“With near-military precision, their snouts seek out the aroma of a discarded pizza, stealing into a public garden for a night-time feast.
Others tear into unguarded rubbish bins, gorging themselves on half-eaten takeaways and other tasty detritus, while some even take the liberty of bathing in swimming pools.
If there is such a place as “boar heaven,” it probably looks a lot like Haifa. This city, the third largest in Israel, nestles in a vast network of ravines and forests, making it an ideal habitat for the pugnacious pigs.
“It is like a buffet for them,” explains Yael Olek, an ecologist for the Haifa municipality who is educating the public about peaceful ways of deterring the boars.
“We tried to hunt them for 12 years, though it did not reduce their numbers, and we have also placed chains on bins as they used to knock down the bins to get the food out.”
The most recent study on boar numbers in Haifa, from 2019, reported 1,328 sightings – a 40 per cent increase from 2015. But Ms Olek says the significant increase in complaints this year suggests the true number could now be far higher. “
Comment: Well, pilgrims, these inhabitants of the mountain country east of Haifa are not feral domestic pigs. These are European Wild Boar. The little ones are very indicative of that. Their cute little striped bodies are a dead giveaway on that subject.
When I lived in Turkey long ago I hunted these critters with the NATO Rod and Gun Club at ALFSEE at Izmir. I had an Ithaca Centennial 12 Gauge autoloading shotgun. Slugs did the job. I killed a number of these and then decided that I liked the boars better than the people I was hunting with.
These relatives of domestic pigs are smart, big, fast and very fertile. They are healthy beasts. The sows produce up to nine piglets in two litters a year and the babies reach sexual maturity in six months. To say that farmers hate them is an understatement.
They are extremely good eating, much better than pork. Haifa is a great place for them. Both the Jews and Palestinian Muslims are enjoined from eating them. The spare ribs are “to die for.”
Solution! Discover that they are not really pigs! pl
I have a 40-acre family farm. After several wildlife disasters (deer bounding through our fruit orchards during rut and breaking fruit trees, wild hogs rooting blackberries to the point that the tractor can only be run in low-low due to the ruts, etc.) we are now installing goat fencing with single strand barbed wire 1″ of the ground and 3 strands between 6′ and 9′. This is NOT cheap, but we have to fence the deer and hogs out or we have nothing.
As a Texas guy, I always viewed fencing as a way to keep farm animals in – not so much anymore. We have basically installed a game fence reinforced to keep the big 300lb boars and sows out. H-braces every 50′ and 2 wooden posts for every T-post to support this. The only thing that has made this remotely feasible on my budget is the goat fencing was gifted to me by a friend whose father passed and they sold their farm – and we got all the wire we could drag away from their place.
This is just what you have to do – the hogs are completely out of control, and hunting them is not something a few men can do. As it is, when we go on evening walks, it is with the old .45-70 lever action. We take any hog we can get and then remove backstrap and the rear hams – the rest is for coyotes and buzzards. As things sit now, I have an entire freezer filled with these and am giving them away to make room for fresher…
Too bad you’re not closer, or we could enjoy of some of your extra at the annual potluck on June 19.
(aka Peter Khan)
oilman2
I do not live at Haifa and there are no wildschwein in Alexandria, Va.
Be happy Colonel – be happy you don’t have even small ones!
oilman2
Nah. I would to raise one in the backyard. Cute little fellas.
I remember reading several years ago about how ” applied tree-botanists” hunted for a kind of tree or bush or shrub which could be planted into living hedge – fences which could keep hogs in. And any “living fence” which could keep hogs in could keep hogs out, one imagines.
What they finally settle on was the Osage Orange, which could be planted in lines close enough together that , if managed as a growing hedge, would fill in enough to be too tight-of-squeeze between the thousands of close-packed mini-trunks for hogs to squeeze between and too tough-of-wood for hogs to straight-up tear down. Hundreds of running miles of such hedges were then planted all over the dry lower-MidWest.
Search-prevention engines are so poor nowadays that I can’t find that article. So I will include this one as better than nothing at all.
https://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/outdoors/2016/09/14/osage-orange-trees-purpose-evolved-history-developed/90262216/
Here is another article hinting at that one-time use of Osage orange hedges.
https://dyckarboretum.org/osage-orange-a-historical-living-fence/
Whether it would be worthwhile today anymore to try replicating such a hedge in the modern world where we do have fencing material is unknowable to me.
There has to bean export opportunity there. On a related note, do they make good jerky?
fred
wonderful
fred
Gonna get some wildschwein from D’Artagnan and do a rotisserie.
http://dadcooksdinner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Rotisserie-2BWild-2BBoar-2BRoast-5926.jpg
I’m drooling already. I see that they have 20% off storewide too. Time for me to order up a birthday gift for myself.
