Hogging the limelight on a wild adventure
DAY two in Poland and Oaf was in for surprise, “What do you mean we are going on a ten-mile walk?” “It’s okay we can have breakfast first,” I replied, much to the relief of my friend.
You need to get up early to catch a wild boar. It’s a motto I repeated for encouragement as we set off through the forest to the nearby lake, our stride halted immediately by the incessant drumming of a great-spotted woodpecker.
Oaf visibly cheered up at this sighting. “Its head’s going like a jack-hammer Woody,” he said, delighted at such a close encounter. Truth be told, I was hoping for a rarity from the woodpecker world, such as a Syrian, but apart from five more great- -spotted and one lesserspotted, we dipped out.
Our first half-mile at lakeside produced great crested grebes, pochard and a few mallard, I could also hear a godwit or two without seeing them, but it was boar we were after as we headed into the heart of the forest and way off the beaten track.
Wild boar prefer to live in small social groups referred to as ‘sounders’. Sounders are matriarchal and organised around a core of two or three mature reproductive females with their most recent litters, plus the surviving young and sub-adults from previous litters. Group size varies between six and 30 animals. Mature males tend to be found in the vicinity only during the breeding season. Outside the breeding season, the mainly solitary males will tolerate the presence of each other but aggression increases in winter with competition for females.
The boar is primarily a nocturnal animal. The daytime is spent sleeping in thick cover in day nests, which are saucer shaped depressions which may be lined with leaves. We either wanted to surprise some sleepers or chance upon an early morning feeder, especially as April is the height of breeding season.
The density of wild boar in Europe is usually below five individuals per km2, although 10 animals per km2 had been recorded in our neck of the woods.
Wild boar are good swimmers and can also range over long distances. One animal had been known in Kampinos National Park, Poland, to move over 250km.
Boar are omnivorous and will consume a large variety of food. Typically, plant material accounts for 90 per cent of their diet and animal matter the remainder. Plant matter consists of roots, bulbs and tubers (unearthed by rooting with their snouts) and fruit and berries. Animals in the diet can consist of mice, birds eggs, snakes, lizards, worms, beetles and centipedes and carrion.
As I babbled, Oaf took top marks for spotting a tree-creeper, and then he surprised me and a wild boar into the bargain.
There was a clearing in the forest and I am fairly sure we had disturbed one or more of the creatures from their foraging, not least because we heard a crashing sound in the undergrowth and the smell of hog was in the air.
I thought we had missed out but Oaf tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Is that one Woody?” It was. For our victory dinner we headed for the best restaurant in Poznan, determined to demolish the local specialities: sturgeon caviar on creamed avocado with quails eggs, duck-blood soup with dried fruit and noodles, platter of assorted meat and fish, including duck, wild boar, perch and salmon. Obviously this had to be washed down with wine and vodka, but for around £40 each, a real bargain.