Wild Boar?

[Gardian]

We live right on the edge of a very dense Oak forest, which is full of sangliers. Been here 18 months and never seen one, but I've heard them and during the hunting season (mercifully over, for now) there are plenty of shots being fired.

The other night, one of 17 year old cats went out for a late-night 'constitutional'. After about 20 minutes, there was an enormous racket outside, with brooms being knocked down etc. I eventually got the cat in after about another 20 minutes and she was well and truly shaken up. Off her food for a day or so, didn't want to go out, very wary of the outside world. No injuries though.

Today, we found some dried up mud prints on the patio. Big stride - nearly a metre and of the size that I found in the fresh snow one morning at the end of Jan. We're told that the boar go down to the stream at night for a drink.

The prints don't seem to be cloven, which presumably a boar's are (?) Seems to be 4 or 5 'pads' in shape, so more likely a big dog, one would have thought. But if a dog, wouldn't I have been more likely to have heard a bark - there was no animal sound at all. Any ideas anybody?   

[chris pp]

Either a fouine (stone marten) or a martre (pine marten) if it was giving your cat a hard time. I'd go for the stone marten rather than the pine marten and although your cat's 17 she's obviously still nifty on her toes.

Cat's and stone martens don't mix too well and the stone marten is the better fighter of the two, normally what you describe is exactly what happens, the cat spends a few days indoors afterwards looking decidedly unhappy and subdued having met its match!

Your right about the boar prints, normally what you see is two longish parallel troughs, oval one end and slightly curved and pointed at the other.

Chris.

[Gardian]

Chris - many thanks for your reply. Being 'the man' in this field, I was hoping that you'd respond.

I've just told 'Sammy' that she's still nifty, but she wasn't impressed. It was never like this back in the UK. 

From your information, will now be reading up on our unwelcome passer-by!  Thanks again.

[chris pp]

Ian,  It's unlikely to happen again now that your cats got the scent of it, it will avoid it like the plague and the fouine shouldn't go after the cat other than defensively.

I think it's a territory thing the first time that they meet and you may well find that the fouine is living in your roof space or barn if you have one, this time of year they either have or are about to have their young and will depart when the young are weened.

Chris

[Gardian]

Just had a look on the internet and one site showed a Marten's tracks .......... and they're exactly what we saw.

Although I said an Oak forest, there are some coniferous areas close by as well.

If I'm not careful, I could easily get in to this wildlife thing. Cats, however, remain unimpressed.  Have a good Easter weekend. 

 

[val douest]

Some time ago our cat came across a fouine in our barn area at night;

there was a lot of scuffling, things knocked over, and a great deal of

swearing from the cat.  When I went out I found the fouine

cornered behind a wheelbarrow with the cat making every effort to get

to it before I dumped him unceremoniously inside the house; the fouine

then disappeared.  I looked the cat over quite carefully to see if

he had any bites or scratches and he seemed OK but three days later he

developed a huge abscess on his ear. This needed draining by the vet

who prescribed antibiotics - she told us that a fouine bite almost

always causes problems and prompt treatment is important.  Perhaps

not surprisingly we haven't seen the fouine since - though we think we

have heard it moving around in the roof.

[Gardian]

Just an update. The 'old girl' of 17 made a full recovery, but there was another event last evening with one of our other cats.

This little chap is an adopted stray of five - bit of a weakling really. He was only out for 5 minutes, but came back completely beaten up. Not bitten, but a few specks of blood and absolutely terrified. Off to the vet this morning who confirmed your view Chris - definitely fouine. He hates them - one killed all his rabbits recently.

His advice was to get on to the local chasse who will probably have a suitable trap and if successful, can take it off "somewhere far away". 

Anyway, the patient is confined to barracks: not that he's all that anxious to be out and about!

[Christine Animal]

What sort of size is a fouine compared to a cat?

 

[chris pp]

I find this one a bit tricky Ian, it's the old "rock & a hard place", on the one hand I understand peoples concerns and on the other hand, although stone martens are not present in the UK, pine martins are and they have been persecuted to the point of extinction and only remain in Scotland where they are subject to conservation measures to try and prevent their total disappearance. I really wouldn't want the same thing to happen here, as it is almost every French person in the countryside tries to kill them, usually with poisoned eggs left around the place which, of course,  kill all sorts of other creatures as well.

My suggestion would be, if you really need to be rid of them that you should speak to your Mairie and ask them for a piéguer agrée, these are people who are trained and permitted to catch them in a cage trap (and other listed creatures) and it is a free service! If you stipulate that you don't want them killed but only moved, the mother and her young may stand a chance, or you wait until they depart and block up all possible access holes, anything less than 6 cm diameter, and prevent the situation arising in the future.

If it's any consolation they eat a lot of mice and voles!

Chris

 

 

[chris pp]

They are about 45 cm head and body, plus about another 25 cm for the tail, but with short legs and a long body,  Christine, much the same size and shape as a pine marten which you can occasionally see in daytime.

Chris

 

[Gardian]

Chris .........

Thanks again for the response.

Poison never was an option, so as per your advice, I'll be down the Mairie on Tuesday to discuss the matter with Mme ******.  Problem is that she scares me to death - whatever the opposite of charisma is, she's got it. If I can't get any sense out of her, then I'll pursue it at Uzes.

It / them are a problem, because you can't have them beating the **** out of your pets every other week. Quite apart from what it does to them, it gets quite expensive!  I've checked all round the property and can't see any obvious bolt-holes (no barns, no loft), but it / they could be anywhere, not necessarily on our property.

Good re the mice & voles, but our cats and the neighbour's (in particular) are already pretty partial to the odd one to supplement their diet! 

    

[Christine Animal]

Ian, you could even try to catch it yourself and see what it is at the same time if you could borrow a trap from someone who saves cats for example, maybe the local SPA if you don't know of anyone else.  You just put some food in it and when they walk in to get it the door comes down.  Then you could release the animal further away.  You'd have to shut your cats in though.

 

[Gardian]

Christine - 1st step, Mme Serpico (that's not her real name!) re Chris' suggestion on Tues, then when I get sfa from her, then the SPA could well be an avenue to follow.

Actually, thinking about it, I might as well ring the SPA straight away. None of you guys know this woman!