Man, 71, hurt in wild boar attack on Veluwe
A wild boar attacked two men while they were walking on the Veluwe near Elspeet in Gelderland earlier this month, leaving one of them injured. “It tore open my boot and bit my foot,” the victim, 71-year-old Gerjan Bossenbroek, told Omroep Gelderland.
The incident happened on January 4 when he was walking with his son. According to him, they were on the path when the boar jumped out of the underbrush from nowhere and attacked.
After the boar bit Bossenbroek, his son grabbed the animal and threw it to the ground. “He wrestled with the animal with all his might for 12 minutes,” Bossenbroek said. “I kicked it hard between its legs. The wild boar screamed. We then went and stood behind a tree. He looked at us in surprise and slunk away.”
The attack made a deep impact on Bossenbroek and his son, he said. “I still see him walking around in my head regularly.” He has been walking through the forest in Elspeet for years. This is the first negative encounter he’s had with wildlife.
The men were very unlucky, ecologist Lars Soerink told the broadcaster. Wild boars typically avoid people. “They usually walk in an arc around us,” he said. “But we are now in mating season and then they have extra high testosterone. Or these people came too close.”
Forest ranger Frank Theunissen agreed that such incidents are very, very rare. “But you do have to watch out for wild boars. They can be mean and dangerous. They are by far the most dangerous animals in the forest. Many people talk about the wolf, but most negative experiences are with wild boars. They are the biggest bastards in the forest.”
