In Lorraine – France, wild boar numbers have been on the rise since 1999, when sheltered areas of dense vegetation were put aside for the animals. Hunters killed 19,000 wild boars between 1997 and 1998, said Olivier Schoenstein, head of the regional hunting federation. in 1999, that figure topped 50,000.
The European wild boar’s body is similar with the bison’s body but it is heavier and higher in the shoulders region. The boar’s body is covered with coarse, thin hair. In most cases, wild boars are black but in some cases, they can be brown or silver-gray. The boars are born with stripes from their nose to the tail which will fade when the boar reaches six up to nine weeks old. Wild boars are known to inhabit in lots of different areas which in some cases is quite annoying as these animals do a lot of harm to the nature.
European Wild Boar has always been said to be the most intelligent of game animals. A fully grown wild boar is around 1m tall and weighs between 90Kg and 140Kg. The Sow is slightly smaller, being only 90cm tall and weighing between 70Kg and 90Kg. Both boars and Sows are armed with big sharp tusks. The eupean wild boars vary in colour from rusty brown to dark black and Piglets are brown with light horizontal stripes.Wild boars can breed all year round, with a litter of 8 to 10 piglets being born after a gestation period of 4 months.
The boar hunting season starts in Lorraine on the 1st of September and continues to the 15th of April, but hunting yearling and piglets is permitted all year. The best time to hunt wild boar in France is from November to January, when the snow makes the Boar more visible or during a full moon becourse of the light.
As far as the reproduction is concerned, the males are capable of breeding year round. Female boars are able of farrowing any month. Most of the female boar farrow only once per year, but there are some cases ( when food is abundant for example ) when some of the sows may give birth to more than one litter per year. At about one year, permanent tusks start growing; their sexual maturity is reached in their first year of life. Their longevity is known to be around 10 years but there are some cases in which the European wild boar lived for even 27 years.
Perhaps the most popular out of the various bird hunting kinds is pheasant hunting. And it has been that way for hundreds of years, since these birds were first brought to Europe in the 10th century. Although things are very different nowadays, our passion for hunting these creatures remains untouched and to some extent it seems to defy time itself. Many explanations can be found but one of the most plausible seems to come from our inner desire to be as free as these beautiful creatures are when they fly.
