More Wild Boar in the News - December 2010 final.

Wild Pigs have a solid foothold in Michigan .

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment knows of 3,000 to5,000 wild pigs living in the State. This number reflects only animals known to the DNRE; the actual number of wild pigs in the state is higher according to an article by Lisa Satayut in the Midland Daily News.

Team Haller (father and son) harvested a 300 pound boar that had been tearing up a hunting area near Coleman.

Landowners are building an ever increasing business on the quickly expanding number of wild pig hunters in Michigan.

(Source: Midland Daily News)

Boar slashes boots and leg of Granada man.

Near Granada, Spain, a man went after his business of picking mushrooms when he heard what he perceived as the sound of quail. Instead a mad boar appeared and attacked our poor fellow. The boar's tusks slashed clear through his leather boots and into the leg of the hapless man.

The boar obviously resented competition in his mushroom patch.

(The Olive Press, largest expatriate news source in southern Spain.)

Russian wild boar blamed for African Swine Fever.

African Swine Fever is causing problems for boar and domestic pigs (porcus porcus) that are free ranging. Upon their return to the farm they infect domestic livestock according to an article published in Russian by the WWF World Wildlife Fund. The boar are unfairly blamed because the epizootic is carried and transmitted by ticks. The RussianFederal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance wants to kill off the 'offending' boar. However, wildlife activists vigorously oppose this plan because it would not eliminate the tick problem but leave the ticks to infest any domestic swine that ventures into the woods.

(wwf.ru archive)

Police in Florida kill boar terrorizing neighborhood.

Olviedo police killed a 200 to 300 pound boar that attacked a man laying grass sods in his front yard. The animal came charging across the street 'huffing, puffing and snorting'. It missed the gardener by a foot or so and then charged another man who escaped the raging boar by jumping into the bed of his pickup truck.

Four police officers shot the wild pig boar four times. Just to make sure the perpetrator was deader than dead. Or because they had only their handguns which individually were not necessarily a match for the boar.

(sunsentinel.com)

Sir Paul McCartney still at odds with neighbors over boar on his estate.

Vegetarian and animal rights activists Sir Paul McCartney is still steadfastly refusing to cull wild pigs living on his 1,500 acre estate in Peasmarsh, East Sussex, England. The largest number of breeding wild boar are in West Kent and West Sussex. Populations are officially numbered between 200 and 400 but neighbors of McCartney claim that there are many more. According to the enraged populace the boar are breeding like rabbits. They are overrunning McCartney's estate.

According to government sources landowners have the right to cull animals if they become a danger to human or farm safety.

Just what constitutes such a threat is very much in the eye of the beholder.

(The Sun, 12/30/10)

This is my last post of boar related news for 2010. I wish all readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

PJJ

Hunt Wild Pigs in between rainy periods.

Recently I suggested that you hunt boar after and before major weather changes. Animals can sense upcoming significant changes in weather patterns and react to them by taking care of business, mainly feeding that is. During rainy weather they prefer to stay in their warm and hopefully dry bedding as much as possible.

But hunger is a great motivator. It makes the boar come out soon after the rain stops to do a little digging. The soil is much softer then and therefore rooting is easier. The rain washed out of their hiding places small invertebrates and wormy things that are now easy pickings for wild pigs.

What I have just said does naturally also apply to periods in between two storm fronts. Just consider how you felt recently when the sun finally broke through the clouds again for a day or two after three or four days of solid rain. I saw dozens of people enjoying life in the sun in still soggy parks.

Why would wild pigs react differently? When the rain stops and the sun begins to shine again it is time for boar to come out of hiding to do some much needed foraging for food. It is also a good time for them to dry out.

For wild pig hunters this makes for a preferred time of hunting boar. Never mind muddy ranch roads and the need to use your own feet for locomotion instead of sitting in a 4x4.
Give it a try. It might be worth it provided you know a rancher who trust that you will respect his or her property. I am thinking in this context about ranches such as Tejon, Bryson Resort, Cedar Canyon and a number of others offering unguided hunts.
Check my previous posts or the boar hunting book for ranch names and hunting info.
The next storm front is only days away! 
PJJ

On Hunting Boar -

Did you know . . .

that pigs, hogs, swine, boar, wild pigs or whatever fanciful names they sport are related to giraffes? They all are even-toed ungulates of the order Artiodactyla.They share this order with cattle, sheep, goats, camels, deer, giraffes and hippopotamuses.
Throw in a few whales and dolphins and you get the new order of Cetartiodactyla. Scientists are still debating whether to accept the new nomenclature or not.

