Farmers in Scotland see wild boar pulling apart and eating sheep

Yep, lambs do get taken by eagles sometimes. But they are protected, so you can’t shoot them - although people do. Basically farmers don’t want any predatory animals around their livestock, which is fair enough, but eagles have been here since forever…well, the white tailed eagle was re-introduced because it became extinct (trapping, poisoning, shooting etc).

I read a little more on this .
Apparently one boar concerned ( which was shot ) weighted 24 stone and had escaped from a farm so was it really a feral boar ?
Lambs have a short life in any case they are slaughtered before nine months .
However I am not in favour of releasing dangerous animals into the wild there are too many people these days and I don’t want to be savaged by a wild pig or Wolf ( don’t even think about bears ) while out walking my dog .

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Blimey! 24 stone? Thats a behemoth! I know pigs are pretty huge, but I wouldn’t fancy meeting a boar while out walking.

Yes I don’t agree with it either…it all sounds lovely on paper, I’m sure, but the reality is so different. They introduced Beavers here in Scotland, then promptly began culling them to “replicate natural predation” I mean just what is the point of that?

Crazy, Pixie. :roll_eyes:

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I agree, Muddy. :+1:
I doubt many of us would win a fight with a bear or hungry wolf!

Did England/UK have bears? I sort of remember references to bear baiting in the middle ages but I assumed they came from foreign parts. Were bears ever native to the British Isles?

Apparently we once did, Bruce.

Just found this snippet:

" The brown bear (Ursus arctos) was once widespread across Britain, found in the wild from Devon in southern England to Sutherland in northern Scotland."

Don’t know exactly when that was, though?

Ah, half a mo, this link is much more informative:

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What an interesting article. Thanks for that.

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yes fascinating - thanks Mups!

Wild boar - delicious when roasted in the oven or spit-roasted over a wood fire. Even when the meat is minced up and fried, it makes a wonderful ragu sauce.

I loath wild boar. Horrible stuff in my opinion. I’m not over fond of pork at the best of times but wild boar (even with chocolate sauce) - nah.

What the heck kind of cuisine is that??

We are both entitled to our opinions Todger. I actively sought out wild boar on menus when we lived in Italy. In fact, one of the trattorias we frequented was called “Il Cinghiale” (It. for wild boar).

It’s quite a common accompaniment with wild boar. Sometimes the 'orrible meat is cooked in it. I had it a couple of times in posh nosheries in Belgium. Check out “Cinghiale in Dolce Forte” as an example, one of many.

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I just looked that up, and it does sound delicious! Chocolate just isn’t something I associate with savoury dishes, to be honest. I need to expand my tastes (not with boar though…nice piggy!)

Why would I want to see that, LD?

This popped up in my news feed, apparently because of the rains feral pigs are breeding in record numbers.

https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/industry/australia-proposes-ban-cssp-poison-control-feral-pigs-critics-fear-worst

My memory has just been jogged!
I munched on a wild boar pie during a visit to Borough Market a few years ago. It was really quite flavoursome, a vast improvement on the average pork pie from the supermarket.

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just watched a rick stein mediterranean trip on which he spotted boar and potato stew being prepared with accompanying delicate herbs of course