Dad vs. Boar

My dad had quite an adventure recently, and I thought I would share it here. Dad is on vacation this week and decided to go camping Monday and Tuesday in Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We go up there every year to bike around Cades Cove. There are miles of hiking trails and several of them are short mountain ascents. On Monday, Dad decided to hike Gregory Bald Ridge Trail.

On his descent back to the trailhead, he kept thinking he heard something behind him. Halfway down the trail, he heard a loud noise up the trail and turned to check it out. A very large wild boar stood in the middle of the trail 20 feet away from him. When dad turned, the boar rushed him. Dad started backing down the trail but fell. The boar rushed within a few feet of him before stopping. Dad jumped up and grabbed the largest stick he could find (about 8 ft with a 6 inch diameter...pretty big.) For over a mile, Dad had to back down the trail. If he turned around with his back to the boar, it charged. In one instance, he attempt to scare it off by yelling at
it and running forward. Instead of running away, the boar lowered its head and pawed the ground... not a great sign for Dad. Fortunately, the boar never got any closer than stick range, and dad got back to his truck.

When he reported it at the ranger station near the trailhead, the ranger on duty said that boars are extremely aggressive, and it would have been better if dad had come across a black bear. Bears have a natural fear of people, but these boars just don't show any fear.

Wild boar in North America are actually an exotic species from Europe. They have a negative ecological impact wherever they establish a population.