Main content

Boar watching

Kent's wild boar are descendants of escapees from a boar farm.

Bill Oddie goes wild boar watching, waiting for them to appear at about at about 6pm at this time of the year. Bill has brought a telescope because it’s quite a long way down to where they forage. On the other hand if a great big male came out with those whacking great tusks, it's good to be at a safe distance as they can’t half shift. Here’s a big female just come in. I think that is Dusty. This isn’t normal colour. Most wild boar are usually greyer than this. Oh and here’s another one that’s more near the normal colour. Another female. Dusty on the left because she is blonde and she looks as though she’s wearing too much mascara, big dark patches round the eyes, hence Dusty Springfield. We’ve now got three piglets. You can see there on the piglet, the stripes - those lovely tramlines down the side. Wild boars used to be pretty common in Britain, years and years ago, all the old banquets of the Middle Ages would have wild boar on the table. They used to go out hunting wild boar all the time and sadly that was what caused their demise, because apart from forests being cleared, they were really hunted to extinction by the 17th century. Nevertheless, unlike quite a lot of animals in this country they are quintessentially British, so Bill reckons they belong here.

Release date:

Duration:

4 minutes

Featured in...

More clips from Kent