A sleeping male 'tusker' boar. This beast was photographed on a Devon farm. If I came across him in the wild, I would definitely leave him sleeping, but what would you do? ....and you might just come across him, he's escaped! (© Martin Goulding).
The information below is gleaned from comments by experienced wildlife managers, reputable wildlife organisations and my own personal experiences. However, in these litigious times, do not take this page as gospel! No liability is accepted if things go pear-shaped when walking in the woods and a wild boar takes exception to you. Use your own judgement, then please email and berate me with your experiences so we can communicate them for the greater good.
A sleeping male 'tusker' boar. This beast was photographed on a Devon farm. If I came across him in the wild, I would definitely leave him sleeping, but what would you do? ....and you might just come across him, he's escaped! (© Martin Goulding).
1. Walking in the Woods
Firstly
Yes, it is safe to walk and camp in the woods, and with the children, cub scouts or brownies too. Any wild boar present will scent or hear you, then deliberately avoid you - especially if you have been gingangoolying around the camp fire. Wild boar are not attracted to, nor frightened by fire, but the Forestry Commission certainly is. Furthermore, food does not have to be hidden because wild boar will not raid your picnic hamper. Yogi bear might though!
Kent County Council informs walkers, through a notice at the entrance to the relevant woodland, that wild boar ‘.... are not regarded as a danger to the public; however, injured or distressed animals should not be approached.’ Similarly, East Sussex County Council displays the notice ‘Caution. Wild boar in Woods. Please take care and keep to the path’. No notices are currently placed on woodland managed by the Forestry Commission.
In General
Wild boar are large and potentially dangerous animals. However, people have been hunting wild boar for thousands of years thus wild boar are afraid of us. If you come across a group of wild boar in the woods they will always flee from you. Although their eyesight is poor, they hear and scent very well. They will know you are in the woods long before you know they are there, and they will make themselves scarce.
The main danger would be to step on a boar sleeping away the daytime hours, which will then wake up and may feel threatened. I have actually done this several times when radio-tracking wild boar in areas of tall vegetation. Fortunately the woken animal has run off every time, but it still gets the pulse racing.
Signs put up by the Forestry Commission around campsites in the Forest of Dean - they help the Forestry Commission to avoid being sued! (© Christian Amodeo reproduced with permission).
This boar-running-away-from-people rule does not apply to wild boar that have recently escaped from captivity. Often these relatively tame animals associate people with food and may well come up to you thinking you are going to feed them. After being shot at a few times, the boar get the message that life is not all a bed of warm straw and a bucket of nuts, and the survivors gradually become nocturnal and as secretive as free born populations. In the mean time, these animals pose no threat to you, but may take a dislike to your dog if they perceive the dog to be a threat.
Wild Boar in Groups
Groups (known as sounders) of wild boar are organised in order of seniority around a leading matriarchal sow, typically one of the oldest and usually the grandmother. When any boar, young or old, of high or low ranking, notices anything unusual or potentially dangerous to the group, it "blows" a warning snort. The group immediately stop what they are doing and 'decision control' transfers to the matriarchal sow. She may send a ‘scout’ towards the possible danger to check it out. If you think youare the danger, talk or shout loudly so the danger (you) clearly appears to the boar. The matriarchal will bark a loud grunt and immediately all the boar will flee.
Sows with Piglets
Beware of close encounters sows with piglets. Sows are intelligent animals and will not start an unnecessary fight with a person, except for a sow with tiny piglets in their first four weeks of life. In this case the sow is more dangerous than the male.
If walking in the woods particularly between February and May, avoid dense bushy areas with open sunny spaces where there may be sows with piglets. For eleven months of the year sows will disappear away from you so quietly you will never know they were there. But when they have small piglets, if you come too close, they may attack, but only may. Again though, the sow will blow a warning snort, allowing you time to retreat away and showing the sow that you understood. They will also dummy charge, so if a sow is bearing down on you with an evil glint in her eyes, all may not be lost.
The stance of this sow shows she knows the photographer is there and she is wary for her piglets. The sow is weighing up what to do next, either turn and bolt or, much less likely, run at the photographer. Should you find yourself in a similar situation, common sense dictates you calmly walk back in the direction you came from. Supposing you were walking your dog, what would your dog do next? (ownership of photograph unknown, please advise on legality of use).
Mode of Attack
A male boar attacks by running at you with his head which he then lifts up potentially slashing your legs with his sharp tusks. He then runs off. Fatalities rarely occur and are usually a result of blood loss if an artery is cut. Sows, which don’t have protruding tusks, attack with their head-up and mouth gaping open like a hippo. They bite rather than slash but sows have large mouths and can bite fiercely.
Keeping a Perspective
It is important to keep things in perspective. I found when I was working with the free-living wild boar in Britain at all months of the year (including radio-tracking on-foot sows with piglets), I never had one problem. I feared certain breeds of domestic dogs being walked in the woods far more than the boar. If you are attacked by a wild boar, consider yourself damned unlucky (although I appreciate that is no compensation!)
The scary side of wild boar - being slashed by these tusks is definately not good. (© Martin Goulding).
Advice from Defra
Defra (The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has given out the following advise regarding wild boar, under the title of:
Wild boar are normally secretive and nocturnal if they are not interfered with and there are very few documented cases of boar attacking people in Europe or elsewhere. However, the following advice and guidance is offered to those who may encounter wild boar whilst out walking in the countryside.
When not continually shot at or harassed, wild boar (as seen here in Poland) can become quite tame and urbanised. They are obviously not the killing machines they are often made out to be, but remember with all animals (wild or domestic) there is always that element of unpredicatability.
