Wild Boar at Bunloit: A Misunderstood Species
Wild boar are a controversial species. Hunted to extinction in the UK, they now roam free once more, under vastly different circumstances. Here, Scott Hendry, our Senior Ranger, talks about his experience with this creature and how we will work alongside them on the estate.
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Wild boar on Bunloit Hill pre-date the Bunloit Rewilding Project by some 15 years; they’ve undertaken their own rewilding efforts along the Great Glen thanks to their considerable aptitude in escaping from boar farms where they were originally destined for the larder.
Humbugs by Scott Hendry
Big and burly, the wild boar that pass through Bunloit are generally shy when it comes to contact with humans; in 7 years working as a ranger in the Great Glen, my 4 months of working as Head Ranger on the Bunloit Rewilding Project, and my 30 plus years of living in the area, I have seen boar a grand total of three times: twice on Bunloit Estate (well, if you consider bracken rustling and snorting as sightings), and one particularly charming encounter with three ‘humbugs’ (the affectionate nickname given to wild boar piglets due to the resemblance their coats have to the hard-boiled sweets my granny loved) on the southern edge of Loch Lochy, only a stone's throw away from Glen Dessary where the original intrepid escapees decided that they far preferred the Scottish countryside to being in captivity.
A species native to the UK, wild boar were driven to extinction in the 13th century due to - you guessed it - habitat loss and hunting. Their historical presence is recorded in Gaelic place names in the Highlands such as, Sron na Muic (The Pigs Nose) in Glenmoriston and Coire Allt an Tuirc (Hollow of the Boar Stream) in West Affric. They still occur ‘naturally’ in Europe, where incidences of negative interactions with humans are very rare, which is probably due to their shy nature and preference for broadleaf woodland of which there is much more compared to UK tree coverage. The wild boar which pass through Bunloit tend to favour our broadleaf woodlands, with most activity occurring in the oak and birch woods, although they do enjoy the occasional foray into the pastures where they’ve taken to snooting about the Highland cattle dung presumably in search of Dor beetle eggs and larvae.
Omnivorous, wild boar will eat tubers, bulbs, carrion, small mammals, bird eggs, and invertebrates; their foraging habits make them a keystone ecosystem engineer, with their instinct to plough the soil creating disturbance in the sward and allowing for the seeds of tree and plant species to germinate - essentially engineering areas for life to bloom. Foxgloves, a species of wildflower loved by pollinators, thrive in areas of boar disturbed ground on Bunloit, as does the often maligned but misunderstood Ragwort, an incredibly important food source for a plethora of invertebrates, including the cinnabar moth, a Priority Species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework, and another 199 species of invertebrates which have been recorded as benefitting from the species.
The rotavating ability of wild boar endears them to us rewilders but does not sit well with the garden-proud amongst us; a single boar could turn a bowling green into a tattie-field in a night’s work, although robust hog fencing goes a long way to deter boar from the garden. Much is often made of the danger wild boar present to humans: after all, they are big, strong wild animals which if cornered or fearful, will look to defend itself. But so will deer. And so will cattle. And so will horses. And so will dogs. A general rule of thumb for any wild animal is to keep your dog on a lead, give them a wide berth, don't come between a mother and its young, and show the animal the respect it deserves. If you are lucky enough to happen upon wild boar, enjoy the experience; they really are charismatic, intelligent animals.
The Bunloit rangers have been setting camera traps and analysing the data to establish how many boar are passing through the estate, how they interact with other fauna, and what their family dynamics are, which will allow us to properly establish any management protocol. Wild boar are a keystone species, a natural cog in the rewilding wheel and we hope to work alongside them as they engineer a diverse understory in our woodlands and help to increase the species richness on our grasslands.
The ability of wild boar to have large litters of piglets, coupled with the absence of any natural predator in the UK, means that humans must once again intervene in the role of apex predator to manage their numbers. Bunloit Rewilding are actively engaging with various governmental and non-governmental bodies on best practice in managing wild boar from an animal welfare and conservation point of view. The sad reality is that without wolves, and to a lesser extent lynx and bears, our ecosystems are missing an incredibly important component in top-down control of species such as boar and deer, meaning that humans must fill that void. Considering the often-negative perception of the misunderstood, shy and gentle boar, it will take time and effort to reassess the comfort we seem to draw from a sterile countryside, and to open our minds to the need for species like wild boar in a healthy and thriving ecosystem.
Scott Hendry