Discussion
Right, as alluded to in the Random Photo thread, this afternoon I finally managed to photograph some of the Wild Boar that roam these here woods. I've been tantalisingly close a number of times but one way or another I've failed to capture one of these glorious beasties until today. This sounder (proper term for a group of wild boar) was a single female with six of this years young. Sounders can apparently be considerably larger than this with multiple females and their young all together.
For those that don't know boar were hunted to extinction more than 300 years ago but a number of pockets of them have popped up in the last few years, most notably in Ashdown Forest in Kent / Sussex and Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, with smaller pockets in west Dorset, Dartmoor and Devon. Nobody knows where they've come from, whether they have been deliberately let out or have escaped from farms or abattoirs. However they have arrived here they appear to be here to stay. Having spent a couple of hours following them around today, sometimes having both female and youngsters within 2' of me and my family I'm glad they're back, it's nice to think that a once extinct animal has returned to our wild areas to live along side us.
Anyway, enough chat, have some photo's:
Wild Boar 03 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 05 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 16 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 24 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 32 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 33 by dogsey, on Flickr
Finally an idea of how close we were for the time we spent with them today:
Wild Boar 36 by dogsey, on Flickr
Full set here. C&C welcomed as usual.
For those that don't know boar were hunted to extinction more than 300 years ago but a number of pockets of them have popped up in the last few years, most notably in Ashdown Forest in Kent / Sussex and Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, with smaller pockets in west Dorset, Dartmoor and Devon. Nobody knows where they've come from, whether they have been deliberately let out or have escaped from farms or abattoirs. However they have arrived here they appear to be here to stay. Having spent a couple of hours following them around today, sometimes having both female and youngsters within 2' of me and my family I'm glad they're back, it's nice to think that a once extinct animal has returned to our wild areas to live along side us.
Anyway, enough chat, have some photo's:
Wild Boar 03 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 05 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 16 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 24 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 32 by dogsey, on Flickr
Wild Boar 33 by dogsey, on Flickr
Finally an idea of how close we were for the time we spent with them today:
Wild Boar 36 by dogsey, on Flickr
Full set here. C&C welcomed as usual.
rxtx said:
It was me that asked on one of your Flickr photos but it's probably better here, how tame are they?
They are entirely wild, however they can be quite tolerant of people. We were very lucky today as the group approached us to within about 2' at times. The only other group I've been remotely close to allowed us to get to about 20' and then simply disappeared into the undergrowth.
I'm no biologist but when do tusks come into play, is it an age or genus thing?rxtx said:
One thing that crossed my perhaps overly-paranoid sysadmin mind, if you make the location available, what are the chances of poachers having a look?
The photo's are geotagged in Flickr, however the location of that tag may not be entirely accurate. Also with somewhere between 200 and 500 boar just in this area if someone really wants one I'm sure they'd find one without my help.Adz The Rat said:
Great set, I had no idea they were living in the wild here either.
I always thought they were huge dangerous beasts with big tusks, these look surprisingly gentle.
That would be the males, I'm yet to see one but apparently they can grow to a hefty size with tusks a few inches long. Not sure I'd want to be as close to one of them!I always thought they were huge dangerous beasts with big tusks, these look surprisingly gentle.
oobster said:
Fabulous pics and nicw write-up too, but they weren't 'once extinct'!
You're quite correct, they've been absent a number of times, been reintroduced for hunting and promptly been hunted back to extinction in this country.Thanks for all the comments so far.
muppetdave said:
I was under the understanding that they could be pretty vicious and would particularly expect it with young around!
It's a common misconception that comes from media-hype over the odd dog attack etc. There are thought to be around 7,000 boar living in Berlin with relatively few problems with people, the main one being that they get hit by cars - though deer, badgers and livestock already pose a similar threat in this country.
This chap has taken some nice photos
http://www.djsphotography.co.uk/British%20Mammals/...
Including this one which shows how placid they can be:
Dogsey, maybe you could add some of your pics here. I've been very interested in UK boar for years and I'm sure many others are aswell and this group has some great pics:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1148067@N22/
Japveesix said:
Dogsey, maybe you could add some of your pics here. I've been very interested in UK boar for years and I'm sure many others are aswell and this group has some great pics:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1148067@N22/
Way ahead of you there. http://www.flickr.com/groups/1148067@N22/
Mr Gearchange said:
mattdaniels said:
Wild Boar! Wild Boar!
/DuranDuran
/DuranDuran
Boar do seem to have gained quite a bad press since they've reappeared. Everyone that I've spoken to around here that has had contact with them has had good experiences, however they all repeat the warning of not trying to get close to the boar in February / March time as this is when they have their young and they will fiercely defend them, particularly if you happen to ave a dog with you - but then the same could be said of any number of animals.
Again, thanks for the comments everyone.
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