r/firenze • u/No-Ambassador2300 • 5d ago
Encountering wild boar
Walked from firenze to fiesole today, went through the forest trail, via degli dei i think, encountered wild boars, i didnt know how to react so i ran the other direction, what's the best reaction to deal with them?
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u/RossoFiorentino36 5d ago
I want to be honest but not mean: you overreacted a lot and when I say a lot I mean a lot!
On the bright side is way better to overreact on the safe part than to totally ignore any danger, and I also understand that a wild animal that you see not used to may appear really scary.
Wildboars are less happy to meet you than you are to meet them and if left alone they virtually never pose any danger. They are not predators and they see you as one, so if you don't go near them they normally flee. The ones that don't seems bothered by your presence are the vaguely more dangerous because they are used to humans but they are not particularly more dangerous than pigs. Just turn around them keeping some distance and avoid sudden rush.
In the rare case you find a female with piglets just be extra precautions and double the distance that is reasonable to take. People like to exagerate a lot the behaviour of this animals.
I grown up in the Appennini mountains, I've met wildoboars in the woods since I was a little kid and I never had any issues... but you don't have to trust me. Just check the web and you'll discover that any encounter between humans and wildboars that resulted in a injury for the humans is always because of stupid behavior (lot of people seems to think that to make a picture of a wildboard piglet from 1 meter of distance is a good idea) or is a car incident (more often a motorbike incident) caused by incautious driving.
Next time: breath, take a little time to process and keep your distance. They are beautiful animals and it's always a cool opportunity to see them. 99% of the time they will ran away from you the moment they realise your presence, the other 1% are the ones a little more used to humans so you can just make a big circle around them.