Meet The Wild Boar - Family life of wild boar and other gossip.

More mumbo jumbo about less known intimate facts of wild boar life.

The first article was designed to give you some rarely used scientific nomenclature and information on true wild boar for use around the campfire and to impress friends. Now we will have a look at less known, obscure aspects of the family life of boar, physical characteristics, food preferences, methods of communication and social dynamics.

Let me point out at this time that whatever I say here about wild boar also does apply to a great extent to wild pigs. Domesticated swine (porcus porcus!) of the family sus scrofa quickly and easily revert back to their wild looks, habits and social patterns. These changes occur within only a few generations. While the physical appearance of the feral animals may still display some characteristics of their domesticated cousins, cognitive and behavioral skills and patterns of social interaction with other members of the species and the world at large have become almost indistinguishable from those of truly wild boar. Almost everything stated in the following articles therefore can be applied just as easily to wild pigs in the United States and elsewhere as long as one allows for some regional differences that are dictated by widely different environments and climatic conditions.

One final caveat: This is not a complete discourse on boar and wild pigs but rather an attempt to gather and present information on boar that is not readily found on every website. For a far more complete collection of boar facts and writings you can refer to my posts and my various discourses in book form on boar and wild pigs.

Size and weight of boar

Contrary to common opinion wild boar are not necessarily bigger than their feral counterparts. Many domesticated pigs (porcus porcus) do in fact grow bigger and heavier.

European boar as a species weigh on average only between 50 and 90 kilograms, that is between 110 and just under 200 pounds. Males are heavier than females. The weight of wild boar in Europe has a tendency to increase from south to north in an easterly direction. The largest wild boar can weigh up to recorded weights of around 300 kilograms, i.e. around 660 pounds. They are found in Romania, Poland, Russia and some in Sweden as you can see on the picture of a Swedish boar displayed on the homepage of our website.

Life cycles and reproduction of boar

When food is plentiful and the climate moderate sows can reproduce up to three times in one year. Females in a sounder tend to synchronize their breeding cycles in order to optimize the number of piglets of the same age. This makes raising the young easier and increases their survival rate. The natural lifespan of wild boar can reach 15 to twenty years. Hunting however reduces the realistic life expectancy for a boar on average to around four to five years.

Boar and wild pigs organize in sounders that consist of breeding sows and their young offspring. Generally females remain with their birth sounder for most of their life. Males are part of a sounder only while young and sexually immature. Slightly older males that have not yet mated sometimes form bachelor groups.
A mature boar temporarily joins a sounder only when another breeding cycle of the sows requires his presence. Boar travel great distances to reach a sounder as soon as possible. Food and rest become secondary in these instances. Arriving first is most important in order to keep the competition in check.


Once a boar has joined up with a sounder his priority is to eliminate any young boar still with their mothers.When more than one breeding boar has reached the sounder the competition among the boar results in combat. Most conflicts are resolved in a series of ritualized threat displays including scraping of the ground, face to face threats, frothing of saliva, loud grinding of teeth and urine spraying. Weaker boar are frequently discouraged and intimidated by such displays of dominance and leave the field without actual physical combat.

Those that do not withdraw in time proceed to real physical combat. The boar scrape past each other side by side slashing upwards with their razor sharp tusks. They also butt heads violently. They block blows from the opponent with their shoulder 'armor'. These fights can be extremely violent. Deep cuts inflicted by the sharp tusks of an opponent are quite common. Loud squeals and shrieks make the entire procedure a nerve wrecking experience.

Boar do not believe in compromise. The winner takes all. The loser can only leave the field and slink away into dense brush hoping that the next reproductive cycle of the sows will see a weakened boar.



The victorious boar wastes no time. He starts to court the females immediately. Pheromones emitted by sows tell him which one to concentrate on first He will follow this female, start to touch and 'masasage' her back and her flanks with this snout all the while emitting low rumbling sounds that resemble somewhat the low growl of a powerful eight cylinder engine. The low frequency sound impulses from his snout act as a powerful vibrator putting her into a trance like state that allows him to complete the act of copulation. It can last for up to five minutes.



