The Wild Boar is an ancestor of the domesticated pig and became extinct in England in the seventeenth century.  Nowadays around a hundred Wild Boar can be seen living wild in deciduous woodlands in Sussex, Kent and a few in Dorset.

The Wild Boar is a stocky-looking mammal with a broad head tapering to a blunt snout.  The snout looks similar to that of a domestic pig.  It has a body covered in coarse, dark grey hair often covered in mud and it  has a short straight tail.   The Wild Boar appears to have ‘tusks’ pointing upwards out of its mouth, but these are actually its lower canine teeth.  The male's ‘tusks’ can be five to  ten centimetres long and  can be quite dangerous, causing deep wounds.  The female’s ‘tusks’ are much smaller and less prominent.  

Female Wild Boars and their young live in herds called sounders, whereas the males usually live on their own for most of the year.  Wild Boars are active at dawn and dusk when they forage the ground for acorns, beech nuts, roots and even carrion.  These mammals have sensitive skin so they often roll around in mud to protect themselves from the sunlight and to help them remove parasites.