kills, for example, and boars have even been known to drive a lynx off its fresh kill, so that they could feed on it themselves. Elsewhere in their range, wild boar are preyed upon by tigers (Panthera tigris), leopards (Panthera pardus) and crocodiles (Crocodylus spp.). Wild boar Like all large mammals, the wild boar is a host for a number of parasites, (Sus scrofa) including internal or endoparasites such as tapeworms (Taenia solium),whip- worms (Trichuris spp.) and nematodes (Ascaris sp.). External or ectoparasites Missing from the Caledonian Forest for the past include the pig louse (Haematopinus 400 years, the wild boar fulfills an essential role suis) and ticks (Ixodes ricinus), and in Spain a tick which had fed on a wild boar in the ecosystem, and its return now will aid the was found to be carrying one of the bacteria (Borrelia afzelli) that cause recovery of the forest. Ground disturbance in action - a sow and young uprooting heather and exposing the soil. Lyme disease. To rid itself of external parasites, the wild boar regularly visits this rooting behaviour, through the Predators of the wild boar in Europe puddles or wet ground, where it will Worldwide distribution provision of a good growing medium for include the wolf (Canis lupus), brown wallow in the mud. In this regard, it also Wild boar has the widest natural range of any ungulate, or hoofed With such a huge range, there is some variation in the species, seedlings, and in some cases, the dispersal bear (Ursus arctos) and the lynx (Lynx benefits from the attention of the magpie mammal, in the world. It originally occurred from Britain and and as many as 25 subspecies have been proposed. However, of the seeds themselves, which are lynx), with young (Pica pica), which will perch on a boar’s Ireland throughout all of Europe (except Scandinavia), in the the latest research indicates that there are probably only 4 sometimes pushed into the animals being back and eat ticks and other parasites. Atlas Mountains in North Africa, in the Middle East and the subspecies, with Sus scrofa scrofa occurring in Europe, North soil by the boar’s snout as taken in most The wild boar has been missing from Caucasus Mountains and through most of Central Asia to China, Africa and Western Asia; S. s. ussuricus in North Asia and Japan; it roots around. instances. the Caledonian Forest for at least the past Taiwan and Japan. It is also found in South and Southeast Asia, S. s. cristatus being found from Asia Minor to India; and S. s. Ground disturbance However, four centuries, during which time the from India across to Vietnam and the Indonesian islands of vittatus occurring in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. is of course also the wild absence of its essential ecological role Sumatra and Java. Outside of its natural range, the wild boar has been introduced destructive for some boar also has contributed to the overall decline of to many other parts of the world, such as North America, plants, and Britain’s benefits from the forest. The return of the wild boar to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, parts of South America and famous bluebell woods are the presence of its rightful place in the ecosystem now is a number of Pacific Islands, including Hawaii. In addition, attributed by some people to the predators, as it will a vital step towards the recovery of the domesticated pigs (which are all descended from wild boar) have absence of wild boar. The theory is that in feed on carrion left from lynx forest to full health and diversity. escaped in a number of countries and established feral other parts of Europe, the rooting of wild populations, sometimes interbreeding with local wild populations. boar prevents the mass displays of bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) that Distribution in Scotland grace many of our woods in May and It is likely that the wild boar originally occurred throughout most early June. of Scotland, wherever there was suitable forest for it to live in. Another species whose abundance Fossil and archaeological remains have been found in Caithness may be related to wild boar is bracken and Sutherland, Perthshire, Fife, Berwickshire, Wigtownshire and (Pteridium aquilinum). This rhizomatous the islands of Colonsay and Orkney. Wild boar were reduced over fern spreads by underground runners, or the centuries as the forest cover shrank, and hunting for both meat rhizomes, from which the fronds grow and sport also played an important part in its disappearance. An each year. The fronds are toxic to animals, exact date for the extinction of the species in Scotland is so because of preferential grazing on other unknown, but it is generally considered to have been in the late more palatable species, bracken has taken 16th or early 17th centuries. over in many places and forms dense, In England, where the boar probably became extinct in the uniform patches, which shade out 13th century, animals imported from continental Europe were seedlings of other plants. Wild boar, released in the first part of the 17th century, but they did not however, dig up and eat the bracken become successfully re-established in the wild, most likely rhizomes, so they may have been a control because of persecution as agricultural