The results of this posturing, fighting, huffing, puffing and vibrating appear after a gestation period of just under four months in the form of a litter of 6 to 10 piglets. The size of a litter depends on the health and the age of the mother and on the availability of food resources.



By the way, both genders use this method to create their winter bedding. Preferred locations are under low overhanging tree branches and under rock overhangs.



Vocal family life

Wild boar are social and gregarious animals. Life in a sounder of boar is not only characterised by communal activities but even more so by constant vocalizations. As they engage in their daily activities under the direction of the oldest sow, the members of the group stay in constant vocal contact with each other. Communications are in the form of grunts, squeals and shrieks. Scientists claim to have identified dozens of 'grunted' words, such as a sow calling her piglets for dinner, reassuring grunts while feeding and the warning signals emitted by members of the sounder who have identified danger. Pain, fear and distress are announced with loud squeals that can send shivers down your spine.

I experienced such a situation first hand while hunting on a private ranch. I was the only hunter on the property which I had to share only with an eager game warden who popped up from different directions every 30 minutes or so to check on me. To introduce himself, he had placed the decoy of a buck in a very conspicuous place in a clearing on top of a ridge hoping undoubtedly for an illegal shot and a fat fine.

On foot I approached the entrance to a steep canyon that had a small creek running in it. Emanating from below was a cacophony of eerie sounds that defies description. Low frequency sounds were muffled and overcome by endless shrill shrieks, wailing squeals and a host of noises for which I have no fitting description. The sounds reminded me of disembodied voices of the dead slowly drifting up from the depth of the inferno to the world of the living. This was and still is one of my most memorable and unusual experiences I have encountered during hunting. It was frightening.

Yet all I heard was a sounder of wild boar going after their daily business.

Hunting Boar
Long before man domesticated wild boar about 7,000 to 10,000 years ago, he hunted them for food and clothing. Ever since man is the main predator for boar though a few other predators hunt boar on occasion as well.

Among them are tigers, lions, wolves and the occasional large bear. But because of the tendency of boar to strike first when threatened by other animals, his ferocious and courageous fighting that often refuses to give up even when seriously injured, most of these predators kill only piglets that are temporarily without motherly protection or the old and feeble. Even wolves, are formidable predators in their own right, only attack boar in numbers; hardly ever does a lone wolf attempt to kill a boar because he knows by instinct that a raging boar can tear his belly open long before the rest of the pack arrives.

Hunting and killing boar was considered a test and display of courage. Numerous ancient heroes proudly add it to their list of accomplishments. More recently nobility engaged in boar hunts in order to sharpen their skills in man to man combat. No big surprise therefore that wild boar are seen in many coat of arms of kings, noblemen and of cities.

Boar were hunted with spears, lances, sometimes swords, either on foot or from the relative safety of horses. Dogs played an important role in hunting boar. They were often protected against slashing tusks by wide metal or metal studded heavy leather collars. These could even extend to their head and body similar to armor war horses wore in battle. One of my earlier post has some pictures of medieval boar hunts that demonstrate boar hunting techniques quite nicely. This article has a few more pictures showing hunting methods used in the past. Go all the way down to the article to find them.

The use of firearms eliminated much of the danger inherent in boar hunting 'mano a mano'. Despite claims by hunters to the contrary and reports of boar attacks on people and hapless hunters high powered fire arms have taken almost all danger out of boar hunting. Boar cannot project their ferocity and unrelenting courage two or four hundred yards out to teach a lesson to a naive hunter with a .243.

It is pretty safe to knock off even the wildest and most aggressive boar from a couple hundred yards away. Only accidental victims or the incompetent and foolish get to feel a boar's rage these days.

PJJ

Hunt Wild Pigs After The Rain!

Don't be afraid of a little mud.


Watching torrents of rain coming down on the land I wondered how hunting boar would be during the rain. Surely wildlife including our smart wild pigs will find a way to stay out of the rain as much as possible. And to stay warm as well. Boar remain well tucked away in their hideouts in thick brush, under rock overhangs and wherever else they have made their home in shallow beds dug into the ground and lined with branches.
Yet they need to come out to feed and to tend to other urgent matters.Would that not present a good time and opportunity to intercept them? Well maybe, provided you know where their hideouts and the nearest food sources are. The timing of their forays into the wet, cold rain is another variable that is hard to predict.


