Tag Archives: boar

Fredrik Widemo: The Manifold Conflicts Behind the Hunting Industry

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Image Credit: USFWS Endangered Species, CC BY 2.0, Image Cropped

Rewilding is a tricky business. Bringing back species that once roamed a country as their native land may seem like a worthy cause, but it is often fraught with conflict. People don’t want predators threatening their safety, or herbivores destroying their crops. Rural vs. urban tensions come into play. Local and federal politics get thrown into the mix.

With that in mind, I sat down with Associate Professor Fredrik Widemo, currently a Senior lecturer with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Fredrik has previously worked at both the Swedish Association for Hunting and Wildlife Management (where he was the Director of Science) and the Swedish Biodiversity Centre. We explored some of the complexities behind the rewilding of wolves and its effects on the hunting and forestry industries in Sweden.

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Rewilding

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The reintroduction of wolves into Norway continues to incite controversy

Image Credit: Doug Smith, NPS, Public Domain, Image Cropped

Can you imagine a wild Scandinavia filled with untamed forests, wild boar, and large predators (and maybe a stray Viking)? This is the dream of some scientists advocating for the reintroduction of species once found in Europe that have either been hunted to extinction or driven out by intensive agriculture. The reintroduction of species, particularly animals dubbed “ecosystem engineers” such as beavers and large carnivores are of special interest due to the positive landscape-level effects of these species.

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The Wild Boar

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The wild boar, originally native to Norway, is now making a return after being wiped out. So how do the locals feel? (Image Credit: Richard Bartz, CC BY-SA 2.5, Image Cropped)

In this series we’ll be mainly dealing with alien species invading new parts of the world. However it’s important to recognise that not all invasive species are alien to the territories they invade, and not all invasive species are unanimously unwelcome. Today, we look at a species that is now returning to its former native territory, and which is being welcomed back by some.

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