(ownership of photographs unknown, please advise on legality of use).
Advice from the RSPCA
"Since wild boar like dense areas with lots of gorse and other cover, walkers may not even be aware that these creatures have young," said Chief inspector Thomas. "It is quite usual for the piglets to be hidden in the undergrowth, with the sows coming forward to make their presence known if they feel threatened by a person or dog which has run on ahead of its owner."
"Wild boar are not usually aggressive creatures, but like all good mothers these simply want to protect their young, so we urge the public to keep their distance as much as possible and ensure their dogs are kept under control."
Advice from a Japanese Website
Wild boar are common in Japan, and the following safety advice is given out, under the title of:
A panicking farmer in Kent put up this makeshift sign. It reads "Danger Keep Out Wild Boar Seen Here These Animals Can Kill". (© Martin Goulding).
Also Worth Bearing in Mind with Public safety Issues
-reported from France: Hunters kill friend in wild boar mix-up
A group of hunters shot dead a 54-year-old member of their party yesterday after apparently mistaking him for a boar while on an expedition in northeastern Greece. The unnamed man had set off on a trip to kill wild pigs in a forest near the village of Palios Zigos, south of Xanthi, with nine fellow enthusiasts. They set up an ambush for the boar and waited for an animal to appear. When some members of the group heard a rustling behind a bush, they let off a volley of large-bore shot which fatally injured the unsuspecting hunter. The hunters then raced the 54-year-old to the local hospital but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. A prosecutor is investigating the case. It is the second incident of its kind to have taken place in the area recently — another man was accidentally shot dead by his brother while hunting near Kavala last month.
from http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100024_14/12/2004_50685
Wild boar can be a significant traffic hazard. These boar were photographed crossing a road in Lithuania, and right on a bend too. (©Bill Shubert http://www.igoweb.org/~wms/personal/photos/1998/Europe/0806-Lith/)
Heather from Herefordshire writes:
"The boar killed by a car, as per the info you have via the BBC online
website, was also reported with a pic of the dead beast (which was huge) on
a pallet. Anyway, friends of mine, with whom we had
just had a meal that evening, were first on the scene of this
accident, & comforted the driver who was dazed & had struggled from his car
to the gutter, until the ambulance arrived!
I live near the area, and for several years there was a boar farm
about 1.5 miles from my home, with boar fenced on a wooded hillside. The
fences are still there, but there were escapees. I ride in local woods &
hills!"
Road traffic accidents have claimed the lives of several wild boar in Britain, particularly where a road bisects an area of woodland. All reported accidents involving wildlife are recorded by the police authorities as ‘wild animal’ and not ‘wild boar’ incidents, so exact numbers are not available. In common with observations from the continent, most wild boar are hit during the hours of darkness as they move to their feeding areas. Their dark coats can be difficult to see, particularly on an unlit country road.
Wild boar have no fear of roads and will loiter along the grass verge whilst feeding, a trait also shown by sika deer Cervus nippon in Japan. In the Netherlands, most wild boar are killed in October, November and December, when the hours of darkness are greatest, visibility on the roads is the worst and male animals become particularly mobile during the rutting season. A similar seasonal trend would be expected for Britain.
Suggestions to reduce the number of wild boar RTA's on main roads include the construction of fencing and wildlife passages. For minor roads intermittently illuminated warning signs, preferably triggered by the crossing animal, are suggested. The need for a public education programme is also stressed.
No human fatalities have been reported through collisions with wild boar in Britain and this may be attributed to the lighter traffic and slower speeds used on the winding country roads that the animals most frequently cross. However, wild boar have been hit on A-roads where speeds are greater, so the potential does exist for a fatal road traffic accident involving boar.
The following is taken from a French website (http://caromb.vaucluse.free.fr/Actus/Actusalites/actus_ville-caromb9.htm) and shows what happens when your car hits a wild boar.
Collision Between a Car and a Wild Boar
Saturday October 21, around nine thirty, a 309 Peugeot, driven by Mr Sanchez, towards Caromb from Mazan, ran up against a wild boar. This beautiful animal weighing 60 kilos was probably fleeing the hunters in action in the district of Combe. While trying to cross the road between two cars, it was run over by the Peugeot and killed. The engineering departments of the commune and the municipal police force attended the scene. Mr Sanchez's car is probably irrepairable.
......and another boar-damaged car (from www.amicale-matra530.com/.../ insolite.htm).
3. Public Health
Public health is relevant to the wild boar's re-introduction because new animals may bring new diseases or may increase the incidence of disease already present. Wild boar are vulnerable to parasitic and bacterial disease and several of their parasites and infections are transmissible to man. Shot wild boar in Britain have been butchered and skinned in an unregulated environment but it is not known whether any disease has occurred as a result.
Brucella suis and trichinellosis are the most important zoonotic threats to human health from consuming wild boar/feral pig meat, but the animals do not constitute a major public health risk. In contrast, many Australian hunters do not consume their feral pig kills for fear of acquiring a zoonotic disease.
Fascinating picture of a sow suckling her piglets in the middle of surburban Berlin. Many thanks to Jerzy Dyczkowski for allerting us to this. The text and picture are from Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2003 on their site at http://internt.nhm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wildwin/2003/index.html.
Jerzy writes:
"Not British, but picture of urban wild boar from Berlin was highly commended in British Wildlife Photographer 2003 competition. I hope this photo finally dispells myths that wild boars cannot live in densely populated areas. Just look at this sow suckling piglets by the car in suburban Berlin".
