Walking on the wild side with a real boar
[26 January 2005]
“If you go down in the woods today,
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today,
You’d better go in disguise.”
Or so went the lyrics of Jimmy Kennedy’s children’s song.
However, today if you happen to go down in the woods there’s an
increasing likelihood that you may see something even more
surprising than teddy bears picnicking!
Reported sightings in Britain of the once extinct wild boar are
on the increase, with some sounders (the official term for a
group of boar) numbering 100, and there are concerns that these
creatures, which can reach up to six feet in length and 400lbs
in weight, may be a threat to the walking public.
Sus scrofa was once so abundant in the British Isles that
Thirteenth Century feasts often had dozens of them roasting on
spits, but by the Seventeenth Century they were extinct in the
wild. It is
thought that the boars newly roaming the Shires have either
escaped from farms or have been released illegally into the wild
by former owners. Either way, they appear to have taken to
living on the wild side with great relish.
To date there are confirmed reports of four breeding populations
of between 20 and 100 boars in Kent and East Sussex, Dorset,
Herefordshire and Monmouthshire/Forest of Dean, although there
are reports of sightings from Norfolk to North Yorkshire,
Wiltshire to Derbyshire and most places in-between. There have
even been two sightings in Scotland.
Recent reports from the Forest of Dean claim that boars have
charged people walking dogs and riding horses. Others report
packs of boar quite literally ploughing up their gardens and
showing little or no fear of humans.
However, wild boar experts claim that the naturally shy and
retiring creatures rarely offer a threat to people, and indeed
so secretive are they that it is often difficult to find
them even when looking for them. Most wild boars will shy away
from human contact; this is aided by the fact that they are
largely nocturnal and spend most of the day sleeping. Boars can
become aggressive though if threatened by dogs, especially when
sows have young, and can charge horses because they see them as
a threat.
There have been incidents where wild boars have attacked humans,
and the Farm Animal Welfare Council describe wild boar as
“highly strung, nervous animals, which can be easily excited or
frightened and thus become highly aggressive”. However, the
bottom line is, wild boars are not dangerous if left alone.
Should you want more information about wild boar visit
DEFRA or
British Wild Boar