THERE are serious concerns around the Slieve Bloom Mountains that wild animals are set to reestablish themselves after an absence of nearly 5,000 years.
Rumours had been circulating over the past few months about a wild animal staking chickens and destroying vegetable gardens along the mountain side between Kinnitty, Brittas and Clonaslee.
A week before Christmas, gardaí managed to track down the elusive animal.
They called up deer hunters who shot the animal dead after it was trapped in a chicken coup in Brittas.
The animal turned out to be a wild European Boar, an invasive species that has begun to re-establish itself in Ireland after an absence of about 5,000 years.
One local man told the Laois Nationalist that the animal had been seen roaming around the mountainside over the past few months. He claimed when weighed after it was shot it came in at just under 23 stone.
“It’s reckoned it was about three years of age. It was a big black lad,” he said. The man also claimed that a wild sow and three piglets from the same species are also roaming the mountains and fear “if they get through the winter, there’ll be no stopping them. If they go on to reproduce, they’ll populate the mountain. We’re told the gestation period during each litter is just three months. They can be violent and dangerous. The sow is much wilder than the boar because it’s protective towards its young.”
He went on to say that a woman rang gardaí about a commotion in her chicken coop. When they arrived on the scene, they contacted expert deer hunters who shot the beast dead, with “heavy duty rifles.”
He said: “It is very serious concern to us here if the species did manage to re-establish itself particularly on our tourism projects. What would a walker in the mountains do if they came face to face with one of these buggers? They have tusks on them that are razor sharp.”
It is understood the dead animal was taken away and its head is currently being stuffed by a taxidermist to be used as a decorative trophy wall mounting.
Gardaí confirmed that the shooting of the animal did occur, but downplayed the fears that locals have about any further wild boar in the area.
A garda source said that the day before the animal was shot it had been spotted along the roadway in the Kinnitty area.
A farmer managed to close a field gate on it, but it managed to escape.
The following day, he said, gardaí received a call about the animal stalking chickens in a coop in Brittas. He confirmed that expert deer hunters were called in after they managed to corner the boar.
The source confirmed: “It was a big lad, but nothing near 20 stone. It hadn’t any tusks either. It wasn’t violent or aggressive. It looked more menacing than it really was. The reason why we had to take the action was because of road safety and to prevent accidents.”
He said he had heard rumours about the sow and her three piglets but “no evidence has been found to suggest they are there. The only reports we received were about the big black male pig. We don’t think there are any others in the mountains.”
Indeed, such is the concern about the animals that only last month an all-Ireland action plan was drawn up to prevent wild boar from becoming re-established in Ireland.
Experts fear its reappearance poses a threat to the environment, agriculture and to the economy.
They also feel that the animals that are currently roaming are ones that have escaped from captivity. Wild boar died out in Ireland more than 5,000 years ago.
However, in recent years the species has been found in Kilkenny, Roscommon, Tipperary, Wexford and Wicklow.
Invasive Species Ireland spokesperson John Kelly said that the focus of the action plan is primarily on prevention and responding to any threats that arise.
Diseases associated with wild boar sometimes include classical swine fever and African swine fever, foot andmouth disease, swine vesicular disease, Aujeszky’s disease and rabies.
Both the Republic and Northern Ireland have animal health strategies in place that help protect farm animals from diseases.
However, in the event of an outbreak of notifiable diseases with wild boar present, the task of eradicating the disease would be significantly more challenging, costly and difficult to achieve.
The release of wild boar on either side of the border is illegal.
Any sightings of accidental or deliberate releases should be reported to Invasive Species Ireland at invasive speciesireland.com