Hong Kong tackles wild pig problem with birth-control scheme, as complaints of animals entering urban areas spike
Over two years, the government will assess if its plan to inject the pigs with contraceptives before releasing them into the wild reduces their population
With complaints of wild pigs straying into Hong Kong’s villages and urban areas more than doubling in the last five years, the government recently launched a pilot programme to control their population by injecting them with a contraceptive.
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The number of complaints to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) rose from 294 in 2013 to 738 last year. Wild boars have in recent years shown up in shopping malls, private housing estates and theme parks across the city.
The government said the spike could be due to people feeding them.
The department’s scheme, to be tested over two years, involves veterinary surgeons using a tranquilliser dart gun to first get hold of the pigs, then injecting them with a contraceptive vaccine, before implanting a microchip and GPS transmitter into healthy animals.
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The boars would then be released back into rural areas, the department monitoring them to assess the scheme’s efficacy.
