Wild Boar Habits

Territory: the wild boar lives in a family party that has a territory of 10 - 20 sq km but in the autumn, family groups come together to form herds of up to 50 females and youngsters. The group is known as a sounder, led by an older sow, and its members feed, rest and sleep together. The young male forms a bachelor group but the older male remains solitary, joining up with females in the autumn mating season. Once mated, he will once again live alone.

Daily life: a wild boar searches for food mainly at dawn and dusk, rooting amongst the leaf litter and damp soil of open woodlands with its toughened snout. It has a keen sense of smell and will eat almost anything! Its main diet consists of plant material but it will happily gobble up any animals it can catch.

Wild boars like to live near mud wallows - a shallow muddy pool of water. This wallowing is an important routine, helping to remove parasites, keeping them cool in the heat and protecting the sensitive skin from the sun's harmful rays. Domestic pigs like to wallow, if allowed to do so.

A den is used for resting and sleeping. A boar often makes a shelter by cutting long grass and crawling under it to lift it so that it becomes entangled with the tall plants around to form canopies. Wild boars communicate with each other using a wide range of grunts, squeaks and chirrups. They grunt a lot when feeding - a loud grunt is a warning to others.