# Wild Boar, Forest of Dean



## buckas (Jun 13, 2008)

One of the main aims to coming to the forest for a few days was to hopefully photograph the Boar. Knowing how rare and extremely elusive these creatures are didn't bode well for my confidence, but being a wildlife photographer; I knew that you should always expect the unexpected, and nine times out of ten patience and persistence usually rewards with a sighting and if lucky, hopefully a photograph. Most days we headed out into the forest on foot and saw the clear, tell tale signs that there had been Boar activity present; such as unearthed ground, footprints and tree rubbing but unfortunately never came across any until our third day searching. In a forest clearing we spotted two Boars rooting around. Now, from never seeing one before these came as quite of a shock as they were pretty big! and as with all wildlife spectating/photography keeping your distance is paramount to ensure the welfare of the animal, especially with this species with the stories I've heard about them becoming aggressive. In my experience on this encounter though, it was the complete opposite. They were extremely obliging and content with us being near them which helped greatly in getting some lovely close up views and photographs of them.

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More words and pics on my blog  http://www.drewbuckleyphotography.c...ean-autumn-colours-and-a-wild-boar-encounter/

5D3 & 300/2.8

Cheers!!

drew


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## spursfan (Aug 4, 2009)

That's brilliant Drew, a very rare animal and some very good pictures.
Kev


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## DW58 (Nov 27, 2010)

Looks like a young female - nicely caught.

Great pix - I photographed some in Germany in May.

Very nice with a red wine sauce and wild mushrooms 

Here are a couple of mine.


Untitled by Highlandsniper58, on Flickr
Dominant male boar or "Keiler" - you really don't want to mess with this guy.


Untitled by Highlandsniper58, on Flickr
Wildboar piglets or "Frischlings" perhaps a couple of weeks old at most.


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## 182_Blue (Oct 25, 2005)

DW, can you resize those as they are HUGE


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## DW58 (Nov 27, 2010)

Is 1024x768 so huge on modern displays? Small enough now?


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## 182_Blue (Oct 25, 2005)

DW58 said:


> Is 1024x768 so huge on modern displays? Small enough now?


Your pictures took up 3 screens worth of a Macbook 13" screen !

Thanks


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## DW58 (Nov 27, 2010)

That's weird, I posted from my iPad, then checked them later on my 15" MacBook Pro and they appeared as normal Flickr screenshots - only the links were hi-res, not the previews.


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## buckas (Jun 13, 2008)

spursfan said:


> That's brilliant Drew, a very rare animal and some very good pictures.
> Kev


thanks matey



DW58 said:


> Looks like a young female - nicely caught.
> 
> Great pix - I photographed some in Germany in May.
> 
> ...


thanks! nice one, going to go back next year to hopefully catch some little 'humbugs'

and yes, they're super tasty, had boar sausages in Ireland top class :thumb:


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## EddieB (May 13, 2006)

Nice photos Drew - we have a nature reserve round my way which has all sorts in it. I'm tempted to go over and see what I can get one weekend.

Is it a case of sitting still and seeing what you get or do you have to have the tracking ability of crocadile dundee?


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## Brazo (Oct 27, 2005)

EddieB said:


> Nice photos Drew - we have a nature reserve round my way which has all sorts in it. I'm tempted to go over and see what I can get one weekend.
> 
> Is it a case of sitting still and seeing what you get or do you have to have the tracking ability of crocadile dundee?


Lovely shots and I would echo the above lol, are you a hider or a seeker


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## buckas (Jun 13, 2008)

EddieB said:


> Nice photos Drew - we have a nature reserve round my way which has all sorts in it. I'm tempted to go over and see what I can get one weekend.
> 
> Is it a case of sitting still and seeing what you get or do you have to have the tracking ability of crocadile dundee?





Brazo said:


> Lovely shots and I would echo the above lol, are you a hider or a seeker


Haha thanks guys, bit of both - with these guys it was just park up on the edge of the forest and go walking. They're not as sensitive as deer, but you still need to watch where you walk, checking wind direction and dress in keeping with the surroundings. I'm not talking about a full on ghillie suit, muted browns/greens suffice  then it was a case of finding unearthed ground with footprints, checking around the surroundings and then thankfully these two came into view. I also saw quite a lot of Deer but no pics, they had legged it long before I could even reach for the camera. They would need a lot more time put in, checking habits, when they commonly were then hiding out of sight. You can get lucky with the odd sighting coming out with a pic but ideally you'd need to hide out 

drew


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## DW58 (Nov 27, 2010)

buckas said:


> Haha thanks guys, bit of both - with these guys it was just park up on the edge of the forest and go walking. They're not as sensitive as deer, but you still need to watch where you walk, checking wind direction and dress in keeping with the surroundings. I'm not talking about a full on ghillie suit, muted browns/greens suffice  then it was a case of finding unearthed ground with footprints, checking around the surroundings and then thankfully these two came into view. I also saw quite a lot of Deer but no pics, they had legged it long before I could even reach for the camera. They would need a lot more time put in, checking habits, when they commonly were then hiding out of sight. You can get lucky with the odd sighting coming out with a pic but ideally you'd need to hide out
> 
> drew


That's interesting, the wild boar in Germany are usually a different proposition because of hunting pressure. In the forest areas I'm familiar, the boar are stalked all year round, and driven in Nov-Dec-January, ths they're pretty touchy. It's normally unusual to see them out and about other than their typical crepuscular lifestyle. These boar are generally more skittish than the resident Fallow and Roe deer populations.

The boar pictured above were in a nature reserve where hunting is banned other than occasional planned controlled culling, so the piggy-wiggies are a lot less less touchy.


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