"People are scared to leave their homes" Giant feral pigs 'out of control' in Scottish Highlands
13 December 2024, 14:04
People are scared to leave their homes because of out of control feral pigs in the Scottish Highlands, LBC's been told.
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Some of the animals have reportedly grown to the size of small ponies and started tormenting landowners near Loch Ness.
Local farmers believe they're the offspring of boar which escaped from estates in the area several years ago.
They claim thousands are now roaming free and living in woodland along the Great Glen.
Catherine Mclennan - who stays near Drumnadrochit - told LBC: "In this area of the Glen we're looking at thousands of boar.
"Over the last two years we've had nothing but the ground getting dug up. A lot of the winter grazing has been absolutely ruined. It's soul destroying because it all turns into mud.
"Some of the pigs are about the same size as a small pony. Some have gone up to 32 stone.
"I lost two small lambs to them. They were torn to shreds. My friend's whole garden has been dug up by the boar and even his wife won't leave the house.
"A poor lady that was walking her dog, she was surrounded by wild boar. And she thought 'do I just run for it?'. She did, but now that poor lassie doesn't really want to leave her house and everything else.
"It's ridiculous that people can't leave their houses and not be thinking what's going to jump out behind me and attack me. They are out of control. I think the wild boar need to be licensed and there needs to be compensation for farmers that are losing livestock and wild grazing".
Fergus also stays along the Great Glen where he farms sheep.
He doesn't think the pigs will be able to breach his fencing but warns it would be dangerous if they did.
"They are omnivores, they eat everything and the numbers are amazing, if you go down to the Forest of Dean they're into the thousands.
"They can weigh 80, 90, 100kgs. They can do 20mph cross country, they are big.
"They've also got a very large set of teeth at the front and when they attack they will go for your legs and get the femoral artery, and you will bleed to death very quickly.
"So the people who are actually shooting boar, some of them are wearing forestry trousers because they have the protection".
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Fergus' wife Alison added: "You can see the damage they've done. They get their nose under the turf and roll it up and you end up with these sort of grass sandwiches.
"It worries you because they go through the ancient woodland and reduce the biodiversity. They will take out tubes and roots of plants that don't spread very well, some of the rare beetles as well.
"I think they do have a place here - but in very low numbers."
Bobby Sanderson's a local deer manager with Highland Deer Management and game dealer
He's now also being called in by landowners to manage the feral pigs which he agrees are "out of control".
"They're large hairy pigs with big sharp tusks. We have an average for females of about 70kg and males about 90kg, but there's quite a lot that are way over that.
"They're all along the Great Glen from Invergarry up to Drumnadrochit on the north side. Although there a few that have made it all the way to Inverness and have disappeared again since then.
"I take at least 50 to 60 myself and that's only selective management on a few pockets of ground.
"They're so widespread it would take a concerted effort of lots of people to even get them back to controllable numbers."
A NatureScot spokesperson said: "In recent decades, breeding populations of non-native feral pigs have become established in Scotland as a result of escapes or illegal releases.
“In Scotland, there are at least four separate breeding populations of feral pigs, located in Lochaber, Dumfries and Galloway, and Ross-shire.
"We estimate the total population in Scotland may have reached the low thousands.
“In Scotland, the primary responsibility for controlling feral pigs lies with individual land managers."
