They’re not native here in California either. For all that I respect and even revere them as animals, living creatures, and emblems of the Vanir, I have no qualms about them being hunted when their invasive overbreeding places the natural balance in danger.
[Edited to add] I realize I did not include the caveats I consider givens where hunting is concerned. I don’t agree with hunting purely for sport. If you kill the animal, I expect you to use the body for food, supplies, whatever – as much of it as possible. And I expect that you’re giving that wild animal an honorable fair hunt, not, say, helicopters and automatics.
It’s just that I also know that once we introduce an animal into an ecosystem, we take on some responsibility for their effect on that ecosystem, as part of our own responsibility to that ecosystem. On the one hand, we’re not separate from nature the way that may imply. On the other hand, our ability to reason and build devices in tools is also not separate from nature, so husbandry is a legitimate part of how we participate once we’ve interfered. -E-
Olav Sletner from Aurskog in Eastern Norway shot this wild boar in 2013. (Photo: Private)
The wild boar is blacklisted in Norway, but the population is increasing. Now the Norwegian Association of Hunters and Anglers (NJFF) is seeking Norwegian authorities for permission to train hunters in counties bordering Sweden in Eastern Norway.
In recent years, the wild boar population has increased, but the species is alien in Norwegian nature: It is unclear when it became extinct, but this may have happened about 500 BC.
More and more hunters bump into the temperamental swine when they are hunting for other animals, NJFF writes in the application. They also argue that that both hunters and dogs should receive training in searching for injured wild boars hit by cars.
The animal have spread from the Swedish population that is believed to count at least 150,000 individuals. In Sweden, about 60,000 wild boars that…
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EmberVoices: Listening for the Vanir 