The Formosan Boar

Pigs are proverbial in Chinese for stupidity, but what about wild ones? Many people might say no--especially in reference to the Formosan wild boar.

One of them would be Ching Chia-tzou of Hualien. He once raised a little boar that knew how to dance and that was the hit, matching its master in rhythm and step, at an aborigine folk show with over a hundred performers.

Chien Yung-sung of Taoyuan raised a wild boar called "Ah-hsi" that knew how to obey commands. And Huang Liang-san of Juifang kept a little boar as a pet in his yard. It not only never wrecked a thing, but also let out a special grunt to welcome its master whenever he came home.

Other reports are less endearing. Over the past three years, boar tracks have turned up in cornfields and sweet potato patches near Hualien at the same time that crops have disappeared. One farmer last year found just three ears left in his field. Those who have seen them eat corn say boars are as nimble at it as humans, leaving hardly a kernel behind. As for sweet potatoes, the boars root them up with their snouts, gorging their bellies and sharpening their tusks at the same time.

Losses in the area are not small. When one farmer last year had his harvest of corn and sweet potatoes reduced from 700 kilos a year to just 70, he was so angry he switched completely to betel nuts.

A 1979 study by Tunghai University's Environmental Science Research Center found that wild boars are second only to red-bellied squirrels in the degree of their destruction of crops and man-made forests. In pastures at Kenting, sheep and cattle have even suffered from wild boar attacks.

Some farmers have considered putting up barbed-wire fences, but boars can dig under them or, with their thick hides, even crash right through. Nor are traps always effective. With their keen sense of smell, boars can sense where man has laid a trap and avoid it, while those that are "stupid" enough to be caught can often chew through the ropes and escape.

The best way of besting a boar is with a gun, but on Taiwan only a few members of hunting associations can own a rifle, and the season for boar is limited to November through February. And tracking them down is difficult. Ch'en Sheng-lung, a hunter who has killed over four hundred, says that the best method is to run them down with a pack of trained dogs. Other hunters wait for rainstorms or typhoons, when boars can be found taking shelter in their nests.

But if you come across a wild boar empty-handed, it's best not to rile it. The tusks of a young adult can reach three or four inches in length, although they wear down with age.

Despite their fearsome aspect, boars will not attack a person unless they have been injured or threatened, hunters say. Otherwise, a boar will a want to flee a person as quickly as the person wants to flee him!

Formosan wild boars are found mostly below 3,000 meters in the mountains of Taiwan. At one time, experts say, the boars were nearly wiped out by hunters at altitudes below 1,000 meters, but since restrictions have been placed on hunting them, their rapid reproduction rate of three to eight piglets a litter has enabled them to return.

Baby boars require several months before they can live independently. Adults range freely, but build nests during mating and rearing seasons.

Their nests may be up to five meters across and are actually quite clean, lined with fern or grass. "They look warm and comfy," a researcher has described.

Boars are omnivorous eaters, crops naturally included. But man's encroachments on their environment have made crops even more irresistible targets.

And boars are not only eaters but sometimes the eaten. Gourmets say their meat is more tasty than pork, and demand far exceeds supply.

This also explains why Formosan wild boars are declining in number.

Overseas, boars are considered "game animals"; their numbers and habits have been studied, and seasons and limits have been set on hunting them. On Taiwan, the study has only just begun. Until the scruples of local hunters are raised, declaring the Formosan boar a game animal open to all would quite possibly mean declaring its extinction.

[Picture Caption]

A baby boar's coat is mixed in color for camouflage. It turns all brown or all black with age. (photo by Ts'ai Pai-chun)

As boar have threatened crops on farms in recent years, farmers have taken to hunting them. Finding a reasonable method of controlling the boar is a pressing task. (courtesy of the Forestry Experimentation Bureau)

As boar have threatened crops on farms in recent years, farmers have taken to hunting them. Finding a reasonable method of controlling the boar is a pressing task. （courtesy of the Forestry Experimentation Bureau）