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Wild Boar

From this story, it would appear it's a boar on the run...
A wild boar entered a Co-op store in Gloucestershire yesterday and charged at a shop worker after escaping from a local stud farm...
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...although it's future may not have been too bright, according to the Daily Mirror
...The boar, which escaped from a local abattoir just after 9am, ran along several crowded streets - and briefly burst into the local Co-op...
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It looks like this is becoming a tradition inGloucestershire
...The last time a wild boar went on the loose in Gloucestershire in December 2002 it ended up dead after a freak accident.
The rare, black, long-haired pig was struck by a car near Over Farm Market, a couple of miles from the city...
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When (or if) it's caught, this may be useful...
 
I'd assumed that there were renegade wild boar occasionally spotted across the country, but not breeding populations!
Thanks for pointing this out.

There's a website for it too!
http://www.britishwildboar.org.uk/

...which reveals;-

"Free-living wild boar have been confirmed to have been present in the following Parishes of South East England:-

Aldington - Kent
Appledore - Kent
Bilsington - Kent
Lympne - Kent
Ruckinge - Kent
Stone-cum-Ebony - Kent
Warehorne - Kent
Wittersham - Kent
Woodchurch - Kent
Beckley - East Sussex
Kenardington - East Sussex
Peasmarsh - East Sussex
Udimore - East Sussex


...and reports from Scotland, Tyneside, Derbyshire...etc."
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And the piglets look soooo cute!:D
 
Min Bannister said:
:eek!!!!: I haven't heard of this! Do you know which forest?:eek!!!!:
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Been there, but can't remember what it's called. It's near a garden centre....:D
 
Tesco in Ireland does small vacuum packed bits of wild boar. I suspect it is farmed 'wild boar'. I don't know about the British stores, but expect they would have it too. Try the posh fridges, close to the venison and smoked salmon. However I will try this wild boar now, seeing as there so much on here praising it. But how should it be cooked?
 
i've had wild boar sausages from my local butcher
they were quite nice!

in fact, i might get some for my tea tonight, now you mention it!
 
David Raven said:
I'd assumed that there were renegade wild boar occasionally spotted across the country, but not breeding populations!
Thanks for pointing this out.

There's a website for it too!
http://www.britishwildboar.org.uk/
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From the above site, a link about another Gloucestershire sighting, including this quote:
A spokeswoman for the department of the environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA), Theo Wood, said: "These are very rare and dangerous animals and people must be licensed by the local authority before they can own one.

"We are currently trying to trace the owner, but to our knowledge there is only one licensed wild boar owner in the whole of our region and he lives in Wiltshire.

"There are some wild boars living wild in south Kent and in Dorset, but we have no knowledge of any living wild in Gloucestershire."
Farmer Rob Keene, who lives close to the scene of the accident, said: "One of the women who works for me thinks she saw the same animal a few days ago, about seven or eight miles away."
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- a bit at odds with persistent sightings in the area (have friends who live just outside Cinderford, one of whom nearly hit a boar in his car a few years ago), and according to them many locals are convinced there's a breeding population in there: it's a bloody big forest, apart from anything else. The DEFRA spokeswoman's line
We are currently trying to trace the owner, but to our knowledge there is only one licensed wild boar owner in the whole of our region and he lives in Wiltshire.
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is a tad odd - I wonder if she's seeking the breeder of all those hedgehogs and badgers, too :)?
 
Scarlett said:
However I will try this wild boar now, seeing as there so much on here praising it. But how should it be cooked?
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Spit roast it!
 
The main reason why wild boar flesh is tso tasty, is that it is so lean compared to domestic pig flesh.

Roast sucking pig is also good grub.
 
Inverurie Jones said:
Been there, but can't remember what it's called. It's near a garden centre....:D
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GULP!! Thats just a little scary

Fortunatly I found out from David Ravens website that the boar are fenced in and are employed in clearing Rhododendrons from the area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1976881.stm

Still, I shall have more respect for forestry from now on when I go gallivanting around it in the dark!
 
