Europe’s Wild Boar Population Exploding
Warmer winters in recent years have reduced the death rate of older boars and of young ones born late in the year, and the rise in carbon dioxide levels has intensified the sunlight and led trees to produce more acorns and chestnuts — a high-energy delicacy for boars, whose reproduction naturally increases with the amount of available food.
“A sow can produce a litter of up to eight piglets per year,” Reinwald said. “And because their reproduction depends on weight rather than age, we’re seeing boars of just nine months — mere teenagers — producing young.”
Boars also have a penchant for maize and rapeseed, now being grown in vast quantities for biofuel. In Germany, the switch from traditional small fields with varied crops to gigantic swaths of agricultural land devoted just to one crop has provided wild boars with veritable hypermarkets in which they can gorge themselves after the winter, Reinwald said.