

  • 11
  • 9
  • 1
  • 6
    Interesting, maybe there are other boars in America, but in Europe they are everything but aggressive. They are usually running away before you can see them, and the only attack in my last neighborhood (Warsaw) I've heard of was provoked by the dog. – Danubian Sailor Jun 22 '13 at 20:31
  • 1
    At a distance they will flee if they hear you or smell you. It is a hard animal to hunt. The problem you have is a chance close range encounter as in that situation they may attack. – paparazzo Dec 19 '16 at 13:12






I bike to work here in Japan and sometimes I have to bike back late in the evening (coz of overtime). I live in a mountainous forrested area and there are many boar around (because there's few hunters here). In the past 5 years, boar have crossed my path about 6-7 times (always when it's dark) and they ran at really high speed (there is no way to even outsprint them on a roadbike). I can usually hear them approach through the bushes (sounds like a heavy boulder rolling of a hill).

Last night was the first time though a boar -hidden in the bush- started snorting and grumping (I think it was a kind of a warning to let me know it was there). I stopped and staid still, then slowly backed off and waited for a car to drive by so I could kind of follow the car in it's track.

The only thing that I have seen on Japanese TV that seemed to do the trick was an umbrella pointed at them and then quickly open it. It just sent the charging boar running in the other direction. However, fat chance I will be able to do that while riding my bike, but it might be a good thing to know if you're hiking.





  • 4
  • Also those boars were tiny, compared to fully grown feral boar you might see in other places. Those get to be up to 200-300kg. – fgysin Dec 12 '17 at 8:51







This sounds like complete nonsense - boars do not have a "formation". They are not predators and will not pursue you (the case where "pretending to be agressive" makes sense is when faced with predators who tend to instinctively pursue anything that runs away). They might form groups for defense, but never for attack.

There is really only three cases where boars might attack humans:

  • When they're cornered / don't have a way to escape
  • A mother sow defending her young against a threat
  • Adult males during mating season

In my experience, as long as the young are small, the families are extremely shy and stay away from humans. Later on, if they are used to encountering humans, they'll just ignore you. The only aggression I've ever experienced was from juvenile males doing a "mock charge" of about half a meter, signalling "don't get any closer to me!". I don't think I've encountered adult males, though.


I have a friend who's lived with a guy that had a wild boar in a cage in his backyard. When my friend went into the cage to feed it, she was attacked. She was able to get out of the cage but the boar also did and one of it's tusks hit her upper calf. Luckily it didn't hit any arteries and she only has a scar. Worse was also avoided by her climbing on top of her car. The best you can do is climb up higher and hope you don't get one of the rare cases of a boar that will attempt more than one attack. If you can though just avoid being charged at in the first place.

  • 3
    If I were kept in a cage, I'd be pretty wild. – ab2 Dec 24 '15 at 19:45

First of all wild boars have a bad sight, they just smell well and hear. Though personally I would say that to minor noise they don't react much. Therefore there is a need of decent noise if you do not want to meet them.

Once you met - do not show aggression ever. Stay calm and walk noisily away. Or just start making noise. But don't go towards.

Even if you would just "pretend to be aggressive", if they feel the threat they might get aggressive too and that is very bad. They are told to be the most dangerous and aggressive wild animals, but just for hunters(!) so don't pretend to hunt them.

If you meet like injured, being hunted or aggressive wild boar - get into a tree.

If it is a male boar - laying down is an option as the wild boars hit with their tusks just upwards, so once you lay down they would just hit you with their nose and so will leave you alone.

If it is a female - a mum - do not lie. She might bite you and trample you down if you are laying as a way to defend her kids. She will first start growling to scare, so get scared and fast go away.

Personally we got away from them at night by playing some music :)

We have been camping in the forest in Czech Rep. and at night while we had a fire we heard them like 30-50 m. away walking around. We checked with a flashlight but they didn't react to that. My bf saw them well while flashing. They did not approach closer so after the closing the fire we went to sleep. In the middle of the night we heard breaking branches really near and boars jumping-running around, sort of like towards us downhill and not knowing what is going on (as we though they should have smelled us for sure) I just took a blues harp and started playing. In a minute or two they have disappeared. Probably the windless night did not spread our smell much over the smell of a burnt wood and so they did not really realize we were there while approaching..

Your Answer

