There is new evidence for wild boar being present in the Ninewells wood area this week (Dec 22nd 2016)

 

This field is between Ninewells wood and the village of Broadstone, it is home to two Dexter cows but I don’t think they are responsible. They have been in this field for many months and this damage only appeared very recently.

 

I have not seen similar turning over of the soil anywhere else in the vicinity, well not since the  autumn of 2014, when there was a wild boar about and it was seen by some of the local residents. This damage is very common in the Forest of Dean, where I live along with quite a large population of Wild Boar, Ninewells wood is only 7 miles from my house.

I did notice that something had been removing the outer layer of a quite thick ivy stem/vine, which I thought was a bit unusual, the Grey squirrels do remove the bark from oak and beech but I have not seen ivy being targeted in the past. Also thankfully there has not been any squirrel damage so far this winter. So do wild boar go for ivy???