Japanese farmers hope Russian wolves to help get rid of wild

boars

Tokyo, Jan 18 (Itar-Tass) Japanese farmers are hoping todefend their crop fields from inroads of wild boars and wilddeer species using Russian and Chinese wolves.

The authorities of Oita prefecture (Kyushu) have beenstudying plans of bringing the wolves to Japan, media sourcessaid in Tokyo.

Oita prefecture is famous for its dried "shiitake"mushrooms- a popular treat in local cuisine and an elementused in oriental medicine, which proved a particularlyattractive food to wild boars.

Wild deer, whose population has recently grown, arefrequent visitors to rice fields.

Last year the overall losses inflicted by the animals''inroads on almost 17,000 farms in the town of Bungo-ono alonetotaled record high 24 million yen (around 300,000 USD).

The construction of all kinds of traps and fence-likeconstructions, where over 2,000 boars and deer species weretrapped over the past year, proved an extra burden on thebudget of local residents.

The actual losses might have been higher because notevery household has reported, how much they lost.

A local mayor, who is one of the authors of the plan tobring the gray beasts from abroad, suggested earmarking thenecessary funds in the 2011 budget. First, his plan has to beapproved by a majority of Bungo-ono population, the townsfolkfrom neighboring regions and the central authorities.

Wolves have been extinct in Japan since 1905. (Itar-Tass)