Rapidly shrinking towns and cities across Japan are experiencing a population explosion. Not an explosion of humans, though. An explosion in wild boar numbers.

Across the country, wild boars are moving in as Japan’s rapidly aging population either moves out or dies out. The boars come for the untended rice paddies and stay for the abandoned shelters.

“Thirty years ago, crows were the biggest problem around here,” said Hideo Numata, a farmer in Hiraizumi, human population 7,803, precise boar population unknown.

“But now we have these animals and not enough people to scare them away,” he said, sitting in a hut with a wood stove and two farmer friends. At 67, Numata is a relative youngster around here. His friends, Etsuro Sugawa and Shoichi Chiba, are 69 and 70 respectively. One of their farmer neighbors is 83.

Southern parts of Japan have had a wild boar problem for some years. The papers are full of reports of boars in train stations and parking garages, around school dormitories and even in the sea, swimming out to islands.

Just this month, a 70-something woman was attacked on Shikoku Island by a 176-pound boar when she opened her front door. A boar charged into a shopping mall on the island last October, biting five employees and rampaging through the aisles before being captured.

In Kyoto, at least 10 wild boars were spotted in urban areas last year. Two charged into a high school in December, causing panic and the students to be evacuated.

But the animals are now wreaking havoc in northern areas long considered too cold and snowy for them.

Here in Iwate Prefecture, only two wild boars were caught in 2011, when local authorities started keeping statistics. In the last fiscal year, that number had skyrocketed to 94.

The influx is the result of two factors, experts say: declining human populations and climate change.

Japan’s regions are struggling to deal with dwindling numbers of residents, the result of a super-aging society — 40 percent of the population will be older than 65 by 2050 — and a national trend toward moving to the big cities in the south.

Farmers are dying and there is no one to take over their land. Take Sugawa and Chiba: They both have sons but they’re salarymen in the city with no interest in a hard life tending fields and fending off animals heavier than themselves.

This northern region has been hit particularly hard by depopulation. People were forced out when the gigantic 2011 earthquake caused a triple meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, and after the resulting tsunami wiped out coastal towns.

Much of the area remains inhospitable for humans, but perfect for boars.

“Because of depopulation, there are more and more abandoned fields and rice paddies. They’re perfect places for wild boars to hide and feed,” said Koichi Kaji, professor of wildlife management at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.

With reports of boars rampaging through the ghost towns around the Fukushima plant, some people worry if the animals are becoming radioactive.

In addition to depopulation, another factor for the boar explosion: The winters are also getting markedly warmer. “We used to have much more snow than this,” Numata said, looking out as snowflakes fell gently on the fields.

The boars arrived like a plague here in 2015. “We heard rumors a few years ago that the wild boars were closing in on this area. And it wasn’t long before we started seeing them,” Sugawa said.

The boars are most evident by the damage they cause. Farmers wake up to find their carefully tended rice paddies have been trampled or their wheat and potatoes eaten.

In Hiraizumi, inland from the coast where the massive tsunami came ashore in 2011, the cost of the damage caused by wild boars rose sixfold between 2015 and 2016. Last month, farmers in nearby Shizukuishi caught a male that weighed a giant 280 pounds.

The boars have even been spotted as far north as Aomori, at the snowy northern tip of Japan’s main island, Honshu.

Local authorities have been offering subsidies to help farmers put up electric fences and keep the boars out of their fields, although this is a challenge given that there are so few able-bodied people to do the work.

The authorities have also been encouraging locals to get the necessary permits needed to trap and kill the animals. The town council even offers shuttle buses so they can take the required tests for permits in the prefectural capital.

This is where Japan’s aging population and its love of paperwork collide.

To cull the wild boars, farmers need to obtain not just a gun license — an exhaustive process that involves medical certificates and gun storage inspections by the local police — but also a special license to lay traps. This involves intensive study for a written test — the local university offers classes for the farmers — as well as a practical exam for using different kinds of traps.

Only then can the farmers capture the boars and shoot the animals they catch.

Hiraizumi has about 10 people with the right paperwork to take on the boars and they catch only one or two boars a month, and only between November and March. (To cull them during the other months, they need yet another permit.)

“The lack of manpower here is a real problem,” said Rise Suzuki, the Hiraizumi town official in charge of the anti-boar campaign. “We need farmers to protect their own land and to take action against the boars, but it’s difficult for them because most of them are old.”

If it’s difficult to capture the existing animals, it’s even more difficult to stop them from breeding.

The wild boars have a huge reproductive advantage over the human population.

The average Japanese woman gives birth to 1.44 babies in her lifetime but the average wild boar has 4.5 babies a year. And those piglets reach breeding age in only two years, so the problem is only going to get worse.

In Hiraizumi, officials and farmers alike are now gearing up for the spring, when piglets will be born and the mothers will be hungry.

