In March, a large wild boar charged at St Bathans resident Steven Easton. File photo Photo: 123rf
Central Otago residents say they are tired of feeling unnerved and being constantly on alert with wild pigs running amok around St Bathans.
In March, a man was knocked out after a wild boar charged him near his cottage, dislocating his shoulder with its tusk narrowly missing his eye.
St Bathans only has a handful of residents, but they are outnumbered by wild pigs that are destroying their gardens and the township.
Long term resident Keith Hinds has seen a number of them including a big, black boar lumbering through the township one afternoon and a large group with piglets.
He has been taking precautions.
"Just being alert. Every time I make sure all the gates are closed, take a decent torch when you go out to the car to lock the vehicle.
"Before that, there was no fear at all really. It's just been alert, more than scared but they're very very quick animals when they get going."
He did not believe wild pigs were naturally aggressive, but said they could attack if they felt threatened, cornered or are separated from their young.
He was worried visitors could get entranced by the cute piglets and not see a protective adult pig nearby.
"Lots and lots of tourists every day even now coming through, and I'm just concerned that they or the six local residents may get attacked one time."
Keith Hinds said residents wanted the Department of Conservation to step in and address the problem.
"They have a policy or a reason if there's wild stock out on their reserves, they eliminate them. They shoot them or get rid of them and I'd like professionals to come through town and deal with it."
Other residents told RNZ they did not feel like they could walk outside at night with wild pigs walking through their yard.
Euan Johnstone has been farming near St Bathans for more than twenty years.
He regularly gets in hunters to cull wild pigs that upset his stock and dig up the ground looking for food.
"Numbers have been reasonable well up. On our farm, they're not really extreme. But I've never seen numbers like that around St Bathans."
Local farmers were trying to deal with the problem, but he said it was an ongoing issue that would take time to fix.
"On my own farm, I'm dealing with them myself.
"In St Bathans, after the attack, we contacted DOC but they didn't really want to know.
"But the problem is they're wild animals so nobody owns them and nobody's directly responsible for them."
The Department of Conservation (DOC) said it has not received any incident reports or further requests for support from the community since the man was attacked in March.
"Wild pigs are well-established across New Zealand on both public conservation land and private land, and managing them is an ongoing challenge," DOC said.
"The St Bathan's area has many different landowners, with public conservation land making up a comparatively small pocket, meaning a landscape scale approach involving all parties is needed."
The department said it carried out wild pig control on nearby conservation land earlier this year.
"While DOC is limited in its ability to control wild animals on private land we are always keen to engage with the community to see how we can support their control initiatives.
"This could include putting landowners in touch with pest control operators, working with communities to identify priority sites for control on private land, and advising on best animal control practice.
"People are advised not to approach wild pigs as they can be dangerous."