Two bloody years I've been tracking them and have yet to see one, then one runs into a supermarket!!!!!!not fair........Add Brede/Braod Oak to the list where they are living..Although I went to a wood at Udimore last week and found so many tracks,feeding areas, ect, at one point I had just missed them, I could smell there scent and my sense of smell not that good.
 
Oh and just to be pedantic it should be Boar, as boar is singular and plural, not boars.Sorry.:D
 
stonedoggy said:
I was quite puzzled that our fox(s) enjoy the salad vegetables so much. That and orange peel...



Kath
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Foxes regularly eat fruit and veg, in fact will eat almost anything, late summer you'll find purple fox droppings fom the blackberries they eat.There are two types of urban foxes, those thet prefer chillie on their donner kebabs and those that prefer garlic sauce!:D
 
stu neville said:
if you ask me a wild boar in the Co-op in Cinderford bloody well is Fortean :).
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Maybe they had a special offer on Belgian chocolate truffles?

Steve.
 
Ever been to cinderford on a cold, wet, rainy day in the winter ? I have and its theee most depressing place on earth !!!

A big wild boar was knocked down and killed by a car in the forest of Dean last year.
 
Strangely I've just come back from my local where this very subject is being discussed with some passion.. basically falling into two camps..
1: They (boar) where native to this country, we wiped em out, now that they have been let loose by us, we should let them do their thing, and just work around them (live and let live)

and in opposition

2: they are are a postive danger and would have your leg off as soon as look at you, and will be danger to the local poulace and its only a matter of time before some kiddie is torn to bits by one and they should be hunted down and shot..

and there was no middle ground it seems to be quite an emotive subject.

There are two types of urban foxes, those thet prefer chillie on their donner kebabs and those that prefer garlic sauce!
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Titter ye not... a few years back I was working in pub in Swindon and after finishing one night was walking back (about 1 in the morn) to my flat, when what should come trotting up the hill and past me bold as brass... but a fox with a whole paper wrapped kebab in its mouth!!! it didnt even give me a second glance.
had a bit of a giggle imagining it getting PI**ed in one of the dire town centre bars before hand :p
 
Boars `are` dangerous, more so than big cats, particularly if they are allowed to get big and tusky.

(Pigs can be dangerous. i knew a man who worked in an abbatoir once, and he said the only animal he feared was a big sow, for they are the only animal who realise what is going on and they sure can fight!)

But it will be fun if some kid gets killed, there are too many of them, think of the delightful overreaction and we can all sit round and say `told you so.`
 
Boar don't seem to rip children limb from limb in the rest of Europe, think that only the sows with piglets would be dangerous if suprised. Took the kids to a wildlife park last weekend, had boar there, bloody hell do they get big!, has given me second thoughts about trying to creep up on them in the undergrowth, might just wait and watch where I know they are active!.
As for foxes (and badgers), yes they do eat kebabs, burgers ect, see them around town whenever I'm working at night, some of them so"urbanised" that I've seen them sit on the curb waiting for a gap in traffic!.
 
Does anybody else get a Duran Duran track going through their head, every time they see this thread?
 
"Wild Boars! never close your eyes..."

Yes, the same did occur to me a few days ago but unfortunately I cannot say it was meant to be a Duran Duran reference. More like crap spelling. :p

edit- part of the lyric, sorry aint I?
 
This arrived today, no mention of the Co-Op though, but it did break an old lady's leg!

FOREST & WYE VALLEY REVIEW, pg3, w/e 16th JANUARY 2004

If you meet 'Big Pig'- don't panic!

WITHIN days of the Review story about wild pigs returning to the Forest, people in and around Cinderford were hot on the trail of a very real boar which rampaged down the High Street.

Forest rangers have been asked to keep an eye open for the enormous animal, which knocked over a pensioner in the busy street, breaking her leg, before heading off in the direction of Heywood School.

"Now we don't even know if it is still in the Forest," said a Forest Enterprise spokesperson.

"I imagine if it was cornered in a supermarket or something it could be quite dangerous, but we are not really worried about it harming people in the woods because boars are largely nocturnal.

