Boar behavior. Boar

The wild boar is a mammal that comes from the order Porciniformes. He is considered the ancestor of the modern domesticated one, which became such as a result of domestication. The wild boar is a unique animal that lives on almost every continent of our Earth.

Features and description of wild boar

Wild boar has a rooted body, the length of which can be up to one and a half meters. Body height usually reaches 1 meter. The weight of a mature boar can range from 60 to 300 kg.

It depends on whether a female or a male is considered in a particular case. Males have a large head, which is extended forward. The ears are quite large, both in width and height. The snout ends with a heel, which has different sizes.

The body is covered with coarse hair. In winter, additional fluff appears on the body of a wild boar, which prevents it from freezing. There is a certain amount of stubble on the back that stands on end if the animal is in an excited state. Small boars can be striped. A wild boar can eat a variety of plants, which can be divided into groups:

1. Tubers and weeds of plants.
2. The fruits of fruit trees, as well as various berries that grow in the forest.
3. The plants themselves, which are accessible to the wild boar.
4. Some representatives of the animal world (for example, worms or insects that live in the forest).

It is worth noting that the wild boar gets half of its food from the soil, since it contains a sufficient amount for the animal’s life. On average, a large boar can eat about 5 kg. feed in one day.

They are quite mobile and lead an active lifestyle. In summer they love to swim, and in winter they simply run through the forest in search of food. Wild boars lead a herd lifestyle, but there are exceptions in the form of adult wild boars that live separately.

A wild boar with small children also lives separately. You can understand the difference between a pig and a wild boar by looking at photo wild boar. You can also find many on the Internet video about wild boars.

Wild boar habitat

Despite all the facts and speculation, there is only one conclusion - boar wild animal, which often changes its environment. Wild boar can be found in a wide variety of places in the world.

The wild boar's habitat may be tropical places with quite warm climate, and the harsh forests of the taiga. In the mountains, wild boar can be found at any altitude, and also at some alpine meadows.

It is found in oak and beech forests, as well as in marshy areas. Wild boars also inhabit the Caucasus mountains, and in the fall they visit fruit forests and orchards. Sometimes they can be found in the beds of some rivers, which are surrounded by bushland.

The wild boar's habitat completely depends on the food that is common at one time or another in some areas. Wild boar meat quite dense, and this is served by his diet, which consists of various herbs.

Boars can move and go out to graze in more fertile areas, such as the steppe. They can raid farmland that is close to forests and wild boar habitats.

Wild boars that live in the tropics have been virtually unstudied. But those that live in neighboring countries and in the taiga are quite predictable animals. They can live for quite a long time large areas.

For example, one adult wild boar can occupy an area of ​​up to 15 km, which is quite large area. Closer to winter, wild boars can move from higher places on the mountain to the foot.

Sometimes wild boars can travel a distance of more than 100 km. from the place of permanent deployment. Such travel can be caused by various reasons, such as fires or lack of food.

Boars can face various dangers. For example, dangerous flooring found in the forest can injure your feet. Another inhabitant of the forest is also dangerous for him - . One of global problems is wild boar hunting, which is often carried out simply randomly.

Wild boar meat and recipes

Wild boar meat is one of the purposes of hunting it. How to cook wild boar Almost every hunter who has at least once brought a carcass home knows this. Many people know recipes from wild boar, but in reality the meat is quite tough.

Wild boar dishes are quite complex in terms of its preparation. It's best to take simple recipes, which can be used even by a beginner. Probably the most a simple dish, which can be made from wild boar meat, is stew. To do this you will need lard and animal meat.

You should also use onions, flour, mustard and seasoning to taste. The meat should be soaked in the solution lemon juice. Thanks to it, the meat will become tender and ready for further processing.

After stewing, fresh meat should be poured sour cream sauce. Dishes made from wild boar, like other types of meat, require certain preparation. You can cook wild boar meat over a fire, without special utensils. You don't have to go hunting to eat wild meat, Can buy wild boar from a hunter friend.

Is wild boar dangerous for humans?

