looduskalender.ee

Male boar on road

 

The beginning of summer is the moulting period of boars. After all, there is no point in wearing one’s winter coat in the hot season.

 

The winter coat consists of long, dark bristles, lighter at the tips, and a dense greyish-brown fine.haired undercoat. Domestic pigs have no undercoat. The colour can be quite variable, from pale grey to almost black. Decisive factors are individual characteristics and age. The piglets keep their stripes until they are five months old.

 

Since boars in Estonia live at the northern limit of their range they  have to withstand harsh weather conditions here (thick snow, intense cold). Due to this their winter coat is denser and longer than that of their southerly brethren.

 

The summer coat consists of the bristly top hairs. There is no undercoat, in patches even dark bare skin may be visible. A boar in summer coat looks more slender.

 

There are no parasites in the fur of boars. I at least have never seen any.

 

Boars love cleanliness. Much time is spent on bathing. In several places in the forest clay and mud holes can be seen which are regularly visited. After a bath boars dry themselves by rubbing against a rub tree or "hog rub". Rub trees are generally conifers: spruces, pines. These trees are also information exchange points. Each boar leaves its specific scent there – a calling card. On such trees an experienced observer can also see tusk tracks.  The higher up the marks are made, the stronger the animal who left them.

 

There is still almost half a year left to write about meetings with our Animal of the Year, the wild boar, who has not always been living in Estonia. The boar has moved to Estonia several times, disappearing during difficult periods, then again returning. Most recently boars started to dig their hooves more firmly into the Estonian soil as late as in the 1930s. Journal  Loodusesõber invites your reports of personal encounters as well as tales heard from grandparents. Stories from the manor house period are also welcome – from the time when tracks were seen in the forests of a strange huge animal of which nobody knew anything...

 

We look forward to your stories about boar encounters at:

helen@loodusajakiri.ee.