Contraceptives for Wild Boar
Although more and more wild boar are shot year after year, their numbers continue to rise. Is the solution to the «wild boar problem» to shoot even more animals? Or is intensive hunting of wild boar actually the problem?
Researchers in Texas have developed a novel contraceptive for male boars designed to reduce sperm activity and thereby the fertility of wild boar.
Misguided hunting as the cause of population growth
Rising wild boar populations are a problem caused by hunting pressure. Through misguided hunting practices — in particular the culling of lead sows — even young sows become pregnant and give birth to piglets throughout the year. When wild boar are left undisturbed, they live in stable social groups in which, as a rule, only the lead sow produces offspring.
In the US state of Texas, researchers introduced a new method of wild boar population control in early June 2021. The contraceptive known as «HogStop» is intended to help limit wild boar populations.
Reduced sperm activity
According to the HogStop website, the feed acts as a male contraceptive in wild boar, lowering sperm count and is «not a poison that kills the pigs». The developers describe the product as a «blend of natural feed ingredients».
Initial tests on wild boar began three years ago. Researchers found a 60% reduction in sperm motility.
Delivery via automatic feeders
The developers recommend special automatic feeders for administering the contraceptive. The wild boar population in Texas has grown to more than 2.6 million. The US Environmental Protection Agency has approved the mineral-like substance as a pesticide. Approval in other countries is currently being sought.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
