Week in the forest: from piglet to juvenile

Sleeping place

 

Spring is gathering force and an interesting time has arrived in the everyday life of boar too.

 

The biggest worry of the sows is no longer to find food but to care for their striped offspring. During this period a hiker in nature may well meet a boar sow that is not willing to flee from the presence of a human but tries to make it clear that it is the human animal who should go away. It is a clear sign that the sow has a nest nearby where the striped offspring still is so small that the sow will not leave with them from there. And a boar nest is not at all an untidy messy heap but a carefully built kids’ room that is dry and warm.

 

A boar nest for giving birth is difficult to find for a nature rover but a wintertime boar sleeping place gives a good idea of such a nest. It is in a carefully chosen higher part of a humid forest with trees providing shelter and it is lined with withered grass.

 

Last year's piglets  are changing to juveniles ("kesik" is the Estonian word for a young boar "teenager" on its way to become an adult boar) and have started their independent life.