EURASIAN WILD PIG Sus scrofa

The boar is the only wild representative of the suidae family in Europe and is a popular wild game species. It is the ancestor of the domestic pig.

Numbers

The boar due to its ecological plasticity, it is one of the most important and most numerous large mammals in our climate zone. In Poland, it is common in the entire country. Based on annual estimates by various units of the State Forests, the area of 53 4818 ha covered by the project, is home to almost 3000 wild boars.

Species Description

• Body Mass: 54–130 kg
• Body Length: 90–200 cm
• Shoulder Height: 55–110 cm
• Sexual Dimorphism: larger males, visible tusks in males
• Nutrition: omnivore
• Lifespan: 20–25 years
• Lifestyle: lives in herds

Biology and ecology

The boar mainly populates highly forested areas, as forests provide it with food and shelter. The most favourable conditions for wild boars are found in larger deciduous (oak, beech), mixed or coniferous forests interwoven with young coniferous stands. Marshes, swamps and alluvial meadows are especially favoured by wild boars. Forest meadows and arable land adjacent to forests are a significant living conditions. Wild boars are social animals living in sounders led by an old female. The sounder is strictly hierarchical. The alpha sow is usually by squeakers, which are in turn followed by juveniles 4-year-olds and barren sows. The female is called a sow, the male, a boar, the young are squeakers and the youngest - with characteristic stripes – a piglet. Their main food source are grasses, herbs, shrubs, leaves, roots, forest fruit (acorns and beech mast), berries, fungi and many kinds of worms, larvae and beetles living in the underbrush. Wild boar mating season (Pol. huczka) takes place at the end of November, December and even in January. Wild boars feed at night. During the day they remain in their lairs, which they prepare in thick forests (young spruce, pine and raspberry stands) or in reeds in waterlogged areas. In summer, boars also make their lairs in cereals, corn, or other high crops.

Protection and hazards

Wild boars hunted by wolves, lynxes and bears, which are their natural enemies. Due to the significant growth of their population in Poland, current hunting law allows hunts for boars, 4-year-olds pigs of the sounder and squeakers, throughout the year; only sows are covered with seasonal protection – between 16.01.–14.08. The following periods were exempt from this rule: from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2016, when the Podlaskie Voivodship sows to be hunted throughout the entire year, and in other Voivodships – from 1 January 2015 to 15 February 2016, and from 15 May 2016 to 31 December 2016.

IUCN threat category

• IUCN Red List of endangered species: LC (least concern)

Eurasian wild pig, fot....

Eurasian wild pig, fot....

Eurasian wild pig, fot....