WILD LI FE
Once extinct in this country, there are now thousands of wild boars roaming around the UK. Should we worry – or should we celebrate their return?
The ground at your feet is a mess: like the aftermath of battle – or a particularly combative rugby match. Once a lawn, it is now a treacherous quagmire.
Sods of turf are scattered and overturned; the soil beneath gouged and furrowed. Who has done this?
Meet the wild boar: rootler and forager extraordinaire. Once a common resident of our islands, this intelligent, industrious animal disappeared for nearly 900 years. Now it is back, courtesy of some opportunist escapology. And we are not sure what to do about it.
For some, the boar is bad news. The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, their English stronghold, has seen outrage over ploughed-up verges and sports fields, and desecrated gardens and graveyards. There has also been panic over the danger they allegedly pose. After all, the reputed ferocity of these formidable animals has generated tall tales since ancient times. Today, lurid headlines tell of horse-riders charged, dogs and sheep attacked and children in mortal peril.
Others take a different view. To ecologists, the wild boar is a keystone species, vital to the health of its natural habitat. Its vigorous foraging – using a keen sense of smell and flexible, spade-like snout – is a life-bringer to woodlands. This feels especially important given that the UK is, according to the 2023 State of Nature Report, one of the most ‘nature-depleted’ countries on Earth. These ‘ecosystem engineers’ could help revive our ailing countryside.
The range of ecological services wild boars perform is certainly impressive. By ploughing up the ground for bulbs, tubers and other goodies, they create germinating opportunities for plants, a haven for invertebrates and feeding grounds for birds. They also disperse seeds, both via their dense, adhesive coats and in their droppings, and spread fungal spores that help trees to thrive. Furthermore, the mud wallows they maintain during summer provide a home for amphibians, dragonflies and aquatic plants – a vital water source during drought.
Author and science communicator Chantal Lyons has been studying the UK’s wild boars since 2018 and her forthcoming book Groundbreakers: The Wild Boar’s Return to Britain investigates the animal’s impact on people and nature alike – a study for which she moved to the Forest of Dean. Lyons describes the animals as ‘hardcore gardeners’ and has learned how they benefit everything from foxgloves to minotaur beetles, and looked in detail at how they promote biodiversity.
‘The word I’m so sick of seeing is “rampage”,’ says Lyons, dismissing the media hysteria around boars. She explai
