'WELCOME to the Forest of DEATH' is the chilling wording on a poster that has recently been posted on a new social media website – the first steps by a new hunt saboteur group which is formed in the Forest to try and disrupt the forthcoming cull of the wild boar.

Beneath the stark headline is a series of graphic photographs of dead wild boar, plus contact phone numbers for the Forestry Commission and the Forest of Dean District Council and the words: "These are the images we don't show in our brochures... Call us and ask why."

The Review first discovered the existence of the new group after a starkly worded press release was e-mailed to the newspaper last week, stating that: "Activists have set up a group in an attempt to stop the wild boar cull from September 1 2014, organised by the Forest of Dean Forestry Commission, that will slaughter hundreds of wild boar.

"The aim of the group is to take lawful and peaceful direct action against this mass slaughter.

"The wild boar is virtually extinct in the UK and this latest cull could wipe out this animal in the Forest of Dean, given there has been no proper analysis of numbers of boars that inhabit the Forest."

They added: "The specialised wild boar Hunt Sab group has already been established by activists from the Forest of Dean, with support from other activists in Gloucestershire, and further afield, with experience in fighting the badger cull and other hunt saboteur activities.

"We have a well organised cohesive group and...we are recruiting more members from anti-badger cull and other hunt saboteur groups."

The group remain opposed to the method of the cull – marksmen with high powered rifles sitting on high seats in the Forest - and suggest that alternatives to the cull should be examined, including cage trapping and relocating the animals, and possibly contraception - by mixing the drugs in with boar food.

The Facebook page which they have set up at http://www.facebook.com/ForestofDeanWildBoarSabs">www.facebook.com/ForestofDeanWildBoarSabs, shows support from the wider saboteur and protest community, but one idea of how they may operate on the ground is hinted at by one posting, which reads: "Glos police and the local farmers saw what dedicated activists could do last year during the badger cull. You have to wonder how the police will feel about a war on two fronts, day and night."

Another comment in support of the boar, above a picture of a family group of the animals, reads: "Yes they root up grass, no different from a human-made flower bed, yes they protect their young, no different than a human parent. But does that really warrant a rifle retaliation?"

The group believe that there are around 600 - 800 wild boar living in the Forest and that: "The Forestry Commission have plans to cull most and possibly all of them."

A spokesman for the group told the Review that a public meeting was to be organised locally, at a date and location yet to be set, adding that they would be using social media sites extensively both as part of their communications with supporters, and their campaign.