The little devils came back!

One evening a week or so ago I glanced out of my caravan window as this is what I saw.

Then I went outside to get some clearer pics and although you can’t see it in the next shots, the little devils stood and watched while I did so.

Mostly they seemed to be quite small, young pigs and some of them even still had stripes on their backs, so it’s probable that they were from this year’s litters. The problem with that is that as the hunting season finished at the end of March, it’s likely that they haven’t come across hunters before and haven’t heard the sound of guns, so they’re not yet unduly afraid of humans.

I then decided that enough was enough and putting on my best wild-man impression I ran towards them shouting and waving my arms. That initially worked and they scuttled off into the tree line, only to re-emerge a few moments later, so as I couldn’t see any large adult pigs amongst them I repeated the process except this time I continued running closer towards them until they’d all run away.

This did the trick and not long afterwards I spotted them all on the field in the valley below my land. They were too far away to wave my arms at so this time I let out a very loud whistle. And surprisingly, this did the trick as the whole herd belted off into the trees on the other side of the field that they were destroying and this time didn’t come back.

Was it worth the effort? I’d say so, because as the following shots show, even in the short time that they were on the land next to mine they did considerable damage.

Although I’ve now erected quite a bit of fencing, my land is still not fully enclosed and won’t be until the building work on my house is much further advanced. Having had to repair so much damage caused by these blighters in the past, anything I can do to prevent their returning will be worth it. Even if it means putting my wild-man impression on a few more times in the future.