Are There Wild Boar in the UK? Forest of Dean and Beyond

When did wild boar die out in Britain?

The wild boar was a native British mammal for thousands of years after the last Ice Age. Its bones are common at prehistoric sites, and it was a prized beast of the chase for Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings. By the 11th century, though, the species was becoming scarce, and strict forest laws under William the Conqueror punished people who killed boar in royal forests.

Most historians and zoologists think truly wild boar had vanished from Britain by around the 13th century, though some may have lingered longer in remote areas. Later attempts to restock royal forests with imported boar, including one by Charles I in the New Forest, did not last; that herd was wiped out during the English Civil War in the 17th century.

For more than 300 years after that, the only wild boar in Britain were a handful of animals in zoos and parks.

How did wild boar come back?

Commercial wild boar farming began in Britain in the 1980s, supplying meat to butchers and restaurants. The farmed animals came from continental Europe. Wild boar are listed under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, so keepers need a licence, but escapes still happened. Fences were damaged in storms, gates were left open, and some animals were deliberately released.

By the 1990s, surveys by the government agency then called MAFF, now DEFRA, confirmed free-living breeding populations in two areas: on the Kent and East Sussex border and in west Dorset. A DEFRA report in 2008 added a third established area in the Forest of Dean and the Ross-on-Wye area, plus a newer population in Devon.

The Forest of Dean population

The Forest of Dean, between the Rivers Severn and Wye, has become the stronghold of wild boar in England. Its population traces back to two main sources: animals that escaped from a farm near Ross-on-Wye around 1999, and a group of farm-bred boar dumped near Staunton in 2004, which may not all have been pure wild boar.

The mixed oak and beech woodland, with plenty of acorns, beechnuts and cover, suits boar perfectly, and numbers grew quickly. Forestry England, which manages the public forest, carries out regular surveys and controls numbers with culling to keep the population at a level it considers manageable. Population estimates have varied a lot from year to year, partly because boar are hard to count in dense woodland.

Boar from the Forest have also spread outward, including across the River Wye into Monmouthshire in Wales.

Other populations in the UK

In Scotland, free-living animals are often called feral pigs, because many are mixtures of wild boar and domestic pigs. Scottish government advisers estimated in 2024 that Scotland is home to a few thousand. Isolated sightings are also reported elsewhere in England and Wales, sometimes after new escapes.

Why are wild boar in the UK controversial?

People in boar areas hold strong and mixed views. Common complaints include:

• Rooting damage to grass verges, football pitches, gardens and farm fields.
• Road collisions, which can injure drivers and kill boar.
• Conflict with dogs, since boar may defend themselves against off-lead dogs.
• Disease risk, especially the worry that African swine fever, now present in wild boar in parts of continental Europe, could one day reach British boar and pigs.

On the other side, many ecologists see wild boar as a returning native species with an important role. By turning over soil, they create bare patches where wildflowers and tree seedlings can sprout, break up dense bracken, and spread seeds. Some conservationists argue for managing boar as a normal part of British wildlife, much like deer, rather than treating them only as a pest.

Read about the safety side in are wild boar dangerous?.

How to see wild boar in Britain responsibly

Wild boar are shy and mostly nocturnal, so the best chance of a sighting is around dusk or dawn in areas such as the Forest of Dean. Signs are easier to find than the animals themselves: rooted-up patches of ground that look as if they have been plowed, muddy wallows and trees rubbed smooth and caked with mud.

Watch from a distance, stay on paths and keep dogs on a lead. Never feed boar, and never try to get between a sow and her striped piglets. Other native woodland mammals, such as the European badger, also leave digging signs, but boar rooting covers much larger areas.