“Local residents need to step up and do their bit to protect their fields and keep the boars from coming here,” said Chiba. But for now, the farmers are realistic about the challenges they face. As Sugawa put it: “Our rural areas are in decline.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japanese-towns-struggle-to-deal-with-an-influx-of-new-arrivals-wild-boars/2018/03/05/59af237e-1722-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a_story.html?utm_term=.64bc0e3305b6

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

ah yeahs ago,I had the pleasure of working with almaden vineyards in tres pinos california.My job was to patrol and hunt wild boar.Very good animal to eat.Males are better as sausage, females good chops and such.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

There's an area east of San Jose where boar are supposed to be numerous. I'd like to hunt them myself. Not sure why but IINM it's illegal to use dogs to hunt them here. Not sure how dangerous those critters are while hunting them but I'm guessing somewhat. Would be one case where a semi auto rifle could really be a good thing.

What's the wild boar bacon like? I'll bet it's generally better quality meat than factory farmed, maybe not as tasty for our pampered behinds.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

meat is real red,all wild game.If you use alot of onion,and garlic the testoserone is not bad.I used a mini 14,never kill during baby piggie season. They root up the grape vines bad.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Makes good Pepperoni for sure.

I'd rate them as very dangerous. Ever hear of the saying "He went to shyte and the hogs ate him?" That refers to domestic hogs. I imagine the wild ones are worse.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Seems to me the Japanese should have either state sanctioned or private crews go out and hunt the suckers and get a wild meat industry going on. Some restaurants feature wild boar. There's one in Menlo Park, it's a way spendy Spanish restaurant and I didn't say Mexican, not that there's anything wrong with that. But they don't always have access to it.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I know they can be dangerous, what I'm uncertain about is if others will charge you when you shoot one of them.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

The males can be vicous,in Alabama I sold pit bulls for hunting feral hogs,dogs would hold hog,and you used a javeline.The wild california boars had a armored back,that would deflect a 223.,most guy used a 30 06 rifle. My worst time was when my friend shot him running,right up the bullseye. Sick mess to clean

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

From Wikipedia; gun laws by nation:

Japan
See also: Haitōrei Edict
The weapons law of Japan begins by stating "No one shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords", and very few exceptions are allowed.[60] Citizens are permitted to possess firearms for hunting and sport shooting, but only after submitting to a lengthy licensing procedure.[61] After ten years of shotgun ownership, a licence-holder may apply to obtain a rifle.

Of course they could hunt with spears as they used to in Mexico but that wouldn't do a lot to reduce the population.

The population of which? The boars or the hunters?

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

The article had some discussion of the difficulty of getting a firearm in Japan to deal with them. This situation might bring about a change in that. I can't think of any predators in Japan that would keep boars in check.

Just did a web search on that and there isn't much in that category. A sort or wild cat on two islands and some Asian black bears in some remote locations.

I saw a video on a TV nature show years ago that was interesting. A leopard was creeping up on some young boar who were in a group by themselves maybe 30 yards away from adults who were feeding. The adults didn't notice at first but when they did about 10 of them charged the leopard. He saw them just in time to take flight and almost got away but the boar had enough momentum to catch him before he could get up speed. There was a furious scrum, they were putting some hurt on the leopard. At one point he was able to jump about 6 feet up and 12 feet sideways to get away. The boar seemed to lost interest at that point. The leopard's tail had a crook in it, God only knows how beat up it was.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I bet a Godzilla or two would keep them in check. I for one, look forward to a blossoming Japanese bacon industry.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Hah! Time to import a few Komodo Dragons. I mean, a bit of radiation, a few hundred dragons, what could go wrong?




"

Diet

As the dominant predators on the handful of islands they inhabit, they will eat almost anything, including carrion, deer, pigs, smaller dragons, and even large water buffalo and humans. When hunting, Komodo dragons rely on camouflage and patience, lying in wait for passing prey. When a victim ambles by, the dragon springs, using its powerful legs, sharp claws and serrated, shark-like teeth to eviscerate its prey.

Feeding

Animals that escape the jaws of a Komodo will only feel lucky briefly. Dragon saliva teems with over 50 strains of bacteria, and within 24 hours, the stricken creature usually dies of blood poisoning. Dragons calmly follow an escapee for miles as the bacteria takes effect, using their keen sense of smell to hone in on the corpse. A dragon can eat a whopping 80 percent of its body weight in a single feeding."

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/k/komodo-dragon/

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

I saw a video of those suckers on the attack. They have found a niche in the food chain all right, sort of at the top I'd say.

Regarding the bacteria, some years back, SF editor Phil Bronstein and his wife were visiting the Los Angeles Zoo when Bronstein was given the opportunity to go into the cage with one. Not sure what the appeal was on that one - he was bit on the foot, had to go through some serious medical care owing to the bacteria you mention:

Two Versions of Komodo Tale - ABC News

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K