A wild boar was caught and humanely euthanised because of its aggressive behaviour in two recent incidents, after a dramatic chase in Punggol yesterday close to where they had occurred.
Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How said in a Facebook post that a member of the public had spotted the wild boar, believed to be the same one that had attacked two people, hiding in the bushes.
National Parks Board (NParks) officers and a police officer secured the area and kept watch. The officers then gave chase when the wild boar charged out of the vegetation and attacked a woman who was in the vicinity, said Mr Tan.
Two NParks officers who were chasing the wild boar managed to free the woman from the animal with the help of a resident. It was then darted by the officers near Punggol Walk but in the process, one of them was bitten.
The animal was humanely euthanised. The woman and the NParks officer, who suffered minor cuts, were attended to.
Last Saturday, the boar had strayed into some HDB blocks in Punggol and attacked two people in two separate attacks.
To locate it, NParks had deployed CCTV cameras, camera traps and cage traps around the estate. Twenty trained NParks officers patrolled the vicinity from 6pm to 3am daily, keeping an eye out for the nocturnal creatures.
The Housing Board and the Singapore Land Authority also put up hoarding around the remaining forest patches to minimise the chances of animals getting out.
The NParks team is continuing its surveillance of the area to ensure public safety, said Mr Tan.
"NParks colleagues shared with me that the feeding of wildlife, whether intentionally or through irresponsible discarding of food, is a key reason for such wildlife-human incidents," he added. "Such feeding habituates wildlife to humans and increases the propensity for aggressive behaviour."
In an interview yesterday, Dr Adrian Loo, group director of wildlife management at NParks, elaborated on why the wild boar might have ventured out into an urban space: "The boar could have felt disoriented and lost. It could also have been due to habituation - people were feeding the boar, it got comfortable with humans and looked for humans as a source of food."
Since the Wildlife Act came into force last June, NParks has prosecuted about 20 wild boar feeders who were caught doing so at Lorong Halus. Academics and wildlife groups have also noted that development of forested areas in Punggol has reduced habitats, and may explain why the boar strayed into a built-up area.
"I would like to thank the NParks team and their contractors who have been patrolling the area round the clock to search for the wild boar since Saturday," said Mr Tan.
Member of Parliament for Punggol West Sun Xueling, who also posted the news on Facebook, told The Straits Times that she had asked NParks to continue with stepped-up surveillance and patrols. "I think the community in Punggol will feel more assured knowing that NParks is still monitoring the situation," she said.
Data scientist Kenny Chong, 29, who has lived in Punggol for more than 10 years and regularly encounters boars during his runs around Coney Island, told ST that he now feels safer. "I hope we will find sustainable ways to keep these animals within their habitats as they are part of the natural ecosystem," he said.
NParks said research in 2019 and last year showed there are between 150 and 200 wild boars in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, the largest of the nature reserves here. This is within the maximum population size that can be sustained in the area, given the amount of food, water and other resources available.