Potential danger a wild boar does not represent a human being. If you do not enter his territory, then you have nothing to fear. There are cases when wild boar rushes at people, but such cases are rare. If you still have the misfortune of encountering such a phenomenon, then it is best to climb the nearest tree.

A wild boar is not at all as harmless an animal as a domestic pig. When do these animals start mating season, it’s better not to catch their eye, and even more so, you shouldn’t make them angry.

Do you want to learn about the behavioral characteristics of these wild animals? In this article we will try to explain all the oddities in the habits of wild boars and reveal the secrets of their way of life. Let's start with home improvement.

The female, who is waiting for an addition to her family, very carefully prepares the future “home” for her babies. The place where the newborn piglets will be is insulated in a special way so that the baby does not freeze and die. The female boar's bed is even covered with a “roof” to prevent the piglets from getting wet by rain or blowing through the wind.

In general, according to researchers, wild boars- not very family animals, they spend very little time with their offspring after birth and leave them early, forcing them to grow up quickly. However, the female still cares about the survival of the offspring. Young piglets stay with their parents for about two weeks. Then, most often, they begin an independent life. But these animals still prefer to migrate and move to new areas in groups.

The wild boar is a formidable animal.

Those who believe that wild boars are empty-headed and useless creatures are completely mistaken. Just the role of the wild boar, as a plowman of the forest soil, is already a huge value for the ecosystem. After all, the seed of a tree that falls into plowed soil can germinate, giving life to a new tree.

Wild boars are forest pest fighters, since their main food is all kinds of beetles and their larvae. A wild boar can eat so many May beetles alone that it will reduce the population by about three times! And this is not to mention other six-legged winged creatures that can harm the “forest community.”

Perhaps, if wild boars ate only insects, any gardener would be only too glad to have such a guest in his garden, however, the situation is exactly the opposite, because wild boars, together with beetles, are capable of depleting all supplies for the winter. They eat potatoes, cereals, the juicy pulp of watermelon and melon. Although, as it sometimes turns out, the harm from a sudden attack of wild boars on a property is greatly exaggerated by the owners themselves. If you don’t specifically “lure” wild boars into your garden, they will avoid it. However, there are exceptions. This is especially true for those farmlands that are located in close proximity to the forest.

Features of boar morphology and behavior

The wild boar is a relatively large, short, massive animal.

The wild boar differs from the domestic pig in having a flatter body shape, strong, rather long legs and a large, sharply elongated head shape. The ears are large and covered with long, coarse hair.

In autumn, spring and winter, the animal's body is covered with bristles, especially hard and long (12 - 13 cm) on the ridge, where it forms a mane. Under the bristles there is a thick and soft underfur. Thanks to the thick underfur, the legs do not get wet, so the wild boar willingly goes into the water in summer and winter; subcutaneous fat deposition protects it from hypothermia in the water (N. N. Kharchenko, 2002).

When moving, the wild boar relies not only on the two middle ones, but also on the first and fourth fingers, and traces of them remain on solid ground. On soft ground, all four fingers move apart, increasing the supporting area. The wild boar's nuds are larger than those of other ungulates, very mobile and widely spaced, leaving imprints on both sides of the hoof, and not at the back like those of deer. In piglets in the first months of life, the lateral toes are not a support and do not leave marks.

A boar's stride is shorter than that of a moose calf, and the hoof print is twice as large. The length of the trail of the front limb of a wild boar reaches 15 - 18 cm, the same distance between the outer toes. The step of an adult animal when moving slowly is about 40 - 50 cm.

The individual tracks of the wild boar are arranged in a waddling, herringbone pattern. This is due to the fact that the animal spreads its legs wide. When moving at a trot, the distance between the prints increases to 90 cm and they stretch out almost in a straight line. When moving at a walk or trot, the animal places its hind legs in the tracks of its front ones. And when running fast, at a gallop or gallop, it carries them behind the front ones, and their prints are not located side by side, but somewhat obliquely to each other.

Boar jumps, when moving quickly, can reach 1.5 - 2 m.

