Wild Boars

This is part of the trail from Kirchzarten to our little village of Burg Birkenhof.
I'm hauling up a load of groceries.

I finished the last of my math today! Hurray! I also finished my Germany animal report on the wild boar. I have posted it below. Both Katie and I spent the last few days doing lots of homework. It's been cooler and cloudy so only thirteen kids were at the pool yesterday when I took a break and rode down there on my bike to check it out. I helped my mom with groceries, too.


These are the goats we pass on the trail to Kirchzarten.

I am going to be taking care of my neighbor Johannes's guinea pigs for the next few days while his family travels to Italy for vacation.

These are two of Johannes's guniea pigs.

Every Saturday morning I take the train into Freiburg to have breakfast with my dad. Sometimes we visit the International Market which has fruits, vegetables, fish and baked goods. It's pretty cool.

Here's my animal report on Germany's wild boars. The blog format won't let me indent paragraphs, but believe me, Mrs. Mantooth, I did it right on my final copy.

Germany's Wild Boars

Germany’s wild boars are amazing. First, my animal is a mammal. It has stiff bristles (hair) that feel like a brush. Wild boars can be 110-200 pounds and up to six feet long! Its colors are dark grey, black, and brown. Those aren’t very bright colors are they? Wild boars have continuously growing tusks. They can grow up to one foot long! The head is large and the legs are small and short. The babies have stripes when they are born, but after a little while when the babies have a chance to grow up the stripes fade off.

The wild boar is a unique animal for its unusual habitats. They make a shelter by forming a canopy with the grass they’re using. Wild boars also use mud wallows to keep the parasites away and to protect their skin from the sun. They live in the forest and grasslands. Wild boars are found in Europe, Asia, Australia and throughout Germany.

Wild boars are like our own Idaho bears. They are omnivores! Wild boars eat roots, fruit, nuts, fungi, amphibians, birds, reptiles, small mammals, and carrion. It catches its prey by smelling it then the boar sneaks up on it then pounces. By the way, they grunt a lot while feeding.

Could you imagine fighting a wild boar? When it’s defending itself it lowers its head, charges, and slashes its tucks upward skewering the enemy. It’s only enemies are humans and wolves. Wolves usually go after the piglets.

The males fight for the females. The way they do it is they slash each other with their tusks on the shoulders as hard as they can and whoever gives up first loses the match and the other one goes home with a female. This is similar to Idaho’s elk.

Wild boars have groups that only piglets and females come to. It adds up to about 50 boars. This is called a sounder.

Germany has recently reported a surge of wild boar populations. According to a study by the Hanover-based Institute of Wildlife, “Germany’s boars have six to eight piglets average, other countries have four or five.”