Boar near Speech House

This little group of young boar have taken up residence near Speech House in the Forest of Dean. Unlike most of the forest boar that snort and kick up a commotion if people get too close, these don't resent passers by. Speech House is a popular spot, so I suppose they've grown used to human company.  I just hope that folk are not tempted to feed them.

I wonder, though, how their behaviour might change as they grow up?  Will they always be this docile?  Elsewhere in the forest the boar have become a real headache and our community is deeply divided over what to do about them.

Often described as wild boar, they are more accurately feral. A few escaped captivity in the 1990, then about 60 were illegally set loose in the forest in 2004. Unfortunately, due to their domestic origins they have about twice as many babies as their 'wild' cousins. Consequently, numbers mushroomed to over 1500 by 2015/16. The Forestry Commission (the principle landowner in the forest) plans to reduce numbers, by culling, to around 400.

This was our local playing field (The Meend, in Lydney) after the boar dug it up in 2016. The local council have now erected a strong fence to keep them out.

Elsewhere, gardens have been destroyed, cricket and football fields dug up and dogs attacked.  More seriously, one boar got into the paddock where a friend of mine kept her horse and so frightened the poor animal that it had to be put down.

Yet I freely admit that no-one was happier than I to come upon those boar near Speech House. I just hope that ways can be agreed to limit their numbers, limit the damage they do, or preferably both. In the mean time, here's they are again, doing what they do best... digging the place up.