As the emblem of Richard III was the white boar, anything on boars attracts my immediate attention.  I also “like” the facebook page of my alma mater, the University of Bonn, and today this brought both interests together.

In the UK there have been no boars living wild for a long time, it is thought that the original British wild boar were probably extinct by the 13th century.  There were attempts to re-introduce them, but even these became extinct during the 17th century.  However, in 1998 two populations of wild boar were found to be living in Britain.

While the situation in the UK is rather dire for boars, it is anything but on the continent.  In Germany they are thriving a little too well, so much so that they are regarded more as a pest.  The latest incident was the one in Bonn, which I found mentioned on facebook.

University of Bonn, Main Building (photograph obtained through Wikimedia Commons)

On Wednesday afternoon students and staff of Bonn Uni discovered a boar digging up one of the Uni sports fields.  Boars enjoy doing this to get at larvae of beetles in the ground, an important source of animal protein to complement the vegetable protein from acorns, which is another delicacy for boars.  To find the larvae, boars don’t only rely on their noses, but also have a system of passing on the knowledge of the best spots from generation to generation.  And one of those spots happens to be the sports field.

The boar in the sports field (photograph by Andreas Archut, University of Bonn)

The perpetrator was a well-fed young boar of 1 to 2 years of age, weighing more than 60 kg.  His feast lasted about two hours, leaving an unpaid bill of several thousand Euro behind.  When the animal was spotted, police and the lease holder of the local hunt were called, but the boar got away unharmed.  And while I understand that the damage caused is hardly desirable, I’m glad that Richard’s emblem got away.

You see, Bonn is definitely not bo(a)ring!

Sources:

Andreas Archut, ‚Schweinerei auf dem Sportplatz‘, Universität Bonn, 17 August 2011.  URL:  http://www3.uni-bonn.de/Pressemitteilungen/233-2011 Date accessed:  18 August 2011  (even if you don’t understand the German text, click on one of the photos on the right hand side to see them all)

Martin Goulding, ‘Wild Boar in Britain – Extinction and Return’, British Wild Boar.  URL:  http://www.britishwildboar.org.uk/index.htm?britain.htm Date accessed:  18 August 2011

‘Pig out’, The Independent, 6 September 2010.  URL:  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-pig-out-2071307.html Date accessed:  6 Sept 2010

‚Wildschwein pflügt Uni-Sportplatz um‘, General-Anzeiger Online, 18 August 2011.  URL:  http://www.general-anzeiger-bonn.de/index.php?k=loka&itemid=10490&detailid=927056 Date accessed:  18 August 2011