Hong Kong golf courses hire watchmen to scare off boars: rep

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041024/323/f5785.html



HONG KONG (AFP) - A Hong Kong golf centre has hired watchmen to drive noisy buggies around at night to scare off wild boars that dig up the fairways and greens as they rummage for food, a media report said.

The boars -- believed to number about 20 -- are thought to have swum to two side-by-side links courses that are on a small island off the southern Chinese enclave's rural New Territories region.

Course managers fear the damage the 180 kilogramme (396 pound) boars cause as they search for plump grubs that burrow beneath the turf will force the centre to close.

While officials mull how to clear the pests -- rifle hunting is illegal and suggestions they be given lethal injections have been ridiculed -- security guards have been asked to shoo them away, the Sunday Morning Post reported.

"The security guards were nervous on the first night but after two or three nights they weren't worried," general manager Kevin Yuen told the paper.