The taboo against eating pork is often thought to be related to the risk of transmission of parasites and diseases. A very convincing and quite different rationale is presented in
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1497225.The_Whole_Hog
I found the book engrossing and it certainly seems to cover every aspect of pig life (and death) including the wild boar.
Pig hunting was a major pastime for the locals in Hawaii. I got to know a lot of them when I ran the RECONDO school up in the Koolau mountains. Each pig hunter would have a couple of dogs and a big knife. That’s it. No firearms. The dogs would corner the pig and the hunter would finish it off with his knife. Before that, I had a Samoan in my rifle platoon who would get pigs for the company when we trained on the Big Island. Once he dug a pit and threw a few C-ration cans in there. In the morning there was a big pig in the pit. Sgt. Pauloa jumped on the pig and finished him off in a second. Another time he just left a few C-ration cans in front of my tent. I heard the pig rustling around and saw him silhouetted I the moonlight about six feet in front of me. Sgt. Pauloa was creeping towards the pig and jumped it head on. One blood curdling squeal and it was over. Our mess team always did a fine job of cooking those pigs.
I’ve spent time in Haifa and would love to go back and be the only hunter in the valley. Can you really French rack them like lamb?
wtofd
We could start a business with Palestinian Christian workers to export to Europe. BTW I used to frequent a resto in a Druze village on Mt. Carmel where if they knew you they served boar in a back room.
I’m ready. Guessing a 6.5 Creedmore is too much gun for them?
I spent so much time in the Old City (my apartment) or Har Ha’Tsofim (campus) that going to Haifa and the Druze villages up on the mountain felt like visiting another country. Wish I could have spent more time there. I assume the Druze hospitality was excellent?
wtofd
This was in Daliat al Carmel. Abu Antar’s Oriental restaurant. Yes. They were very pleasant and fascinated by an American who spoke Arabic. The men working in the resto were all IDF veterans.
Colonel that picture looks really good.O.T. my wife and I get the second moderna shot on friday,am hoping no fever etc this time,Hope you and yours are feeling better,thanks mark
My money is on the pigs in Haifa. I hope they win.
You think the pigs should take over the city? If you think that’s a good idea, move to Portland.
When Dad was stationed in Germany in the early 50’s he hunted wild boar with the locals. I have some great slides of the hunts…lots of blood, a boar tied to the vehicle they were driving. They hunted with dauschounds and Dad said they were the bravest and most spirited animals he ever saw. We even brought one back to the states with us, my first dog.
Midhudson Mary
Albany?
No, Marlboro. Please come visit us if you’re up at the Point.
MidHudsom Mary
Why would I visit WP?
My mistake, I thought you taught up here and might enjoy a visit. Traveling is such a bother these days so I don’t blame you. Thanks for the food posts. I enjoy them.
MidHudson Mary
I was ordered there to teach and was offered a permanent associate professorship after three years with a non-competitive promotion to full colonel. I was twice selected as best classroom teacher of the year for all of USMA and was an elected member of the faculty senate until Goodpaster abolished it. They also wanted to send me for a fully funded doctorate at Columbia. I chose to leave.
Your last sentence speaks volumes. I love where I live and enjoy sharing it with others. I’m sorry WP left you feeling unhappy with the area. You should try to visit the National Purple Heart of Honor. I worked there for a year after retiring from teaching in Newburgh. What a privilege it was to enroll and interview so many recipients. You could fly into Stewart and never set eyes on WP. If you decide to come let me know. I would be honored to meet you and your wife.
Roasting wild school boards in Fairfax County – a sane, well spoken Asian mom sounds off and is cut off:
https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2021/05/07/you-didnt-listen-to-us-watch-asian-american-fairfax-mom-asra-q-nomani-decimate-her-local-school-board-youll-fist-pump/
Many years ago my mother and I joined an arts-and-culture trip to a small bit of Central Europe . . . three days in Prague, by train to Budapest and then three days in Budapest.
One time we two went to a restaurant in? near? the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel our group was staying at while in Budapest. I saw wild boar with sour cherry sauce on the menu and decided that once in life I should try it. It was dry, firm and chewy, almost fatless, and so flavor-rich as to be almost bitter. Perhaps from eating many acorns before it died? I didn’t really like it but I ate my way all the way through it and am glad I tried it that one time.
Well, today they just are roasting people there, especially they took on the offensive while whorshippers were praying for Friday end of Ramadan…
https://twitter.com/theIMEU/status/1390765408186212353
https://twitter.com/HadiNasrallah/status/1390722827914039299