Wild boars rampaging around Hong Kong could face cull or sterilisation

Hong Kong is looking for ways to cut down wild boar numbers over fears members of the public could be harmed.

The animals are now a frequent sight on roadways and in parks, residential areas and shopping centres as the region’s ballooning population of more than seven million people expands into former wilderness.

The government is calling for measures such as sterilisation of the pigs and education for humans who feed them to bring the numbers under control, but others say a full-scale cull is needed.

The debate about how to handle the wild boars ironically coincided with preparations for the year of the pig as the Chinese lunar new year officially began on 5 February.

The government’s agriculture, fisheries and conservation department said it did not know how many wild boars there were in Hong Kong, but it did admit there had been a big increase in public complaints about the animals in recent years – jumping from 294 in 2013 to 738 in 2017.

This prompted a review of policy which began last year and included a stop to hunts by volunteers for boars deemed to be threats to property or public safety.

Instead, the government is extending a policy of sterilising the animals and feeding them contraceptives, as well as discouraging the public from giving them food.

It also captures and tries to relocate wild boars away from residential areas as an alternative to killing them.

However, one local organisation, Wild Boar 70, is lobbying for the renewed culling of the animal.

Other countries with large populations of wild pigs have a policy of controlling them by killing large numbers every year, according to spokesman Wesley Ho.

“Our goal is hopefully to raise public concern about Hong Kong’s current problem of wild boar overpopulation, and about exactly what kind of animal these wild boars are,’ he said.

Nations such as France and the US have to deal with large-scale damage to agriculture caused by feral pigs, largely appealing to hunters as a solution.

This month, Denmark began building a 43.4-mile fence along the German border to keep out wild boars in an attempt to prevent the spread of African swine fever, which could harm the country’s valuable pork industry.

These issues are not much of a concern in Hong Kong, where agriculture is a minor player in the local economy.

However, Roni Wong, of the Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group, said development expanding into Hong Kong’s green areas was causing the increasing confrontation between humans and animals.

“Their habitats are slowly being urbanised,” he said. “So their chances of feeding, and their habitat, are being destroyed.”

Hong Kong’s government says it hopes to complete its policy review of wild boar management within the year.