Sanglier

[Miggimeggi]

I have been watching the thread on the Gardening forum, re: wild boar and wonder if they are a great nuisance if you have a little veggie garden.  Our house is deeply rural and we take the dogs to have a gallop in the very large field behind it.  The field is bordered on three sides by woods and we do see the occasional deer.  Although we have never seen wild boar there we have seen their diggings, tracks and only twice, droppings. Also we have heard the hunters in great excitement calling "sanglier" etc and their dogs in full cry.   Strangely, the dogs (ours I mean) have never shown any interest in the diggings and there must be some pretty rank smells around there. We have never had any signs of them being inside the garden fence but then I don't think there is anything yet to tempt them.  I am not sure that I want to go to the trouble and expense of growing veggies for  the wild pigs when there is more than enough wild food for them. 

Please don't misunderstand me, we are delighted to have most wildlife around us (except Jonzjob's catapillars), but we would just like to know what we are in for.

Anne

[chris pp]

We are surrounded by woodland and have just about everything possible for the region in and around our patch. I see boar in our garden on a regular basis, they think it's their garden and I have to explain to them that I only let them use it!  We have never had any problems with them and bear in mind I grow my potatoes on top of the ground only covered with straw. The boar have never touched any of the veg. and the most that they ever do on the odd occasion in Spring is scuff up some of the rough land, similar I would think to what you have seen.

Chris

[Gardian]

Anne .........

I have a feeling that many of the world's problems may be heaped on the shoulders of the poor old sanglier.

As mentioned on a previous thread, we too live cheek by jowl with them, but I've never actually seen one, sorry to say. I've got a small potager and happily they've never troubled it. Probably they don't like my grub.

I do remember being in the Doc's surgery one morning though and listening to a crusty old local describing to an equally crusty old local, how the ******* sanglier were coming within a metre or two of his bedroom window and munching his salade (or whatever) and he wished that it wasn't the close season or he'd get the local chasse out to shoot the **** out of them!  Somewhat direct. 

If I were you, I'd press on with my growing attempts and hope for the best. If you lose a bit, it'll have gone to a good home.     

[Miggimeggi]

Thank you very much Chris and Ian.  We will go ahead with our veggie plot and be prepared to share if necessary - wish they'd show themselves though.

Chris, you mentioned the scuffings in Spring.  Why only then, I have noticed that there have been no new excavations for the last couple of weeks?

Anne

[chris pp]

Hi Anne, There are two types or places where scuffing occurs, one is on the forest floor which is apparently looking for food, seeds, nuts, acorns, insects and so on, I assume when it looks like serious digging that they can smell something interesting that is below or just below the surface.

The other place, which always seems to be in Spring, is in open fields and this I was told is for ants nests, in fact for ants eggs which they are partial to? Can't say that I've ever seen this mentioned in any literature but experience seems to bear this out. Maybe there is something nutritious in the ants eggs that is beneficial in Spring.

Chris

 

[Andyphilpott]

We have loads of Sanglier in the Var - even more since the dreadful fires burnt out much of the tree cover in the Eastern part a couple of years ago (which also seems to have wiped out many of the Hermann tortoises which we used to see). We have been lucky enough to see them quite often, either driving along the mountain roads at night when we come round a corner to see whole families in the road diving for cover, or when out hiking in the mountains if we keep quiet and the wind is not blowing towards them. They bolt as soon as they see or hear or smell you.

Hunting season is manic so hiking then requires very colourful clothing and plenty of noisy chatting to avoid getting shot. A young chap from our village was killed a couple of years ago when a hunter mistook him for a sanglier.

Mind you I am a bit partial to a daube de sanglier.

Andy

[Miggimeggi]

Hi Andy,

I really wish ours were a bit more visable.  Last week we did see something about the size of a large labrador at the very edge of the woods but it disappeared immediately into the trees.  We just didn't see it long enough to be able to even guess at an identity. Our dogs did their on alert thing but they would have done that for just about anything including a boar or another dog.  They didn't try to go after it.

I know what you mean about the hunting season.  We never take the dogs out during the season on a Sunday.  Funnily enough we never think about ourselves getting hurt but our fawn dane is the size and colour of a large deer and many of the hunters are old enough to be a bit myopic and we have heard about the "no time to think, see it, shoot it" attitude.

Never tried eating sanglier but have been given roast warthog (or was it bushpig?)  at a dinner party in Kenya once.  It was strong but very tasty .  Must try sanglier the next time I see it.

Anne

[Dog]

A couple of months ago at 10pm we heard noises and there were 10 large sanglier in the field at the bottom of our garden munching away on the crops that were just growing.

I got to within 20 feet and they were not too bothered.

Eventually the biggest one grunted and the disappeared into the night.

I now wish they had eaten the entire crop as it is oilseed rape and is a nasty smelly evil mess.

PS Been visited by two red squirrels this morning and yesterday got some pictures of a whip snake in a pile of stones.

[Andyphilpott]

Hi Anne - yes they are certainly elusive and ay any hint of a dog they are off. I find it amazing to see how agile they are. Hulking great boars throwing themselves up what appears to be near vertical climbs but I guess if you had been chased by dogs with hunters firing off in all directions you would be pretty nervous!

Last year we were towards the end of a fairly long trek and spotted a family group grubbing away only 50 or so yards away. A large boar and a couple of sows with several piglets (or is that sanglierettes). We watched for some time and I took a few pictures but as we tried to get closer they spotted us and went off like little rockets.  I think that it is the movement they spot first so if you do see some keep very still and enjoy! When we looked at the pictures later you would be hard pressed to tell that there was anything there so well are they camouflaged.

Sanglier tastes more like beef than pork to me - my local restaurant (in France!) does it a couple of different ways and I usually go for it.

I know that it is part of the culture but I do wish the hunters could perhaps forego the parade through the village with the bleeding sanglier draped over the bonnet of the 4WD though. Pretty hypocritical of me though given my fondness for eating them!

Back to work now - roll on my next visit (although we are having a short break to Carcassonne and Collioure this weekend to get a French fix)

 

Andy

 

[Lou]

As an aside, baby sanglier are called "marcassins"

We recently attended the "Banquet des chasseurs" at our salle de fetes

and had cured sanglier ham with our aperitif (followed by 7 courses!)

and very good it was too

Lou