In winter, due to the fact that the boar has short legs, it drags them and plows a deep furrow in the snow. Already with a snow depth of 30 - 40 cm, herds of wild boars tend to move in single file or use their old tracks. In deep snow, wild boars move slowly, and in feeding areas they make entire trenches in the snow (Ryabukha V.A., Salchenko V.L., Kiskichev V.V. 1998).

Wild boars are excellent swimmers and easily travel long distances through water and wetlands. This is facilitated by the fact that the legs of wild boars have relatively mobile middle toes and a well-defined additional supporting area in the form of the back of the sole and the hooves of the lateral toes, thanks to which the animal easily moves through swampy soft ground and shallow snow. Soft hoof pads ensure silent movement of the boar even through a cluttered forest. The limiting factor for the movement of wild boars in winter conditions is the height of the snow cover, which exceeds 30-40 cm. Crust, which injures the animals’ legs, is also destructive for wild boars.

Boars are extremely cautious animals. With relatively weak eyesight, their sense of smell and hearing is highly developed, and they detect the presence of a person at a fairly large distance, sometimes three hundred to five hundred meters. (Akimushkin I.I. 1998).

Males have large, outwardly curved fangs - tusks, which gradually become longer and sharper with age. Boars skillfully wield this formidable weapon both in defense and attack. With one blow, the cleaver instantly cuts the muscles on a person’s leg to the bone. A careless, overly bold dog is hit by a wild boar and flies off to the side with its entrails spilling out.

The boar makes sounds similar to the grunting of domestic pigs. The piglets squeal and grunt. The female, if she does not notice the danger, leading the herd to feed, also grunts busily.

The boar's head ends with a snout adapted for digging the soil; its blunt snout is bordered by a hard leather protrusion lined with short, faintly visible tactile bristles. A special muscle approaches the patch, ending in a bundle of tendons, moving it in different planes.

Greater mobility of the snout is achieved by the prenasal bone embedded in its base, against which it rests when moving.

The strength of the boar's neck muscles is very great. It freely lifts with its snout and breaks frozen layers of earth 7-9 cm thick, easily rakes the exposed pebbles of coastal shallows to a depth of 25-30 cm and, in search of food, sometimes turns out stones weighing up to 40 kg (Dezhkin V.V. 1983).

The tail is short 25 cm, not curled. When the animal is calm and rummaging in the soil, the tail is constantly in motion, lowered down; while running, the boar holds its tail horizontally or raises it up.

The size and weight of Ussuri wild boars vary widely depending on gender, age and fatness. Currently, due to intense hunting, large wild boars have become very rare.

The average weight of wild boars is approximately 65-75 kg for young animals and 150-200 kg for adult animals. The average body length in adult animals is 125-175 cm, height 80-100 cm.

A noticeable change in the Ussuri subspecies consists in a weakly expressed difference in the exterior of individuals of different sexes, especially under the age of two years. When looking at wild boars in a herd, it may be impossible to distinguish young wild boars from pigs. Only from the age of three do males begin to stand out noticeably among males in size, appearance and shape of fangs.

The color of the hair of Ussuri boars is characterized by great age and individual variability. Newborn piglets have well-defined alternating reddish-brown and light stripes stretched along the shoulders, back and sides - 6 light and 7 dark. The forehead and muzzle are reddish with a black spine. The area around the eyes, the sides of the body, above the shoulder blades, the front of the legs, as well as the hams are somewhat lighter.

The hair of piglets under the age of one month consists of short hair and sparse fluff. From the age of 1-1.5 months, the color and character of the hairline begins to change. By the end of August (4th-5th month), the piglets finish growing new hair, consisting of black-brown awns and dirty gray fluff. (Abramov K.G., 1963).

For coloring the skin of an adult boar in autumn outfit the most typical is a black and brown overall tone. The muzzle is covered with black and brown hair with dark brown down. The forehead, back of the body and chest are covered with sparse dirty white hair with a dirty ocher underfur. On the sides of the neck, on the shoulder blades, and in the front parts of the legs, the spine is almost black. The sides of the body and the front surface of the hind legs are somewhat lighter. The spine, starting from the withers and further along the entire ridge, right up to the root of the tail, is strongly cut on the skin and therefore has a lighter color. The tail is the same color as the back, it has a black thread at the end and more blonde hair at the root on the underside. This is the typical coloration of an adult.

