Gascon Saintongeois

Chasse aux Sangliers

More than One hundred years after this image was captured the passion for hunting Wild Boar has not waned in the first world country of France. In fact it could be argued that continuous efforts to manage a viable hunting population of Wild Boar has resulted in an expansion of the total population in  an ever decreasing natural habitat. As long as there are hunters committed to pursuing these species, so will a place be found for them in a modernizing world.

Feeding Bushpig

The bushveld has just now started its drastic transformation from a dry, almost empty space, frequented by fires and wind transported waves of dust to the blossoming lush habitat captured in the many images that all the travel journals depict. 

Rain has arrived and the promise of abundance is ever more present. For most herbivores and omnivores the pantry has however not yet been fully unpacked and they still take full advantage of rich nutrient sources like the pile of sour unprocessed maize strategically placed by a hunter like myself.  This specific bait was visited by no less than 3 separate sounders in the same night but it’s this imposing Boar that captures my interest most. His confidence and surety of presence is a trusty sign that he will be a capable adversary for both hunter and hounds.  Physical identifications of his gender are the pronounced warts on his snout – absent in the sow on his left. Although his size is larger, this we find is often not the norm with sows regularly weighing more than the boars – field dressed.

One morning in the future the keen hounds will be de-coupled onto the scent track, and should this brute be brought to bay and felled by a hunter, it will no doubt be memorable and most challenging.