one after another in Higashinada Ward and Chuo Ward in 2014, Kobe City instructed feeding behavior.・In order to strengthen the prohibition, we revised the ordinance to add the provision of public announcement.

What kind of damage control is required?

Building fences and spraying repellents to keep pests out is a defensive measure, not a fundamental solution. The more damage there is, the more labor is required for maintenance, so there is a need for proactive animal damage control.

Gun hunting and trap hunting are effective ways to deal with wild boars and deer. In recent years, trap hunting has outnumbered shooting catches in most areas.

The Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries have jointly compiled the “Drastic Measures to Strengthen Wildlife Capturing” (December 2013). ” is the immediate capture target.

In order to achieve this goal, the Ministry of the Environment has designated sika deer and wild boar as "specified management wildlife" as birds and animals that require intensive and wide-area management based on the Wildlife Protection and Management Act. We support the capture business with subsidies.

summary

Recently, the damage and capture of wild boars has been featured on TV, so people living in urban areas are gradually becoming more aware of them.

However, unless it is a familiar problem, it is difficult to grasp it as one's own problem. Many people express disgust about the taking of life, and the perception gap between the victim and the victim cannot be closed.

In order to effectively implement wild boar countermeasures, it is important to have many people know the actual situation of damage, and active enlightenment activities are also required.