There is a much better time to get at them. Experience tells us that boar and wild pigs are most active before a big change in weather and after the weather event. Fishermen can attest to this experience as well.
Having hunkered down in their shelters for days on end boar enjoy drying out in the warm sun as well as extended excursions into fertile feeding grounds. If this opinion is in any way supported by facts, then hunters should prepare for impromptu boar hunting now.
Call your favorite ranch to make a hunting reservation. It might be a little muddy and you may have to hunt mostly on foot but prospects for boar encounters of the close kind should be quite good.
Give it a try. The rain is supposed to stop right after Christmas.
And the boar shall come out rejoicing in the sun
Go get them..
PJJ

On Hunting Boar -

Did you know . . .

that baiting game animals is illegal in California? Yes, you did because you learned that during hunter education. Or at least that is what you were supposed to do.

But did you also learn that the prohibition of baiting does not apply to fenced preserves? We have several right here in California, e.g. Big Horn Ranch, Cedar Canyon Ranch and the primary Native Hunt property. There are many others in Texas and Florida but regulations vary from state to state. Feral pigs that live on fenced preserves in California are considered hoof stock not game. Their treatment and use is regulated not by the Department of Fish and Game but by  the Department of Agriculture.

Meet The Wild Boar - Wild Boar In Science Speak

A bit of mumbo jumbo to impress your hunting friends.

By now boar hunters know from many an expert website that boar and their wild hybrids are scientifically known as sus scrofa. You cannot miss it because every boar hunting related website and a host of guides establish their expertise by name dropping – sus scrofa, sus scrofa, sus scrofa. You will never see 'sus domesticus, sus algira, sus meridonalis or even sus sibiricus' on those sites.

Wild boar are indigenous to Eurasia and North Africa. Today they are found on all continents except Antarctica. Porcine mammals aka sus scrofa (sic) count among the most numerous of all large mammals. Some authorities even claim that they are the most numerous and successful big mammals.

The full taxonomic classification of wild boar is:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Sub-kingdom:	Eumetazoa
Superphylum:	Deuteostomia
Phylum:	Chordata
Sub-phylum:	Vertebrata
Super-class:	Gnathostomata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetartiodactyla*
Sub-order:	Suiformes
Family:	Suidae
Genus:	Sus
Species:	S. scrofa

Formerly referred to as Artiodactyla. This order also includes whales and dolphins. Cetartiodactyla is hybridized from Artiodactyla and Cetacea.

Originally scientists organized suidae, the pig family, into 31 sub-species based on length and shape of the lacrimal bone. Never satisfied with simplicity and easily understood facts, scientists meticulously studied the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). . Mitochondrial DNA can only be passed on by females to their female offspring allowing to trace maternal lineage clearly and accurately. The result?. 
Thirty one subspecies of boar turned into only sixteen true sub-species of wild boar. They are:
* Sus scrofa algira Loche, 1867
* Sus scrofa attila Thomas, 1912
* Sus scrofa cristatus Wagner, 1839
* Sus scrofa davidi Groves, 1981
* Sus scrofa leucomystax Temminck, 1842
* Sus scrofa libycus Gray, 1868
* Sus scrofa majori De Beaux e Festa, 1927
* Sus scrofa meridionalis Major, 1882
* Sus scrofa moupinensis Milne-Edwards, 1871
* Sus scrofa nigripes Blanford, 1875
* Sus scrofa riukiuanus Kuroda, 1924
* Sus scrofa scrofa Linneo, 1758
* Sus scrofa sibiricus Staffe, 1922
* Sus scrofa taivanus Swinhoe, 1863
* Sus scrofa ussuricus Heude, 1888
* Sus scrofa vittatus Boie, 1828

Quoted commonly on websites and in articles as Sus scrofa (linaeus 1758).
That's the monster beast your guide is talking about on his website.

These sixteen subspecies of boar are unofficially divided into four major groups:

Indian
Indonesian
Western
Oriental.

