WELCOME to some uncomfortable truths: keystone species were managing the planet quite well for millions of years before humans ever got involved, and wild boar may be considerably better conservationists and foresters than we are.
In recent decades, we have seen great breakthroughs in the study of wild animals. But when I began writing Cornerstones, a book about how keystone species such as beavers, eagles and lynx once helped to shape Britain鈥檚 ecology, one thing became clear.
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While there are many studies of animals as organisms within a landscape, we appear far more reluctant to admit that some animals profoundly enhance the habitats in which they live.
Boar, as I found in my 10-year study in the , act as nature鈥檚 excavators, but are possessed of an ecological finesse few credit them with. By 鈥渞ootling鈥� soil 鈥� turning it over in search of tubers, invertebrates and other subterranean goodies 鈥� boar 鈥渞otavate鈥� and reset the soil biome. This aerates it, exposes it to a new generation of plant and tree seeds and creates complex microhabitats, including ponds, grassland glades and bare earth 鈥� the basis of new floral life.
If you walk through a once-pristine glade of bluebells in the Forest of Dean, it might appear upsetting 鈥� destructive, even 鈥� that, in the dead of night, an army of nocturnal diggers have arrived and caused chaos. The uneven soil, disrupted bulbs, broken flowers and smashed bracken don鈥檛 look like the work of an animal possessed of ecological genius.
The robins and blackbirds, however, have already cottoned on. If you sit and quietly watch the exposed ground, called a 鈥渂oar digging鈥�, you will begin to see a procession of birds, always robins first, following in the boar鈥檚 wake because their actions have exposed vital earthy areas where the birds can find worms. After all, why do you think robins follow disruptive primates with hoes around their gardens?
Boar may be forest gardeners, but no garden looks its best on day one. Like any ecological process, it takes time. That said, within a few months of rootling, the new soil will already have been colonised. Dog violets can appear the spring after, bringing in their wake colonies of small, pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies. Yet it may be as many as three years later that green-winged orchids appear in profusion, in the same boar digging, alongside foxgloves buzzing with solitary bees.
By opening up the soil, boar pave the way for many outcomes that ecologists could only appreciate if they returned to the same site year on year. Small depressions where boar have wallowed turn into vital ponds, which are rich spawning grounds for frogs. Rotavated areas of soil come to burst with wild mint and bramble, which, in turn, bring pollen resources into the forest, attracting hoverflies, bees and butterflies like the white admiral.
Eventually, these same diggings begin to sprout with trees, as blackthorn, hawthorn or hazel push up from them, so beginning a whole new forest generation. It doesn鈥檛 stop there. Boar are one of very few mammals able to carry large tree seeds 鈥� such as wild crab apple 鈥� in their guts and then excrete them, intact, complete with a healthy dose of fertiliser. Ecologists and scientists aren鈥檛 without ego. It can be hard to accept that an animal 鈥渟nouting鈥� around to find food can not only create habitats for rare orchids, butterflies, fruit trees and frogs, but may also be far better at carrying out all these processes than we are.
But given boar do this, and did it before us, then what is our role? Well, as the steward of stewards, my argument would be that we must cherish and protect keystone species like them. Then, we will become the greatest keystone species of them all.
Benedict Macdonald is a conservationist and author of
