In the wee hours of an October morning, dozens of dogs chased the hulking figure of an animal scrambling through a forest in northwestern China as a thermal drone whizzed overhead. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe dogs caught it! Just stab it! Stab it!\u201d a drone operator shouted into his walkie-talkie to the hunter, in a video report by a state-linked news outlet. <\/p>\n
The hunter rushed to the spot where the dogs had cornered the 125-kilogram beast, and thrust his spear into it, killing the animal and securing a reward of 2,400 yuan ($330). <\/p>\n
He works with one of six \u201cbounty hunting\u201d teams hired by Xiji county in China\u2019s northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region this fall. <\/p>\n
Their prey? Wild boars. <\/p>\n
In recent years, China has authorized teams of bounty hunters to kill wild boars as part of a pilot program to control a pest that\u2019s wreaking havoc on crops and causing accidents, injuries, and even fatalities. In February, the program was expanded to a nationwide cull. <\/p>\n
The hunters are not allowed to use firearms or poison, but the cull has surprised the public in a country where wildlife protection is tightly regulated. <\/p>\n
Animal protection groups have criticized the measure as experts debate whether the rise in wild boar attacks justifies killing large numbers of animals, and if hunting is the right solution to mitigate human-wildlife conflict in the world\u2019s second most populous country. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s problem with wild boars dates back over two decades, when people hunted so many of the animals to eat that they became extinct in some areas, according to the state broadcaster CGTN. <\/p>\n
In response, the government added them to a national protection list in 2000, allowing licensed hunting only in areas where there were too many boars. <\/p>\n
Over time, almost free from natural predators, the animal\u2019s population surged from some 10,000 to about 2 million, and so did reports of wild boar attacks. <\/p>\n
Boars caused damage to property or people in all but eight of China\u2019s 34 provincial-level regions, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) said last January. <\/p>\n
In Xiji county, where six official bounty hunting teams killed 300 wild boars this fall, the animals inflicted economic losses of over 2 million yuan ($276,200) in 2023 alone, mainly through tearing up farmland, a local official told The Paper, a state-run newspaper. <\/p>\n
People have also lost their lives. <\/p>\n
In December 2023, a 51-year-old villager from central Hubei province died from blood loss after being bitten by a wild boar, The Paper reported. Three years earlier, a village official suffered a similar fatal boar attack in southwestern Sichuan province, according to the newspaper. <\/p>\n
Boars have also been seen in urban areas more frequently as their numbers rise and habitat shrinks from China\u2019s rapid urbanization. <\/p>\n