Researcher, residents study and observe wild boars

SINGAPORE: News that a wild boar wandered out of the forest around Lower Peirce Reservoir and charged at a security guard and a five—year—old boy at Bishan—Ang Mo Kio Park last Friday may have raised concerns in some quarters.

But now a wild life researcher says wild boars moving out of the woods does not necessarily mean that there is an overpopulation of them.

Mr Ong Say Lin, Research Student, Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore, said: "This may not just be a sign that their numbers are increasing too quickly. We don’t know that for sure yet, and I can’t deny that as well. They are coming out and they are spreading to bigger areas. And they can’t tell the difference between a natural area and a housing estate that has planted fruit trees. To them it’s really all the same, and it’s just their normal foraging behaviour."

And observing wild boars’ foraging behaviour has become a new past—time for some of the residents at Upper Thomson.

They say wild boars foraging for food by the roadside is now almost a daily occurrence, which attracted many drivers to take snapshots of them.

One resident even turned his home—grown jackfruit tree into an ’observation post’, where he spends up to two hours watching the wild boars from a safe distance.

To better understand wild boars, Mr Ong has put in place more than 30 camera traps to track the animals.

He has also set up a webpage and Facebook page where he published his research findings, to be shared with the public.

The public can share their sightings or knowledge of wild boars on the Facebook page to help others learn more about the habits and behaviour of the animals.

— CNA/de