Rarely seen but never far away whilst out hiking are the wild boar or as the locals would call them -‘Jabali’.

Much to my delight at the beginning of September this year I had a guiding ‘first’ whilst hiking with Tom, George, Clare and Cynthia high above the Ordesa canyon. Spotted initially by Tom was a single large male wild boar running across the hill side in front of us! We all quickly tried to take some photo’s of him and here’s the best picture we took.

Wild boar caught on camera above Ordesa

Abundant through the Pyrenees, the wild boar live in the wooded areas of the mountains and particularly the box and oak woodlands.

We often see quite large sections of meadows we hike through dug up and turned over where they have been rooting around looking for tubers and bulbs to eat but never the boar itself.

Wild boar are quite shy and are fairly nocturnal in their habits but occasionally we do see boar on the side of the road when driving late in the evening. One year we even saw some stripey piglets late at night. They are stripey for about the first 10 months of their life.

Boar are quite large with the adults growing up to about 1.5 meters in length and both males and females have a set of 4 sharp tusks. Despite being Spanish hunters favorite prey, wild boar numbers have soared since the 1950ies. It is believed this is due to the fact that many villages and therefore terraced areas have been abandoned since the 50ies. The wolf also became extinct in the region during this time and was the boars only natural predator.

The official hunting season for the boar is September and it is worth keeping an eye out for the ‘Jabali’ on the menus then as it is delicious!