In rare cases, among Ussuri wild boars there are partially albinos with white hair or individuals with a completely white rear part of the body.

The boar's hair is of two categories: awn (bristles) or guides of brown or ocher-brown color, usually split at the top, and gray curly fluff.

Once a year (in spring), wild boars undergo a complete molt. The first signs of molting begin in April. At this time, tufts of downy and partially guard hairs begin to stick to resinous trees, about which the wild boars partially itch. In the last ten days of July, wild boars are almost completely freed from downy hair. During July, the old guard hairs also thin out greatly. At this time, young black growth appears on the front of the head, near the ears and on the legs.

In July and August, wild boars with new awns become black-brown with a gray coating. By the end of August, downy hair begins to grow. Only by the first October frosts do wild boars finally dress in winter hair, which warms them well on windy frosty days (Kozlov P. A. 1975).

By appearance, three can be distinguished age groups: piglets (young yearlings), gilts (two-year-olds) and adults (Vereshchagin V.G. 1979).

Piglets are smaller in size, lighter in color than adults (the light color lasts up to a year) and have longer legs. Piglets have 13 stripes on their sides - 6 light and 7 dark.

Gilts develop withers, and stubble grows along the back. Adult animals are more massive than gilts, and the stubble grows more strongly on the back. A particularly strong difference is evident in cleavers.

In field conditions, it is not difficult to distinguish an adult male from a pig, and not only because cleavers have long, curving fangs, but rather by their silhouette. Males are distinguished by a larger head, a massive front part of the body, they have more developed withers and a more typical mane along the crest of the back. In males, the body is flattened laterally, while in females it is barrel-shaped (Cherkasov A., 1884). Within the area of ​​the wild boar's relatively permanent habitat is its bedding area. In summer, animals lie directly on the ground, only raking up litter or stones. In winter, animals roost in the forest under the protected crowns of trees or in thickets of young trees. The bed is a depression in the snow filled with rags of pine needles, moss, and branches. In winter, wild boars often use stacks of hay or straw for beds. The gayno - the female's lair before farrowing, in which newborn boars spend the first two weeks of life - has thick walls, soft bedding and, as a rule, a cover made of branches and dry grass.

In wild boar habitats there are always baths, which are deep pits filled with water and mud. Boars bathe in them especially intensively in the heat, before molting and during the rut. Boars are clean animals; they never defecate near their den. Boars are herd animals, sometimes they gather in large groups, which are usually headed by old females. Old male loppers most often stay alone and unite with females, as a rule, only during the rutting period, while they expel young boars from such family groups. In nature, a wild boar lives 10-12 years, in captivity it can live up to 20 years. Animals can very quickly get used to humans and become tame (Bobrinsky N.A. 1965).

Nutrition

Considering the boar's tendency to be omnivorous, it is quite difficult to determine species composition its feed, but undoubtedly it is very diverse. Food supplies depend on the nature and diversity of biotopes. Boar feed is divided into the following groups:

Rhizomes, roots, tubers and bulbs various plants, which are characterized by high content nutrients and are hunted by animals throughout the year; constitute from 18 to 90 percent of the mass of other feeds. Potatoes and other agricultural crops occupy an important place in this group.

Vegetative, above-ground green parts of herbaceous plants are eaten during the growing season, mainly in the spring, and bark, branches, shoots and rags are often used as forced food in winter.

The wild boar uses fruits and berries, acorns and nuts, seeds after they ripen and, in case of a good harvest, extracts them from under the snow in winter. The well-being of the Ussuri boar is determined by the harvest of Mongolian oak and Manchurian walnut. At the end of summer and autumn, these feeds can account for up to 98 percent of the weight of all others. In productive years, it is this group of feeds that contributes to a sharp increase in the number of animals.

