Wild boars may be a familiar sight even further north in Finland in the future. This is an invasive species to watch out for.
Dangerous wild boars have been baffling people in south-east Finland in recent weeks. Yesterday, for example, a car collided with a wild boar in Inkeroi, Kouvola, and the injured boar escaped into the countryside. Earlier, a pig wounded by hunters was searched for in Vaalimaa, Virolahti, without success.
– If you hit a wild boar with your car, don’t go out to see what happened. It’s a big and fast animal,” says Kunnasranta.
If you come across a wild boar, call for help
An injured or irritated wild boar can be very dangerous to humans, as it may attack you.
– It’s not worth going to try to see what condition it’s in, but we do the alarm measures in the car and wait for the emergency services to arrive, says Tolvanen.
Tolvanen is of the opinion that everyone should definitely keep game accident instructions in the glove boxes of their cars, which will help in the event of an accident.
The police do not always come to the scene in connection with minor disturbances. If it is not possible to wait for big game contact persons, you can hang the instructions on a plow stick as a sign of the accident site.
Mostly healthy wild boars avoid humans, but a mother sow can defend her piglets. Wild boars moving alone are probably boars.
According to Tolvanen, wild boars are now preparing for winter by looking for food. That’s why feasting on a wild boar in a grain field is not an unusual sight at this time of year. It is more likely to run into a wild boar at dusk than in broad daylight.
According to Luken Mervi Kunnasranta, wild boar is an intelligent animal that knows how to use its environment efficiently.
– Efficient hunting certainly makes it even wiser, when the stupidest ones are shot away, says Kunnasranta.
The wild boars will not stop
Wild boar is a newcomer species that has re-entered Finland from the east of Sorki. They are mainly near the Russian border and in eastern Uusimaa, but wandering individuals have even been observed in the Oulu and Tornio regions.
There are so many wild boars in Finland that their population is controlled by hunting.
A record number of wild boars were hunted in Finland last year: just over 1,400 individuals.
The part of South-Eastern Finland covers the majority of this, i.e. more than 900 wild boars. However, it is thought that the stock in Finland as a whole will remain roughly at the level of the last few years, i.e. around 3,000 pigs. In January, there were about 3,100 wild boars in Finland, according to Luke’s estimate.
Wild boars have almost no natural enemies in Finland. A sample fee is paid for felled wild boars, so the hunting statistics are very up-to-date. Samples are collected to obtain information on the prevalence of African swine fever. African swine fever is a deadly, virus-based hemorrhagic fever that spreads in pigs.
Without hunting, the size of the population would probably have increased this year, says Luke’s specialist researcher Mervi Kunnasranta. The latest base estimate will be available again at the beginning of the year.
Luken Kunnasranta says that the long-term forecast is that the stock will increase. A warming climate would make it easier for wild boar populations to reach a wider area and further north in Finland. Frost and snow do not attract wild boar.
– So-called \”frost drives pigs to Russia\”.
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