HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Local hunters signed up for the Field to Fork Babui Hunt on Saturday, said Department of Agriculture officials who organize the event each year.
“We have a handful of hunters signed up as of right now, but we still have our last safety briefing tonight and more will register then. The remaining hunters will register the morning of the hunt as well,” DOAG Deputy Director Roy Gamboa told The Guam Daily Post on Thursday evening.
The annual hunting event serves three major goals, according to a press release from DOAG issued ahead of the event.
“Increasing food security, involving our hunters in the ridge to reef natural resource management practice, and encouraging R3: recruitment, retention, and reactivation of hunters in Guam. These derbies feed families, reduce our nuisance feral pig population, which helps reduce erosion to protect Guam’s forests and coral reef fisheries, and the derbies foster safe, responsible and ethical hunter development,” the release said.
The department reported that the last pig hunting derby included 60 hunters, removed 45 feral pigs from the jungles and generated over 1 ton of meat, the equivalent of 4,232 meals.
While DOAG could not provide information about how many hunters there are on Guam, the competition was open to hunters young and old, with minor participants accompanied by a parent or guardian during the hunt.
Gamboa said, “We want to encourage the practice of hunting and living sustainably. Hunting and fishing for sustenance generally decreases as we rely on more imported food and goods.”
“In as many facets as possible, your Department of Agriculture strives to help foster community engagement in increasing Guam’s food security and protecting our native jungles and coral reef fisheries. This is one of the most fun ways to do just that, while also reducing the population of this nuisance species causing so much destruction to our lands,” said DOAG Director Chelsa Muna-Brecht.
While DOAG doesn’t have data on the feral pig population on Guam, Gamboa said, gathering data would be a future undertaking.
“But, we know there’s a definite huge increase in population as we see more of them in developed areas,” said Gamboa.
On Saturday, the hunt began throughout the island as game can be caught on both government and private lands with landowner permission. Hunters competed in either the firearm or bow divisions in the biggest pig and most pig categories.
Wild pigs, or babui halom tano, caged in Talo’fo’fo’.
