Wild boar, Sus scrofa
Hunted to extinction in England by the 15th century several attempts were made to reintroduce the wild boar as a royal game animal over the next 200 years. All attempts failed due to locals reluctance to have their crops uprooted and domestic sows mated by wild boars. Accidentally released from farms in the southeast of England during the 1980s, wild boar are once again back in English woodlands. Not surprisingly opinions about this are polarised. Some argue that the boar are dangerous to people — a view not helped by sensationalist reporting — and pig farmers are concerned about health risks to domestic pigs. Others view the animal as an integral element of woodland ecology, their rooting activities mixing soil nutrients and increasing plant diversity. They even have their own website: britishwildboar.org.uk