Western boar have longer lacrimal bones than their Asian counterparts. In addition, boar also have differing sets of chromosomes. Our house swine (sus domesticus) has 38 and so do European wild boar - except for Spanish, French and Sardinian wild boar. Together with Indian, Indonesian, and Oriental boar they posses only 36 chromosomes.
But 'tu felix sus nube' (paraphrasing - But you lucky pig procreate!). Boar and sows with 36 and 38 chromosomes happily obey the call of nature to engage in a little extra marital romping in the fields. These activities invariably result in fertile offspring with 37 chromosomes. Not 36, not 38 but the happy medium of 37. I call that a true compromise.
Regardless of subspecies, unofficial group designation and differing number of chromosomes wild boar and their hybrids are a challenging game, highly adaptable survivors that can use almost any food resource available, take advantage even of marginal habitats, intelligent, cunning, equipped with superb senses for self-preservation, courageous and tough in combat and defense and therefore able to make their home in almost all but the very most inhospitable environments.
Next to man boar and wild pigs are among the best, if not the most successful, colonizers on this planet.
They can on occasion run around in people's backyards.
And they taste good, I might add.

This name calling does this not have much  to do with my boar hunting activities, you say?
A wild pig is a wild pig regardless of the number of its chromosomes, the sub-species and the group membership. I cannot determine either by sight when in the hunting field.
Correct. But it certainly will help you to drop a few names and to impress your hunting buddies around the campfire or while feasting on gourmet food in the luxury dining area of one of the posh hunting resorts.
That does not convince you either?
How about this: “Know thy enemy.“ The better you know your quarry and what makes it tick, the better your chances of success will be.
Maybe -  provided you are in the right place at the right time with the right equipment, attitude and knowledge.
To assist you in doing just that to the best of your knowledge I will continue this article with more not so well known facts of boar psyche, boar habits, the social life of wild pigs and other boar curiosities
PJJ

On Hunting Boar -

Did you know . . .


that when there is no pooling water or water puddles boar will use their snout and hooves to dig out a shallow hole in the ground, urinate into it, mix it up nicely and  then happily roll in the boar made 'mud'.

Boar in the News December 2010

The month is still young and already there are dozens of news articles from around the world featuring wild boar. Since bad news are good news for the media, most articles report on the antics of boar gone wild. Of course, that does nicely contradict my recent post on boar facts, which stated that boar and wild pigs are generally not aggressive and prefer to run away over fighting with humans.

Many incidents with rogue boar or wild pigs can be attributed to the ever increasing numbers of boar and to the expansion of their range almost everywhere. One particular patterns repeats itself over and over again: Boar or wild pig leaves the natural habitat and wanders very close to or into areas inhabited by numerous people. Boar gets confused, disoriented, scared and causes severe damage with his frantic efforts to get away. Here is a good example.

 
Boar visits butcher shop and is turned into sausage.

 A boar exhibited poor judgment by leaving his safe haven in a forest and wandering into a butcher shop in a small town in German. The butcher guided his only customer to safety before he attempted to scare the boar away. The animal caused about $ 6,000.00 in damage to the shop and equipment before a local hunter arrived and shot it.
The butcher now expects to earn approximately $ 400.00 from the sale of boar meat and sausages. No people were harmed in the process according Yahoo News and dozens of other news media from all over the world that have picked up the story.

Here is another event that makes me look bad.


French woman rescued from boar attack by helicopter.

On December 10, 2010 the Telegraph carried the story of a 30 year old French woman who was hiking in a valley near Bagneres-de-Luchon, France, when she came upon a group of boar. Frightened she ran away seeking refuge from the beasts in a tree. That is by the way a common anti-boar defense in European countries.
Playing their traditional part in the drama members of the sounder besieged the tree.

After they left, the woman tried to climb out of the tree but fell about 6 feet in the process and got stuck in the branches. She used her GPS equipped cell phone to call for help and to give her rescuers her exact location. The rescuers decided the safest way to get her out of her embarrassing predicament was to lift her out by helicopter. A chopper from a nearby base plucked her successfully out of the tree.


But what would boar news be without a contribution prompted by Australian wild pigs.


400 pound boar tears up urban gardens and scares gardeners.

Melbourne, Australia, does not strike me on first sight as prime habitat for wild pigs. But they are there and their numbers are increasing. Property owners, authorities and wildlife trappers are now hunting one particularly brazen wild pig that has elected to find food in urban gardens.

