De Hoge Veluwe National Park is home to around 50 wild boar during the spring and several more after the piglets are born. Wild boar live in ‘sounders' which comprise a group of one or more sows with piglets and a few yearlings (‘juveniles'). The older males (‘boars' or ‘tuskers') live alone and can be recognised by two distinct tusks. Sows with piglets can be dangerous to humans but they normally flee rather than attack.
Wild boar wander throughout the Park looking for food: they are omnivores. They mostly eat grasses, acorns and beech nuts, but they also root in the ground (particularly in the verges) looking for larvae. The boar roll around in muddy pits (‘wallowing'); when the mud dries, they rub their skin clean against small trees and this process removes parasites from the skin.