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The mating season of wild boars should have started in November and may continue until January. But their family planning periods are acccording to zoologists not so reliable any more. We would welcome comments from the specialists on the subject.

Our wild piggies are omnivores or general feeders, and the fields and farm and summerhouse gardens rooted up by them have been a great vexation to many people. Their staple food are the above- and below-ground parts of plants, in Autumn of course potatoes and grains; dandelions and plantain roots are dug up from lawns. Snails and slugs, insects, larvae, worms and amphibians and small mammals provide animal proteins. The list is actually even longer and more varied depending on the season. During very severe winters even killing of ailing or weak individuals of the own species occurs.

 

Wild boars move freely in difficult terrain – thickets and dense brushwoods, reedy wetlands and bogs protect them from enemies, be it a big bad wolf or two-legged beings. With its wedge-shaped body the animal squeezes through thickets that may seem like a wall. On a soft ground the bulky animal is helped out by its outspread hooves. Intelligent, cautious animals with an intricately organised life! They get on very well in groups (sounders), led by a leader sow and her offspring of the latest couple of years.

 

The old boar joins the sounder only for the rutting season, and the young male piglets are chased off for this period. Mother Nature has arranged things cleverly - in this way „incestuous relationships” are avoided. Sows are generally sexually mature at one year. In favourable years with plentiful food even females born in early Spring may mate.