Margaret Kavanag quotes first hand witnesses in her article about the incident:

""I've never seen anything like this," said landscaper Michael Gentz, who was talking about the damage done to the land.

"This was done by one hog," said James Dean, a wildlife trapper."

While authorities worry about automobile accidents the wild pig could cause on a nearby busy road, trapper and landscaper ponder the mysteries of the wild pig incursion each from his own perspective:

"They can hurt you if you are cornered by one," Dean said. "I've actually had one try to take my finger off. I've had them break four of my ribs. They can be dangerous."

The landscapers fear the damage done will ruin their mowers. They have to work around the ground where the land is torn up.

"It's hard to believe something could do that," Gentz said."

Watch the actual report on channel 13 News, Melbourne, here:

http://www.cfnews13.com/video?clip=http://static.cfnews13.com/newsvideo/cfn/1209WildBoar_120920100648.flv

PJJ

On Hunting Boar -

Did you know . . .

that despite their reputation wild boar are normally not dangerous. They do not attack other animals and people without good cause. Given a choice a wild pig will by nature run away as soon as it senses, sees or hears people. One of the few  exceptions are females with young. Sows can be very aggressive. Another is an injured wild pig.

Recoil from boar rifle or the ferocious beast itself - What do hunters fear most?

Readers who followed this blog over the past months and years know that there is a vociferous faction of hunters who hold that a .243 rifle is just about the only, the best and the most universal boar caliber ever invented by man. Since I have my doubts about that as you all know, I have gone back into the archives to see what reasons these hunters give for their enthusiastic endorsement of this caliber.

It seems that the mild recoil associated with this caliber is one of the main reasons, if not the only reason, for the strong support this rifle caliber has among wild pig hunters.

I find this a remarkable paradox. While boar hunters like to think of themselves as the winners of the 'qien es mas macho' competition who brave a ferocious, unforgiving, vengeful, aggressive, most dangerous and unpredictable brute, the very same hunters recoil (sic) in horror just thinking of the recoil of a real 30-06 or .308 or 270 or other decent boar rifle calibers. On one hand you have the fear instilling, tough boar hunter all decked out in his military surplus garb (minus helmet, of course) and on the other hand this very same tough guy fears the recoil of a weapon commensurate with his macho appearance and the task at hand.

Paradox, isn't it.

Do not despair, wild pig hunters. Generations of soldiers and boar hunters survived the recoil of their manly weapons without any harm to their soul and other valuable body parts. You can do so as well.

And how many times do you fire your rifle during a hunting trip? Five, ten, fifteen or more times? Be honest. Most hunters get to shoot only once during a hunt or, if they aim at a running target, maybe twice during an entire weekend. Many never fire their rifle.

If you get to shoot more than that then you are either a poor shot, hunt in Texas over a feeder or you are a wild pig eradicator.

Oh, speaking about wild pig eradication and Texas. In one of my recent posts a talked about wild pig eradication companies in Texas. I contacted one particular company that advertises their services to landowners on the texasboar website. My first e-mail remained unanswered and so did my follow up message. Maybe they are too busy eradicating wild pigs under feeders at night to respond or the powers to be in that outfit do not particularly like my somewhat inquisitive approach to their business model.

But look at the positive side of it: At least they claim not to charge ranchers for their services and, even better, to my knowledge they do not fly around in helicopters to hunt poor Miss Piggy.

PJJ

On Hunting Boar -

Did you know . . .

that the meat from a 'barrow' or 'bar' is the best boar meat you can get? A barrow is a castrated wild pig or boar. Some ranchers catch young male piglets, castrate them and then set them free to grow up as wild boar.

This procedure makes the bar far less aggressive, improves his body mass and the amount of body fat and results in a overall milder tasting meat without the taint found in 'real' wild boar.  

I can attest to this from my own experience hunting wild pigs on a private club ranch. I harvested a 300 pound+ boar. We noticed that he had a notch cut into one of his ears. We were told that  ranchers notch the ears of castrated boar in order to be able to identify the animal easily later on.

The meat of this boar was as good or better than that of any young wild pig or even of a young sow. Tender, juicy, just enough fat to give it great taste with all the other benefits of wild pigs meat such as less calories and increased protein content.

 A barrow is really the hunter's most magnificent trophy boar.