pests. In the latter part of on bracken before they were exterminated the 20th century, farmers began keeping wild boar in enclosures, in the UK. The Guisachan Wild Boar and a number of animals escaped in 1987, when a severe storm Project is seeking to quantify and blew down over 1 million trees in the south of England. Those document the effect of wild boar in boar, and other subsequent escapees, have become established, controlling and removing bracken from an and today wild populations exist in Kent, East Sussex and Devon, area of native pine forest. Wild boar sow amongst heather. with sightings also reported from other counties. Wild boar farms also exist in Scotland, and animals that have escaped from them may account for the boar that was © 2007 Trees for Life, The Park, Findhorn Bay, Forres IV36 3TZ, Scotland. • Tel. 0845 458 3505 • Fax 0845 458 3506 photographed in the wild near Fort William in September 2006. E-mail: [email protected] • Web site: www.treesforlife.org.uk • Scottish Charity number SCO21303 Wild boar sow amongst Scots pines, at the Guisachan Wild Boar This is the first time in at least 400 years that there have been Text and photographs by Alan Watson Featherstone. Illustrations by Caragh McAuley. Project site. Photo by Liz Balharry. free-living wild boar in Scotland. Printed with vegetable oil-based inks on recycled paper made from 75% post-consumer waste by Posthouse Printing, Findhorn. even-toed characteristic of artiodactyls. uses the power of its large body to charge The male wild boar develops tusks at 2 its attacker, and its tusks to inflict serious years of age, and these grow upwards from injuries. As an adaptation to such breeding both the upper and lower canine teeth. season aggression, males have developed The upper tusks are 7 - 12 cm. long, and thickened tissues at the front of their are hollow. They are used as ‘natural bellies, to provide protection from whetstones’ for sharpening the lower tusks, stabbing tusks. which are smaller, but like the upper ones, Breeding usually occurs in the autumn, they grow continuously. in October and November, and the females The female wild boar, or sow, has six This piglet, at about 4 months old, have a 21 day oestrus cycle. Successful pairs of nipples and reaches sexual is losing its striped coat males have been documented as mating with maturity at 18 months of age, on average. as many as 8 females. Pregnancy lasts for an A male may reach sexual maturity as varied, as it is an omnivorous species. average of 115 days, and farrowing, or young as 10 months old, but it is generally Typical food includes roots and tubers, giving birth, happens in the spring. The sow not until they are fully grown, at about insects, worms, berries, nuts, carrion, bird leaves the sounder 1-3 days before giving 5 years, that males are able to compete eggs, lizards, snakes and small mammals birth, when she builds a special farrowing successfully for females. In the wild, the such as mice. Plant material forms about nest. This takes the form of a mound made lifespan of a boar is typically 10 years, 90% of the diet, and in the autumn, mast from vegetation, and is built over a hollow although some individuals have been from trees such as oak and beech is a scrape that is lined with twigs. known to live for 27 years. In captivity, the major food source. The wild boar is mainly Litters typically contain 4-6 piglets, Male wild boar, showing the tusks average lifespan is 25 years. nocturnal, and most feeding is done at but can be as large as 12. The piglets The wild boar is a social animal and night, although some foraging also takes weigh from 750 gm to 1 kg at birth, and Since 2004, the Guisachan Wild Boar of the boar, and this has led to their lives in groups of 20, or sometimes more, place during the day. Most of the day time remain in or close to the nest for 4-6 Scots pine seedling and wild boar scat. Project (in which Trees for Life is a common name of razorback in the that are called sounders. These are is spent sleeping, in ‘day nests’, which are days, before the sow and her young Scots pine seed is better able to germinate partner) has had a number of wild boar southeast of the USA, where matriarchal and consist of two or round depressions in the ground that are rejoin the sounder. Rooting behaviour because of the boar’s ground disturbance, inside fenced enclosures on the edge of the feral pigs have given rise to three mature females and sometimes lined with leaves or vegetation. begins after a few days and the piglets while the scat provides a natural fertiliser Glen Affric National Nature Reserve. The a wild boar population. their recent litters or The boar’s eyesight is poor, and its will eat solid food after two weeks. for its growth. project is seeking to determine whether the Like all other even- young. Adult males are eyes are only able to distinguish blue from Piglets will sometimes cross-suckle from number of boar required to fulfil their toed ungulates, such usually solitary outside amongst the primary colours. However, ecological functions of ground disturbance as red deer or cattle, of the mating season. because of its largely nocturnal lifestyle, and bracken control in a native woodland the wild boar has Larger groupings, of up this is not necessarily