If anyone does come across a boar the advice from Defra is not to panic and to leave it well alone. They will usually run away from people.

"We know they can travel long distances and move very fast so it could be anywhere by now. If we did find it taking up residence here we would have to consult on what to do - there is no shoot to kill policy."

The boar began its dash for freedom as it was being unloaded at Ensor's abattoir, heading past an astonished Keith James in his High Street greengrocer's shop.

"I could see its back through my window and I thought at first it was a big dog, but then it ran on really fast up the street. It really got a shift on - I couldn't have moved that fast. I'm glad it didn't come in the shop!" said Keith.

Grandmother Jean Kirton said she was crossing the road and did not even see the animal before it charged into her legs and sent her flying.

Jean said after the accident her daughter called round and warned her not to go out because there was a wild boar on the loose. "I said `I know - it's just knocked me down!"

Two men got out of a car which had stopped at the crossing to help her, and hair stylist Jo Wayman from the David John Hair Company helped her up and gave her a cup of tea.

"She was really shaken and she had what we thought was a badly-bruised leg, which was really hurting," Jo told the Review.

"It was next day before somebody thought it was more serious and took her to the Dilke, where it was found her leg was broken
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Do what extent do you think Wild Boar get mistaken for ABCs?
stonedoggy said:
I /am/suprprised to read of an urban one.

Foxes do both but I've associated boar (er boars? er boarsen?) with rural sites.

Kath
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Believe me, Cinderford isn't very urban.

nimrods son said:
Ever been to cinderford on a cold, wet, rainy day in the winter ? I have and its theee most depressing place on earth !!!
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It's the most deprived town in the county, apparently.
 
Boar stateside

We have wild boar here in the USA as well. They're a mixed bag, limited to a handful of regions (California, Florida, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Arkansas). Most are a mix of domestic pigs gone feral and Russian boar introduced for hunting in the 1800's.
It's not hard to see how the pig went feral. The easiest way to raise pigs here in the South, back when there were no fences, is to let them go and forage for themselves. This was done by settlers as far north as New England. Then in the fall, or whenever you needed to, you went out, killed, and butchered your hog.
The wild pigs here in Florida get to tremendous size. I've seen some from down around Lake Wales, on Lightsey Cattle Company land, that were almost 3 feet thick from belly to backbone. Boar hunting is a well-loved sport hereabouts. Some even practice catch and release! Check out http://www.boarhuntermagazine.com for info on this.
As for the meat, it's not bad at all, although I prefer a young sow to a randy old boar. Sometimes the aroma of an old male cooking is a bit much.
 
For non GB residents;

Cinderford is in Gloucestershire which is probably the most affluent county.
 
Herd of about 30 has escaped from a farm near Bridport in Dorset, so given what happened around here, expect to see a healthy population of them in Dorset soon, think there are some reports of them there already, well it will increase the gene pool!.
 
wild boar are valuable animals and come under the dangerous animals act...why are so many running loose?

One escaping from an abbatoir I can understand. I have known people involved in pig slaughtering and they say that young pigs are no bother, but they live in mortal terror of the occaisional older animal that they may get. These fight. I have no doubt that similar care would be taken with wild boar.
 
Homo Aves said:
wild boar are valuable animals and come under the dangerous animals act...why are so many running loose?
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Escapee's from farms. The ones we have around here (some estimates at around 2 to 3 hundred,in my opinion this number very possible) are believed to have escaped during the Great Storm a few years back, each year they are moving further afield , have been tracking them for two years at least, have found tracks,feildsign ect sometimes so fresh I could smell them,and with all modesty I'm good at this sort of thing, but have yet to see one in the wild, thats how secretive they are,
no attacks to people so far but a few cars have been written off when they've hit them. So many now that no way will they ever be eradicated, bascically they're back on the natural wildlife list.:)
 
Took the family for a walk in the woods today,never seen so many boar tracks, there really are a lot of them here!, and judging by the size and depth of some of the tracks, very big.!
 
Id like to see one too...from a safe distance

Or up close and cooked.
 
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