Animal feed is earthworms, insects and their larvae, mollusks, bird eggs, as well as vertebrates (including dead animals) - serve as food for wild boars more often in the warm season. The diversity of this group of feeds can vary greatly (Korytkin S.A. 1986).

The boar's diet depends on the availability, abundance and accessibility of feed. Constantly and evenly used all year round The boar has no food.

Digging is a very typical way for wild boars to obtain food. It obtains approximately two-thirds of its food from the soil and forest litter, in large quantities while destroying the larvae of the cockchafer, pine moth and other forest pests, and contributes to its preservation and restoration.

From late winter to early spring, wild boars select small amounts of sedge from under the snow, which remains green. In July, all sedges quickly become coarser, their nutritional value decreases, and they are not consumed by wild boars at all.

In winter, wild boars feed mainly on horsetail, eating the sugary juice from its stems. Horsetails produce a lot of soluble carbohydrates in the cold, since at low temperatures the inversion of carbohydrates into sugar occurs in its stems. Therefore, wild boars eat it very willingly in the cold season.

In winter, wild boars go out to feed at 10-11 am and feed until 5-6 pm. They spend the long frosty night in their hainas under a heap of dry plants, huddled closely together, and during the day, when it gets warmer, they go out in search of food. They try to move where the snow cover is less deep, under the canopy of dense thickets, where there is no crust, usually in the second half of winter.

In the summer, wild boars go out to feed closer to dusk and go into hiding by daylight. And until the sun rises above the horizon, the morning earth keeps traces of the animal, already hidden in the forest.

At feeding times, a herd of wild boars moves in bulk. In the forest, a herd of animals stirs up the forest floor, looking for acorns, nuts, insects, and plant roots. During one feeding, a wild boar eats 2-3 kg of various feeds. No terrestrial animal has such an impact on the soil and vegetation cover of forests and meadows as wild boars; they turn over a huge mass of surface food (Matveev A. S., 2002).

In years of complete lack of feed and harvest of nuts and acorns, wild boars, having destroyed all the feed in the valley of rivers and springs by the end of October, begin to harm agricultural plants in nearby fields (corn, potatoes, etc.). Wild boars are especially willing to spoil corn fields and can render up to 0.15 hectares of corn completely unusable in one night. They break out the lowest ears and knock down the stems, trampling them into the ground. Boars do not eat all the cobs, but choose the juiciest ones that have reached milky ripeness. Uneaten cobs thrown on the ground become available to mice and voles and begin to sprout after rain.

Wild boars go to oat crops during the period of its ripening, rummaging in the ground along the way in search of worms and insect larvae. By snatching the panicle and sucking the juice out of it, they destroy large areas crops.

Boars are less likely to spoil soybeans, which ripen simultaneously with the appearance of natural food - acorns and nuts. Climbing into a potato field, a small herd of wild boars of 8-10 heads can destroy up to 0.02 hectares of this crop in 3-4 nights.

Wild boars do not visit dry and acidic salt licks to satisfy their mineral hunger. Wild boars visit sour salt licks only in hot weather. summer days for the sake of swimming in muddy banks (Burtsev P.V. 2006).

Reproduction

There is a dependence of the timing of the rut on the amount and calorie content of natural feed and the nature of the formed snow cover. The earliest date for the start of the rut is November 15, the latest is December 15. More early start The rutting season and, accordingly, the number of females are unfavorable for the wild boar population: in this case, farrowing takes place in a lot of snow and cold seasons, as a result of which part of the offspring, especially young females, die.

Males search for herds with females, roam widely and feed little. A wild boar searches for a herd of pigs by following their tracks, guided by smell and sound. The males drive the piglets out of the herds and, chasing the females, chase them in a circle. Choppers get into a fierce fight with their rivals and by the end of the rut they are often severely wounded, exhausted, losing up to 20% in weight. Boars are characterized by limited polygamy, since there are usually 1-3 females per male.

A boar that fails in a fight, often wounded, stays away from the herd, waiting for the wounds to heal, or leaves to look for a new herd. The animal is very irritable during the rut and rushes through the thickets at any suspicious rustle, expecting to meet a rival.

