BOARING CONSERVATION

Cornerstones[1], the new book by Benedict Macdonald, a must read by all naturalists, explains that “keystone species” once managed the planet’s ecosystems millions of years before mankind appeared on the scene. One such species is the sanglier or wild boar, a species not just featured in Asterix and Obelix stories, but one with which I am very familiar in France. The two in this rather grainy photo (top) were caught by our neighbour’s camera trap, rooting around in our garden in the Maritime Alps! More commonly, we see the large faeces they leave behind after their visits (below)!

Macdonald has made a decade-long study in the Forest of Dean, where wild boar are well established. He found that they act as nature’s excavators, but this behaviour does more than just disturb the ground and vegetation. In seeking out food such as roots, tubers, soil-dwelling invertebrates and other tasty morsels, sangliers reset and help regenerate the soil ecosystem. As well as aerating the ground, they bring seeds into a micro-environment nearer the surface where they can germinate. They also create micro-habitats such as ponds (especially where they make mud holes for wallowing) and glades as well as bare ground – a canvass for nature to paint with new life. Robins and other birds follow these animated ploughs around, too, to catch a tasty snack as the earth is turned over, just like they do in the garden.

Unfortunately, the digging and general chaos caused by wild boar when they get into cultivated land, which in our area of France they often do, has earned them a bad reputation. As Obelix would tell you, they are also delicious and, though I find it cruel, it is a major local activity near us and elsewhere, and it is quite common to see a dead sanglier hanging out of the back of a 4X4 in the village, ready to go to the butcher. They can weigh well over 150kg, so no small source of fresh meat. I gather you can also hunt wild boar in the Forest of Dean and Cheshire but I prefer to steer clear of that. We need to learn to appreciate that these and other keystone species have an essential and complex relationship with our natural environment which is overwhelmingly beneficial.

As far as I am aware, at Betts Ecology we do not, so far anyway, have wild boar on any of our sites, but we do understand that turning over the soil can be a very beneficial activity, as can digging out ponds, creating scrapes and other management work that mimics some of what large keystone species, which incidentally include beavers and lynx, used to do.   

 © Betts Ecology