a disadvantage, as are compatible with providing an income cloven hooves, which to 50 or 100 animals are blue is most easily seen in low light to local boar farmers. are formed by two occasionally seen, and conditions. By contrast, the wild boar has toes, each encased in a a sounder will forage an excellent sense of smell, and it uses its layer of horn. In the boar’s together throughout a home snout to search for food on the ground and Conservation status case, these toes can spread to range. The natural habitat of the in the soil. The snout is highly flexible, The wild boar is included on the IUCN make it easier to walk in mud or soft wild boar is woodland, and with a large disk of cartilage connected to (World Conservation Union) Red List of ground. There is a smaller toe on the throughout its large range, it lives in muscle, and is quite powerful, enabling the threatened Species, where it is classified outside of each of the main toes, while the deciduous and coniferous forests, in boar to turn over dead logs and uproot as Lower Risk/Least Concern. This is the fifth toe has been lost during evolution, tropical rainforests and in swamp forests. plants. The boar also has excellent hearing, lowest category of threat on the list, and thereby resulting in the present-day The diet of the wild boar is diverse and and communicates with various recognises that the species is in no vocalisations. These include grunting or imminent danger. rumbling when content, squealing when injured or hurt, and making a snorting sound by blowing through the nose when Physical characteristics disturbed or frightened. and behaviour The wild boar is highly intelligent, and The wild boar is a member of the pig is considered to be one of the most family, Suidae, and is an even-toed intelligent of all animals. In the wild it is ungulate or artiodactyl. It is a large naturally shy, and is seldom seen by mammal, with an adult male weighing up humans. Although it has a fierce to 200 kg., or occasionally more, and with reputation, it is extremely rare for a boar to Wild boar sow with suckling young a head and body length of up to 2 metres. be aggressive towards humans; this is only The tail, which is usually straight, is about likely to happen if an animal is cornered, other lactating sows in the sounder, and Ecological relationships 25 cm. long. Female boars are about two or if a sow senses her young are weaning takes place at between 3 and 4 of wild boar thirds of the size of the males, although threatened. Sows can be aggressive months of age. Because of its large size and its frequent both stand about one metre in height. towards each other, however, when The piglets have a characteristic rooting for food, the wild boar has a A prominent feature of the wild boar is feeding or when seeking dominance within striped pattern on their coats, with significant effect on the forest floor where its coat of short, thick bristly hair, which a sounder. Males are most aggressive longitudinal stripes of light brown and it lives. In particular, by disturbing the soil, can vary in colour from brown and black to towards each other during the breeding cream, and this gives way to adult it creates ideal conditions in the grey. In western Europe, boar generally season, when injuries sustained in the colouration at about 6 months old. Caledonian Forest for the germination of have brown coats, while in eastern Europe contests over females can sometimes be Mortality is high amongst the young, Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) seedlings, as black coats are more common. A line of fatal. A fully grown male boar is a mainly due to predation. they thrive best in exposed mineral soil. longer, upright hair grows along the spine Day nest at the base of a Scots pine. formidable opponent when attacked, and it However, other plants also benefit from kills, for example, and boars have even been known to drive a lynx off its fresh kill, so that they could feed on it themselves. Elsewhere in their range, wild boar are preyed upon by tigers (Panthera tigris), leopards (Panthera pardus) and crocodiles (Crocodylus spp.). Wild boar Like all large mammals, the wild boar is a host for a number of parasites, (Sus scrofa) including internal or endoparasites such as tapeworms (Taenia solium),whip- worms (Trichuris spp.) and nematodes (Ascaris sp.). External or ectoparasites Missing from the Caledonian Forest for the past include the pig louse (Haematopinus 400 years, the wild boar fulfills an essential role suis) and ticks (Ixodes ricinus), and in Spain a tick which had fed on a wild boar in the ecosystem, and its return now will aid the was found to be carrying one of the bacteria (Borrelia afzelli) that cause recovery of the forest. Ground disturbance in action - a sow and young uprooting heather and exposing the soil. Lyme disease. To rid itself of external parasites, the wild boar regularly visits this rooting behaviour, through the Predators of the wild boar in Europe puddles or wet ground, where it will Worldwide distribution provision of a good growing medium for include the wolf (Canis lupus), brown wallow in the mud. In this regard, it also Wild boar has the widest natural range of any ungulate, or hoofed With such a huge range, there is some variation in