More ‘anti-sanglier’

This was how all of my fence posts were laid out along the boundary of my land earlier today ready to be banged into the ground.

But unfortunately the guys who were going to do it couldn’t make it and it’ll be Monday instead. So this gave me even more of a reason to see what more I could do to stop the wild boar coming onto my land and doing more damage in the time until I can get fencing put into place on the bottom section. I mentioned in my earlier post that I’d found the gap that they had got through this time to come up from the land below and this is it.

You can see through the trees the damage that they’d done on the land below mine before coming up the slope and through the gap. The next shot shows where they emerged after doing so.

So what I had to do was construct some kind of barrier in order to prevent them doing this, and here is how it turned out.

It doesn’t look like much but what the photograph doesn’t show very clearly is how the barrier extends forward above the slope creating a space with a wall in front of the animals and a ceiling over their heads making a barrier that they can’t climb over. I’m hoping that that will be enough to deter them.

As the next two shots show, I’ve also tried to block their paths on either side to prevent them from finding a way round it.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the fight is over. There’s another gap some 20 or 30 metres further to the south through which they could come if they wanted to. It’s shown in the next shot.

What it also shows is that they haven’t used it – so far – and that there’s no damage to speak of at this point on the land below. This, though, is the damage on the land next to mine above the new gap, which is of similar severity but to a much more limited area.

I’m hoping that this is because the new gap isn’t favoured by the sanglier because it’s too close to the neighbouring house and by my blocking up the route they do use, they’ll be encouraged to go elsewhere to forage for whatever it is they’re looking for. To date the damage on my land and the land adjoining it shows that they don’t like to venture too far to the left or right of their exit route.

The final shot below shows the distance that my land is away from this second gap. If I’m correct in my thinking, I’m hoping that the greater distance will keep the sanglier away at least for long enough for me to build my fence before they become used to the changes and more confident again.

So that was it for today. I just hope that I don’t look out again tomorrow morning and find that all of my assumptions were wrong and that I’ve had yet another visit. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning to find out, though.

By the way, as the land I’ve built the barrier on isn’t mine, once I’ve got my fencing in place I’ll probably remove it again. I’d also like to do that because the gap is one used by the small deer (chevreuil) when they decide to take cover after being spooked and I’d hate to think that I’ve done something that removes their escape route and discourages them from coming. When I peeked out of my caravan the other morning four of them were feeding only 30 or 40 metres away 🙂