The hooves of native swine tramp trails throughout their forested habitats, over steep hillsides, and occasionally across mountain bike trails. The furry animals’ adaptability, alongside human intervention, has made wild boar one of the most widely spread mammals on the planet. In areas where they don’t have a natural predator, wild boar are considered an invasive species, and local governments work tirelessly to manage the population’s effects on native flora.
So what do boar populations have to do with mountain biking? For trail builders across Europe and any other place the sixteen species of boars call home, these fuzzy little buggers tend to create a fair amount of trail work every year. To use the tracks of northern Italy as an example, any time our soil is damp, cinghiale (the Italian word for boar) till the ground like tractors in search of fungus, tubers, roots, worms, and insects to eat. Their efforts often leave behind large mud bogs in the middle of singletrack, deteriorating built trail features and creating massive amounts of maintenance.
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