Do Boar Really Dig Up Cemeteries To Consume The Dead?

My most recent article drew a quick comment that raises an interesting question:

“I had read reports and essays, that back during the times of the great battles and where corpses were left out in the open, that Wild Boar would come in and feed upon the deceased individuals.

This in turn, would cause a craving for human flesh within the Wild Boar which had done the feasting, and they would then turn their attentions upon "live" subjects.

Is their any real truth to these claims about Wild Boar Predators? “

(“Native” in a comment on 'Wild Pig Commandos Attack . . .”)

Let's see:

Boar are omnivorous. They will eat anything including carrion. Boar will also kill and consume small, weak animals. Furthermore, wild pigs are opportunistic feeders. A big old, smelly carcass certainly would attract hungry boar.

In fact, I have seen with my own eyes two animal carcasses on two different private ranches that showed clear signs of scavenger action. One of them was left by the ranch owner in order to attract and keep wild pigs on the property.

In both instances tracks of wild pigs were clearly visible all around the rotting carcass and right up to it.

The boar were doubtlessly feeding on the rotting flesh.

Many European hunters leave boar that have been shot and fatally wounded in the course of a drive or suffered severe damage to the meat in thickets for other boar to find and to feed on. Domestic pigs will happily tear to pieces and consume any carcass of animals thrown into their pen.

It is common knowledge that boar can and do attack humans under certain circumstances. An attacking boar can very well kill even an adult human. Their tusks do most of the damage, but they have enough power in their jaw muscles to inflict severe bite wounds, even break bones. So, the tools are there.

Yet, while it is reasonably well established that wild pigs will eat the remains of dead animals, definite proof of boar scavenging human corpses is harder to come by. There are reports from antiquity of boar feeding on the flesh of human corpses (Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish writer, between 20 B.C. And 50 A.D). Wild pigs reportedly have dug up and eaten corpses of soldiers fallen in the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Contemporary news claim that wild pigs are digging up the dead in German cemeteries.

Though boar have an acute sense of smell and therefore can easily locate a corpse and though their snouts are designed as digging tools, wild pigs are not known to dig deep holes in order to excavate something. Therefore, I do not believe that boar will dig up the dead from a grave dug to standard depth used in a cemetery. They might venture on a very shallow temporary grave on a battlefield and do some digging there. That's possible. And if they get to the corpse, they will most likely feed on it.

Now to the question of whether the consumption of flesh from a human corpse “ in turn, would cause a craving for human flesh within the Wild Boar which had done the feasting, and they would then turn their attentions upon "live" subjects.”

I do not know the answer since I am neither a boar nor a cannibal. Therefore I have no idea what would make rotting human flesh so desirable to a wild pig to make the animal crave it.

Furthermore, even the wildest wild boar is smart enough to avoid encounters with humans whenever possible. Attacks of wild pigs on humans generally occur only when the animal is cornered, wounded, attacked, panicking when encountering humans out of its familiar territory or in defense of its young. Boar are smart enough to realize that running away from danger is the better part of valor.

I do not believe that any self-respecting boar would attack and attempt to kill a human only to eat human flesh.

What about the fierce boar that knocked down a poor old lady swineherd on a country road in Slovakia and brought out an army of courageous policemen in the process?

Did he crave human flesh?

I don't think so. Chances are that he happened to travel the same dirt road the poor old woman ('old' being the operative word here) was using at the time. Startled and frightened he bolted past her knocking her over in the process. Which is easy to do with an old lady as opponent.

Back country dirt roads are narrow and winding in Slovakia . . .

Finally, I would expect a male chauvinist pig with a craving for human flesh to prefer the tender flesh of a young woman (or two) to that of an old swineherd – female or not.

PJJ