Spider pig. Spider pig...
BOAR-ZILLA stalks Fukushima's dead zone
Radioactive wild boars have become a problem in the evacuation zone around Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. Reuters reports that as some of the towns near Fukushima re-open, those paving the way for returning residents often see boars strolling the streets. The newswire says some boars have even attacked humans, leading to …
COMMENTS
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Friday 10th March 2017 07:29 GMT seven of five
Which is essentially the same thing which happened to (not only) bavarian boars since chernobyl[1]. Since they prefer eat mushroom (which are more contaminated than other plants) the boars became inedible, were hunted less and are now more numerous than before 1986. Unfortunately, they don´t glow in the dark and are therefore still difficult to hunt, causing a lot of damage to the countryside.
[1] which is taken over by radioactive wolves - who still are regular size. It is a disappointment all around.
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Saturday 11th March 2017 01:22 GMT PNGuinn
Re: "...picked up radiation doses that make them a very dangerous meal."
It would probably do all the Japanese a favour if someone could persuade them that their scheming greenie poilticos were dangerously radioactive...
Tell them the proof is that they all glow black against a black background in pitch black darkness should do it ...
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Friday 10th March 2017 23:48 GMT Kane
Re: Do you become some kind of Superboar is one of them bites you??
"No, you become a Super Bore and correct people in comment forums on the Internet."
Aww, Bob, it's just a bit of fun. Lighten up, it's Friday!
Wait, unless...that was a joke? I've got to admit, when I start telling my wife how my day went, she tends to develop a slightly glassy look in her eyes and they drift ever so slowly to the left...
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Friday 10th March 2017 11:08 GMT Tom Paine
Boar
Tangentially, I happened to encounter the wild boar someone released in the Forest of Dean back in 2004 very soon after they'd first been spotted, over a decade ago: a sow with 8 or 10 piglets. I watched them very carefully and cautiously as they foraged about in Forestry Commission land. They were drifting down a fairly steep wooded slope, and I was cautiously and quietly (I thought) following perhaps 10 yards downwind, enjoying a delusional sense that I was the new David Attenborough. They passed behind a tangle of undergrowth, piglets first, then the sow. When the sow emerged she stopped, turned, started me straight in the eyes and... well, you know that Dr Doolittle song about talking to the animals? This creature didn't know English but it communicated "if you don't push off, I'm gonna gut you like a fish with my tusks" pretty unmistakably. I took the hint and retreated!
Really cool to see them in the wild, though, and in some places they're semi-habituated to humans (the Forest isn't all that unpopulated) so you can safely watch them from a distance as long as you don't startle them. (Keep dogs on a lead or, preferably, away from the woods altogether.) A charging boar is extremely dangerous and quite capable of killing a small dog and fucking up humans good and proper if you got a big one on a bad day.
(In summary, visit the lovely Forest of Dean, we need to tourist money!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-38755729
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Friday 10th March 2017 13:37 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Small-caliber rifle? For wild boar?
Some guys (mad, weightlifter types) in Melbourne, Australia go boar hunting with a single knife (each).
One guy in particular I can think of. Does it fairly often, for the challenge. Hasn't gone badly for him yet, after a few years.
Definitely not my kind of thing though.
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Friday 10th March 2017 16:27 GMT Eddy Ito
Re: Small-caliber rifle? For wild boar?
It's hard to say from the Reuters video what the caliber is but I will say it looks like a precharged pneumatic air rifle to me. Given the range and the fact that they are caged they could get by with as little as a .25 caliber with a neck shot. If I had to pick based on what little shows in the video I'd guess they're using an Evanix or Hatsan.