| |
   |
Last Updated on 13.07.10
Wild boar hunting (vanatoarea la mistret) is the most common big game sport in Romania; wild boar is often used for meat as well as for trophies (conventionally the male tusks only, but also shoulder mounts, female tusks, silver hat pins with boar bristles or hair or even skins and rugs).
Hunting season for wild boar opens August 1st and closes February 15th, but where considered varmints or pests, they can be shot any time of the year, with AGVPS approval. Methods used are waiting and stalking, but most popular are chase with dogs, usually terriers and scent hounds. Drives, where beaters drive the game to shooters waiting in stands who take shots at the running game, are also popular.
Wild boar drives may include other animals as well, including red deer, roe deer, rabbits, foxes, wolves, and even bears, leading to staggering numbers of game. In his infamous drives, ex-tennis champion and billionaire Ion Tiriac shot, together with his party (including Prince Dimitrie Sturdza, Wolfgang Porsche), each year, on the Balc hunting domain, in Bihor district, 185 boars in 2005, 186 boars in 2006 and a record of 240 wild boars in 2007 in single drive hunts.
National record for wild boar (tusk trophy) is of 144.0 CIC, points. Most boars taken are weighing between 300-400 lbs., with sometimes old, solitary males up to 600lbs.
