A LUCKY walker from Monmouth had a real treat on Sunday when a family of wild boars crossed the road right in front of her - just minutes after she had been teaching her granddaughter about the animals.
Tessie Cooling was walking near the town with her four-year-old granddaughter when they spotted the animals and quickly got a shot of them.
While it's not uncommon to see evidence of wild boars in and around the Forest of Dean, it is very unlikely to see so many at once.
“We’d been looking at evidence of wild boar on the grass verge at the side of the path,” said Mrs Cooling, “and I told my granddaughter the churned grass meant there were definitely some close by, but we couldn’t have imagined there’d be that many of them like that.”
Mrs Cooling said the experience was invigorating and a little scary.
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“I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous when we knew they were around, but then when we saw them it was brilliant,” she added.
“It was a real treat for my granddaughter because she’s always been very interested in them.”
The wild boars in the Forest of Dean originate from farm bred wild boar, and differ slightly from their native cousins across Europe. The main outcome of domestic breeding is that the boars are less nervous of people.
Average litter sizes vary between six and 10 piglets in the Forest of Dean, and substantial annual population growth has been recorded in the forest in recent years.
The specific location of the wild boars has been withheld to limit excessive human contact.
Have you spotted any furry friends lurking nearby? Feel free to send in your pictures to newsdesk@southwalesargus.co.uk.
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