From scotsman.com: Wild boar the ground force team to revive forest.
Wild boar have returned to an area where their ancestors once foraged to help efforts to restore the ancient Caledonian pine forest.
A project has started in Glen Affric in which wild boar are now living and breeding within two large enclosures in the forest. It is hoped that the "original ground disturbance force" will eat invasive bracken and help increase the number of tree seedlings to regenerate the forests.
The project is unique in using wild boar to manage a native pine wood and the eight sows, one boar, called Boris, and 40 young will soon be rewarded for their efforts by moving from a test plot of just over an acre to a larger home of about 10 acres.
Munching on the exposed tubers, the animals eat young bracken shoots as they emerge in spring. It is hoped that the patches of well turned soil left behind will provide a fertile seed bed for the regeneration of native species such as pine, rowan and birch, and the project will monitor seedling establishment over the next two to three years. [continue]
Hey! Maybe Berlin's Jagdreferent could send some of Berlin's wild boars off to Scotland.
Posted on August 23, 2005 07:25 PM. Filed under: environment.