If the forces are not equal, then the fight does not last long and ends with the flight of the weak opponent, but if the strength of the cleavers is approximately the same, then the fight is fierce and often leads to the death of one of them (Bannikov A. G., Uspensky S. M. 1973 ).

During the rut, loppers eat little. They move all the time, urging the females on and partly depriving them of normal nutrition. For this reason, females lose a lot of weight, even with an abundance of natural food. In a herd protected by a cleaver, there are most often 5-6 adult females, but where the population density of the species is high, there can be much more of them. Pigs different ages do not come into estrus at the same time: first, adult, well-fed females are ready to mate, then young females. Therefore, the rutting period and, accordingly, the time of birth of piglets are greatly extended (Danilkin A. A. 2002).

Females usually take part in the rut for the first time in their second year, at 18-20 months of age, and males in their fourth or fifth year. The duration of pregnancy is 124 - 140 days, on average 130 days; in females breeding for the first time, it is shorter than in old pigs.

Before farrowing, pigs leave the herd for a quiet shelter, where they prepare the birthing nest. Pigs of the previous litter accompany the mother to the nest site, but do not approach it. Young females under the age of two years, when building a hay for the first farrow, clear the snow and leaf litter; in the resulting depression, they loosen the earth and forest dust in an area corresponding to the size of their body. The place prepared in this way is covered with a roof consisting of 15-20 branches of fir, spruce, cedar or hazel. Old females under the age of 5 years build a gayno skillfully: they fundamentally lay it on top with a heap of fern or dry grass. To do this, within a radius of approximately 3-4 meters around the bush, they have, at a height of 15-20 cm from the ground, all hazel bushes, young stems coniferous trees with a diameter of 1-1.5 cm. Large and strong females even completely break small trees 2-3 cm thick, dragging everything onto the roof of the mountain. Gaino is approximately 2x1.5 m with a canopy of 90-100 cm.

A guy with a roof is a very important device during the breeding season of wild boars. It saves piglets from a possible attack by black crows that pecked their umbilical cords in the first days after birth, sheltering the young from possible rain and snow, from excessive sunlight, and also warms them when the female leaves to search for food.

Pig farrowing occurs from March to May. The number of piglets born per pig varies and undoubtedly depends on the age of the female. Young individuals under two years of age often give birth to 4-5 piglets, old individuals up to 3 piglets, but of small size. The overall fertility of the herd depends on the age of the individuals entering breeding: the younger the age composition of the herd, the smaller the overall offspring. This situation is important for hunters and managers of hunting farms to know, because by shooting young individuals and leaving mature ones, they can contribute to the growth of the wild boar population.

Piglets are born mobile and sighted, well-haired, striped on a brown background of fur, with light stripes about 2 cm wide on the sides and back.

Pigs are very caring mothers, they boldly protect their young and are very aggressive in the first month - they boldly rush to meet any animal or person who dares to approach the brood more than 30-40 m. In the herd, each pig protects any piglet as if it were her own. By autumn, the instinct to protect the cubs weakens.

Having finally separated from the uterus, the piglets continue to walk in a group until they are dispersed by wolves, stray dogs or humans (Korytin S.A. 1976).

Adverse conditions, diseases, competitors and enemies

Pig lice are found on boars in small quantities in autumn, winter and spring at a time when animals are in close contact with each other, resting in common family areas or using old beds. In lean years when the harvest of Mongolian oak acorns and hazel nuts is poor, lice are found in 80% of wild boars, crawling into the hair on parts of the body that are more warmed up by the animal (groin, chest, etc.), where the bristles are less coarse.

All newborn piglets are evenly covered with lice acquired from the queens during feeding. Numerous appearances Adult boars easily tolerate lice on their bodies, and only piglets under one month of age are often forced to scratch their chests and bellies on tree trunks, because in their delicate hairline with thin skin, lice get the most favorable conditions for rapid reproduction.

