The wild boar

The wild boar

-The wild boar is the ancestor of the domestic pig. Adult wild boars measure from 90cm to 200 cm in length, not counting a tail of 15cm to 40 cm, and have a shoulder height of 55cm to110 cm.

-Their average weight goes from 50 kg to90 kg .

-Boars are generally nocturnal creatures.

-They don’t have sweat glands so look for muddy puddles to wallow in to cool down and for this reason the wild boar is rarely seen in the drier, arid areas.

-With the exception of the wolf the wild boar has no natural predators in Spain.

-They have poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell and can usually sniff humans out long before they are themselves found.

-At about two years of age the male wild boar grow tusks from both the upper and lower canines which curve upwards. The top tusks are hollow and act as sharpeners for the lower tusks. Females grow smaller lower tusks but are still very sharp.

-They communicate with each other through a series of grunts and squeals.

-They breed twice a year, producing litters of up to eight piglets and usually live in family units.

-They are omnivorous.

-Mature males are much more aggressive to each other during the autumn when potentially fatal injuries can be inflicted on each other from their sharp tusks.

-Boars also have an important ecological role in helping to clear forest. Walk around any forest or health and you'll see larges patches of bare earth tore up by boars. They are basically beneficial to woodland ecology, as they root up and overturn earth creating seedbeds in search of food.

-Boars are increasingly attracted to urban edges, lured by easy pickings among rubbish containers and gardens as they lose their fear of man.

Attacks:
-Wild boar attacks are not common, this animal will not attack you if you don´ t make it to be scared or you disturb him or the smaller wild boars.
-In a strange case of attack following the initial attack the animal generally turns and attacks repeatedly.