the species, seedlings, and in some cases, the dispersal bear (Ursus arctos) and the lynx (Lynx benefits from the attention of the magpie mammal, in the world. It originally occurred from Britain and and as many as 25 subspecies have been proposed. However, of the seeds themselves, which are lynx), with young (Pica pica), which will perch on a boar’s Ireland throughout all of Europe (except Scandinavia), in the the latest research indicates that there are probably only 4 sometimes pushed into the animals being back and eat ticks and other parasites. Atlas Mountains in North Africa, in the Middle East and the subspecies, with Sus scrofa scrofa occurring in Europe, North soil by the boar’s snout as taken in most The wild boar has been missing from Caucasus Mountains and through most of Central Asia to China, Africa and Western Asia; S. s. ussuricus in North Asia and Japan; it roots around. instances. the Caledonian Forest for at least the past Taiwan and Japan. It is also found in South and Southeast Asia, S. s. cristatus being found from Asia Minor to India; and S. s. Ground disturbance However, four centuries, during which time the from India across to Vietnam and the Indonesian islands of vittatus occurring in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia. is of course also the wild absence of its essential ecological role Sumatra and Java. Outside of its natural range, the wild boar has been introduced destructive for some boar also has contributed to the overall decline of to many other parts of the world, such as North America, plants, and Britain’s benefits from the forest. The return of the wild boar to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, parts of South America and famous bluebell woods are the presence of its rightful place in the ecosystem now is a number of Pacific Islands, including Hawaii. In addition, attributed by some people to the predators, as it will a vital step towards the recovery of the domesticated pigs (which are all descended from wild boar) have absence of wild boar. The theory is that in feed on carrion left from lynx forest to full health and diversity. escaped in a number of countries and established feral other parts of Europe, the rooting of wild populations, sometimes interbreeding with local wild populations. boar prevents the mass displays of bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) that Distribution in Scotland grace many of our woods in May and It is likely that the wild boar originally occurred throughout most early June. of Scotland, wherever there was suitable forest for it to live in. Another species whose abundance Fossil and archaeological remains have been found in Caithness may be related to wild boar is bracken and Sutherland, Perthshire, Fife, Berwickshire, Wigtownshire and (Pteridium aquilinum). This rhizomatous the islands of Colonsay and Orkney. Wild boar were reduced over fern spreads by underground runners, or the centuries as the forest cover shrank, and hunting for both meat rhizomes, from which the fronds grow and sport also played an important part in its disappearance. An each year. The fronds are toxic to animals, exact date for the extinction of the species in Scotland is so because of preferential grazing on other unknown, but it is generally considered to have been in the late more palatable species, bracken has taken 16th or early 17th centuries. over in many places and forms dense, In England, where the boar probably became extinct in the uniform patches, which shade out 13th century, animals imported from continental Europe were seedlings of other plants. Wild boar, released in the first part of the 17th century, but they did not however, dig up and eat the bracken become successfully re-established in the wild, most likely rhizomes, so they may have been a control because of persecution as agricultural pests. In the latter part of on bracken before they were exterminated the 20th century, farmers began keeping wild boar in enclosures, in the UK. The Guisachan Wild Boar and a number of animals escaped in 1987, when a severe storm Project is seeking to quantify and blew down over 1 million trees in the south of England. Those document the effect of wild boar in boar, and other subsequent escapees, have become established, controlling and removing bracken from an and today wild populations exist in Kent, East Sussex and Devon, area of native pine forest. Wild boar sow amongst heather. with sightings also reported from other counties. Wild boar farms also exist in Scotland, and animals that have escaped from them may account for the boar that was © 2007 Trees for Life, The Park, Findhorn Bay, Forres IV36 3TZ, Scotland. • Tel. 0845 458 3505 • Fax 0845 458 3506 photographed in the wild near Fort William in September 2006. E-mail: [email protected] • Web site: www.treesforlife.org.uk • Scottish Charity number SCO21303 Wild boar sow amongst Scots pines, at the Guisachan Wild Boar This is the first time in at least 400 years that there have been Text and photographs by Alan Watson Featherstone. Illustrations by Caragh McAuley. Project site. Photo by Liz Balharry. free-living wild boar in Scotland. Printed with vegetable oil-based inks on recycled paper made from 75% post-consumer waste by Posthouse Printing, Findhorn.