Yes, more than you want to know ...
Hello, again --
I know you wrote that you have enough to "chew on" (ahem -- pork ribs, anyone?), but my husband did finally get around to answering your questions, so ... in his own words:
Here's what I can relate based on my experience
participating in a wild boar hunt in New Zealand:
> - Do people team up and split off?
It would depend on how many people there are in the
hunt and how many dogs they have. In my case, the
hunter (a young 17-year-old lad named Brad) brought
only three dogs. So, no matter how many people were
with him on the hunt--I was the only one in this
instance--they would have stayed together pretty much
(give and take a few feet). The whole idea was to
follow the dogs and run with the dogs because when the
dogs picked up the scent of a pig (or pigs) they would
chase it, bring it down, and the humans had to follow
the dogs very closely so that they could jump on the
boar and kill it fast. The dogs could not be left
alone with the boar for too long as they would risk
being gored to death or hurt by the pig, which once
cornered by three or more dogs would fight for its
survival. The dogs could corner and hold down a pig
but they could not kill it. The humans (or a human)
would have to climb on top of the pig and slit its
throat with a knife.
- Do they use specific signals (without using walkie
> talkies) for distress or calling for backup, etc?
The signals used were just wolf whistles (to call the
dogs). As I was the only other person with him, he
didn't have a walkie talkie or cell phone! It is
possible that if we had a bigger group, walkie talkies
would have been used.
HOWEVER, one of the dogs had a tracking device planted
on its collar. Besides a .303 Mauser rifle, its
master carried a tube-shaped bag slung over his
shoulder which, when opened, revealed a 2-foot-long
strip of device with unfolding antennae. This was a
beeping tracker which told us approximately in which
direction and how far away the dogs. Granted, the
tracker was on one dog only, but since dogs are pack
animals, there was little risk that the dog with the
tracker would be separated from the others.
> - Do they spread out an area? And how big would that
> area be?
The area we hunted in was only about the size of one
New York City cross-street block by three uptown
blocks. The area was small but it was a hill. So all
the while we were walking uphill (for what seemed like
2-3 miles) up along a dirt track which was lined on
both sides by dense forest. In the thick brush, you
could see no more than 5-10 feet away. The dogs sort
of "accompanied" us on the uphill track. They more
accurately "led" us (they were hungry for the chase!)
and while we humans stayed on the dirt track, they
wandered off into the forest. All the while we kept
listening to the dogs' barking and baying to see where
they were leading us, and whether they had found their
quarry. Apparently, they did. We heard what sounded
like a good-sized boar running towards us in the thick
forest, with the dogs in chase (their barking had also
subsided by this time). Then, as the boar was about 15
feet away in the brush, it appeared to veer off and
run in a different direction. So we missed it. Now, in
this instance, Brad had his rifle ready and would have
shot the pig if it had come out charging at us
(instead of using his knife). This is because the dogs
had not managed to corner it or pull it down. So it
meant it would have been one pig coming at us, with
the dogs too far away to provide support. In such a
scenario, the smart thing for the human to do was to
shoot as the situation was not ideal for knifing.
- Where do they look? Do they look for boar tracks?
As stated above, it is the dogs that would lead the
hunters to the prey. However, Brad also knew how to
look for boar tracks. He pointed some out to me and
even showed me how the boar tracks differed from the
deer tracks.
> - What kind of weapons?
A hunting knife (the type with a short wide blade,
about the length of a typical standard-issue military
bayonet) and a big-caliber rifle (5.56 mm, .223, 7.62
mm). He did not countenance the use of handguns (not
even for self-protection) as he thought having
handguns would endanger the lives of the humans
involved (accidental shooting, death by friendly
fire). If a boar ever charged at you, you were
supposed to run and climb up a tree.