Out walking in the bizarrely balmy December weather today, we came across the left mandible of a a Wild Boar. Judging by tusk length, I’d say it was between one and two years old. It had obviously been killed within the last week as there were bits of flesh and blood left on it from where it had been picked almost clean. The tusk, once removed, also had a good deal of non-smelling gunk inside.
It’s unlikely that it was shot by hunters as they’d have taken both sets of tusks for a trophy. Today there was a large communal driven hunt taking place in the surrounding hills and gunshots went off regularly. It’s possible that wolves or feral dogs took the boar down, then scattered the bones.
I’ve removed the tusk and the extremely long incisors (which resemble canines and have most of their length inside the jawbone), and have left them soaking in a bleach solution. Wild boar can carry rabies without contracting it so I was a tad concerned handling the bloodied bone without knowing its source. I’m tempted to make a necklace with the teeth.
The weather is seriously freaky. I’ve never known it like this. It’s extremely annoying i can’t get my motorbike to start (due to several weeks of nights at -8 C) as I should be riding. There’s currently no snow (no White Christmas this year) and daytime temperature reaches over 10 C. Bah, humbug!
Carpathian Adventure 