How do you behave when you encounter a wild boar?

Encountering a wild boar in the city is less and less surprising, but still stressful for most of us. Although wild boars are skittish and avoid contact with humans, they are feeling increasingly secure in cities. 

Wild boars can also be aggressive, especially when encountering females with young. It is therefore worth being careful, as a mother defending her offspring can be really dangerous.  

How should we then behave if we encounter a wild boar on our path? Here is some advice:

1. Don't panic, make sudden movements or noise - above all, we should remain calm, as sudden movements or loud noises can frighten a wild boar and prompt it to attack.
2. Keep your distance and slowly move away - calmly and slowly, trying not to turn your back on the boar. If we start to run away, the boar could set off in pursuit of us
3. However, if the wild boar starts to behave aggressively and chase us, we have several options:

• Try to get out of its way - boars are not very manoeuvrable, so if you turn and change your path, you will gain an advantage and time to move away
• We can also hide behind some obstacle: a car, a building or a tree. This can also give us time to move away safely
• As Jan Brzechwa wrote: "Whoever encounters a wild boar in the forest will immediately run off to a tree." Is this a good idea? Sure! If you can climb a tree, why not. However, it's worth remembering that it's usually not necessary.

An encounter with a wild boar can be dangerous, but by remaining calm, not provoking it and following the basic rules mentioned above, we can reduce the risk to a minimum and calmly, without much stress, move away to a safe distance.