Hunters Go Out at Night in Search of Wild Boars, the Only Animal That Can Be Hunted in Brazil

08/31/2015 - 09h02

Three knocks on the cab of the truck, given by the passengers in the back, are the password for the driver to stop. The target is nearby.

"Be careful with your ears", says one of the three members of the group. A few seconds later, a loud, dry noise sounds, coming from a special projectile fired by a 7 mm rifle. The target is a few dozen meters from the car, under the rifle´s laser sight.

In the middle of the night, lit only by three powerful flashlights, the shooter jumps from the car and runs toward the field of sorghum, a cereal similar to corn.

He sees the bloodstains on the ground and asks his two friends to continue the search by land. About 100 meters away from the first spot of blood, the boar is lying down, dead. The animal weighs about 90 kilos. The shot hit a side of its body.

The slaughter -the first of three that night- took place in the rural area of Monte Azul Paulista (400 km from SP) in the early hours of Tuesday (25). In the region where the city lies, near Ribeirão Preto, the boar is considered a pest by the farmers.

Because of the devastation it causes to the ecosystem, especially in the South, the animal is the only one in the country that can be hunted, as stated in Ibama´s (Brazilian Institute of the Environment) rules.

According to the federal agency, there are nowadays 7,000 people registered for the slaughter of the animal. But according to technicians who study the matter, the actual number is higher, as bureaucracy makes people unwilling to get regularized.

In Monte Azul Paulista, hunters have the registration and authorization of the Army to carry heavy weapons.

"We do everything within the law. The risk of that animal for native wildlife, crops and livestock is enormous", says Mardqueu França Filho.

Working as an attorney in the city, he is a sport shooter in Olympic events as a hobby and was the author of the shootings that killed three wild boars and wounded another one that dawn, in about two hours.

Ibama´s rules, apart from requiring that shooters and their weapons are registered -as well as the place where the killings will be made-, also prohibit to sell the boar meat.

The solution is to use it for self-consumption. That is why the dinner, before the hunt on Monday (24), had oven roasted loin with Rangpur lime, the result of the previous week´s expedition.

Translated by DENISE MOTA

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	Avener Prado/Folhapress
	The wild boar is the only animal that can be hunted in Brazil