Various diseases have a significant impact on the number of wild boars. Vigorously digging in the ground and using numerous soil invertebrates as food - worms, larvae, pupae, etc., wild boars easily become infected with various helminths. Infections with metastrongylosis are most common when earthworms, which are intermediate hosts of the helminth, participate in their diet in large numbers. Metostrongylosis larvae develop in the bronchi, they destroy the walls of the bronchus, cause coughing and exhaustion of animals. Infected animals become inactive, their bristles are disheveled, and the piglets look like little ones (Novikov G. A., 1980).

Ascariasis is a helminthic disease caused by the pig roundworm. Roundworms are especially dangerous for 2-6 month old piglets; the disease is accompanied by progressive exhaustion and underdevelopment. Cysticercosis - causes significant losses due to disease of the liver and serous integument, boars develop poorly, heavily infected piglets become seriously ill and die.

Infectious diseases of wild boar include swine fever, foot and mouth disease, anthrax, tuberculosis, and tularemia. But these diseases appear sporadically - once every 5-6 years.

In such years, you can often find the remains of wild boars in the forests, partially eaten by wolves, foxes and birds of prey, and in some cases entire families were found.

During epidemic years, most individuals die younger ages up to two years old, therefore, during wild boar hunting, individuals only three years old and older are often caught.

The disease is spread by the wild boars themselves, predators and dogs picking up the remains of carrion, and by humans, who sometimes make taiga shoes from the raw skin of dead boars, which unconsciously spreads the infection over long distances along forest paths. For this reason, infectious foci quickly spread along roads and paths (Kozlov P. G. 1975). Predators of destroying wild boars include the brown bear and the wolf. Wolves successfully hunt wild boars if the herd consists of young animals, or if it is weakened by unfavorable environmental conditions.

Most often, wolves attack when ice forms, i.e. at the end of December and then early spring when a strong crust appears. Wolves pursue their prey in the rut across a variety of difficult terrain, trying to separate the pig or piglet from the herd and drive it to a place convenient for fishing.

There have been deaths of piglets and adult wild boars from brown bears that have failed to accumulate the required fat reserves for normal winter sleep. Such bears, having appeared in any area where a family of pigs are located, almost completely destroy first the piglets and then the adults. That's why brown bear The connecting rod in modern conditions is a more dangerous enemy for wild boars. But connecting rods do not appear every year, but only when the harvest of pine nuts and acorns fails. The importance of the fox in the destruction of piglets is insignificant; in early spring, the female boldly protects the piglets, but the fox is no longer able to take three-month-old piglets. Therefore, the main predators that noticeably accompany the wild boar population should be recognized as wolves and bears



The coming of spring radically changes the habits of the entire wild fauna Ukraine, including wild boar. This month will bring the wild boar breeding season to its final stage, the herds of this animal are being reorganized, and young males are beginning to lead an independent lifestyle. Weather conditions greatly affect the life activity of these animals, primarily their food supply. Hunting these animals in March is prohibited and carries serious penalties. In this article we will talk about the habits of wild boar in March, as well as the human influence on their life. Now let's talk about everything in order.

Habits of a wild boar in March

Starting in March, female wild boars begin to bear their first litters. Young males, who turn one year old this month, separate from the herd and form small groups. Adult billfish are rarely observed in groups, and, in most cases, lead a solitary lifestyle, joining females only during the rutting period. Females unite around themselves herds consisting of females of the last litter and newborn juveniles. Wild pigs are capable of protecting their cubs from predators and humans to the last; it becomes dangerous to come close to the beds of these animals.

The beds themselves are made from leaves, grass, earth and fallen branches; anything can serve as material for them. The beds are equipped in areas that are most protected from wind and precipitation, most often these are the slopes of small hills and areas near wide, branchy trees, located near the source fresh water. The main function of the bed is protection from excess moisture, wind and cold earth. At first, the piglets remain on their beds, while the female is forced to go out in search of food for herself, but does not move long distances from them and is always ready to help.

Piglets are born sighted and their color is strikingly different from the coat of adults. The piglets are colored with light brown stripes, the lower part of the body is grayish-white. Denser and coarser fur will grow only after the first molt, which for these animals will only take place in mid-autumn. At this time of year, when piglets are not able to move quickly, in the absence of a female they remain extremely defenseless against attacks from packs of hungry wolves.

