April 26, 2020 – While dolphin sightings are quite common in the Adriatic, something less common for two Makarska fishermen – wild boar.
The only sound I hear these days in Jelsa on Hvar is birdsong. It is wonderful.
And with human activity largely restricted to the confinement of their own homes, some rather unusual sights are happening around the world in the animal kingdom. Goats walking down the high street in Wales, a deer in a city centre in (I think it was) Australia, and a whale spotted off the island of Solta.
And while it is a common site for a couple of dolphins to be swimming playfully in the pristine waters of the Adriatic, two Makarska fishermen, Mario Radojkovic and Slobodan Batinic from Makarska, were treated to another type of animal swimming show, reports Morski.hr – wild boar.
The two boar swam strongly, presumably from the island of Brac, before arriving safely to the mainland and disappearing into the forest in the bay of Promanja.
Jurica Gaspar from Morski.hr wrote a very interesting article (and with a lot more photos), in which he explained that wild boar can swim for up to 12 hours and 15 nautical miles, and it is not uncommon for them to do so in search of new habitats. There is also precedent for them swimming to the islands, most notably when they did in large numbers to the island of Krk during the Homeland War, as they were escaping the ravages of war in Lika.
Wild boar are a relatively common sight on Hvar where I lived for 13 years, both on the menus of Hvar restaurants and on the roads and fields. As they are omnivorous, they can – and do – cause damage to agricultural plots of land. In my case, my only run-in with a wild boar which did not involve a restaurant was several years ago on a late-night drive home from the Sucuraj ferry to Jelsa, when my car was hit by one of three boars running across the road, causing considerable damage, both to the car and presumably the wild boar.
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