Human influence on wild pig populations

Attacks by wolf packs, temporarily formed from several individuals, can cause serious damage to young ungulates. The largest flocks are always monitored by rangers, their movements are recorded and monitored. Flocks of predators that are too large are thinned out. Much more attention is paid to the wild boar population on hunting farms, since they, at a minimum, benefit from the largest possible number of these animals. Moreover, during lean times of the year, which includes March, due to the small amount of food on the ground, wild boars are often fed with corn cobs and other high-calorie grains. Hunting for wild boars, in most countries, including ours, is limited to certain periods, outside of which, any activity aimed at harming the animals brings heavy fines to poachers. Hunting wild boar in spring is prohibited.

This is a strong, quite active and fast animal. Average wild boar reaches a weight of more than 300 kg. and height at withers more than 1 m. Habits of a boar Experienced hunters who go hunting for this large animal must know this.
Wild boars usually prefer wetlands with thickets of reeds, reeds and other marsh vegetation. Wild boars swim well and easily travel long distances through water and wetlands.
Great wild boars feel also in coniferous tracts, in cedar forests. Where wild boars live near plantations and melon fields, in the fall they, unfortunately, cause great damage agriculture. Herd boars capable of destroying a huge area of ​​corn field or melon fields overnight. Therefore, numerous petitions are received from a number of places for permission to shoot wild boars in summer period as pests.
It should be noted that wild boars- clean animals. Wild pigs, as a rule, make their home in dense reed thickets. IN winter time it is covered with soft grass and leaves. In dry areas wild boars They dig a hole, which is also covered with soft grass. They spend the day in this hole.
Wild pigs are herd animals; they sometimes gather in large groups. However, seasoned males most often stay separately. Wild boar loves to roll in dug up earth and swim in a puddle of mud to free itself from parasites.
Regarding dietary preferences, wild boars omnivorous. They eat plant foods - mushrooms, berries, potatoes, corn, and a wide variety of animal foods, for example, insects and their larvae, snakes, wild bird eggs and chicks, carrion.
Wild pigs are extremely cautious, sensitive animals. If they have highly developed hearing and sense of smell, they can easily sense the presence of a person at a great distance, sometimes at 300-500 steps.
About the character of the wild boar, we can say that these are not evil animals and are never the first to attack a person. However, if boar wounded, he can rush at the hunter. Sometimes the jump cannot be avoided.
Appearance that have wild boars, quite impressive. Males have large fangs-tusks curved outward, which become even larger and sharper with age. With one blow boar instantly cuts the muscles on a person's leg to the bone.
Boars make sounds similar to the grunting of domestic pigs, and small piglets squeal and grunt.
Boar hunting includes several methods. Unlike bears, wild boar Almost all large yard dogs, shepherds and huskies walk with great excitement. Some hunters are keeping watch boars on the banks of lakes and streams, near those places where they go out to feed. Having determined the place where wild boars Having fed, the hunter, trying to leave less traces, makes a stand, if the lake or channel is not wider than 40-50 m, on the other bank opposite the feeding area where the wild boars go.
Boar hunting in the mountains it can be carried out by hiding during their feeding at dawn. Having looked at the animals through binoculars, the hunter, armed with a rifle, preferably with a telescopic sight, carefully, without making noise, hides them from the wind, preferably from a mountain, all the time carefully monitoring the behavior of the animals, and, taking aim, shoots.
For boar hunting Apart from sneak hunting in the mountains, an ordinary double-barreled hunting rifle will do just fine. Cartridges for shooting cleavers must be equipped with strong charges of smokeless powder.
Boar hunting implies that it is quite possible to meet the old boar, which often, being wounded, rushes at the hunter. You can save yourself from the sharp fangs of a boar if at the last moment, when the animal is five or six steps away from you, you quickly jump to the side. If a hunter chases a wounded man wild boar, he must constantly be prepared for an attack by an angry cleaver, who often hides to rush at the hunter. To the killed big one boar you cannot approach from the head, because if the animal is still alive, it can rush at an unwary hunter.