Apr 19, 2025
April is Inoshishi season
On a visit to Ushiku Daibutsu, the petting zoo at the foot of the huge statue had a very excited piglet. It gobbled up carrots, and its little tail whirled. It was the cutest. But it wasn't a domestic pig. It was イノシシ inoshishi, a wild boar. The little thing had distinctive dark and light stripes on its back, a pattern called ウリボウ uribou, melon. The piglets gradually darken when they're three months old. The inoshishi give birth to four or five piglets in April and May.
I'm wary on bike rides in the Kanto region for rustling in the undergrowth, but I'm not too scared of wild boar. In Chiba Prefecture, they almost disappeared in the 1970s. But the population rebounded. They live just about anywhere with fields, woods, and marginal land. Lately, the Noda City Facebook page has reported almost weekly inoshishi sightings. And, as you might expect, the city is capturing them. They're a threat to agriculture as they'll ravage vegetable patches.
Quite the opposite, meeting one is more excitement than you need (Shiroyama Park, Tateyama City)
On bike rides to the Tone River, I've spotted all kinds of wildlife - hawks, pheasants, and tanuki. So far, I haven't tangled with an inoshishi at close range. They'll avoid people for the most part, but they are dangerous when they're excited. Chiba Prefecture has a safety leaflet for kids with furigana. The important points:
- back away slowly
- stay quiet (noises and shouting will startle them)
- don't throw anything at them
- if charged, crouch down and protect your vitals, as their tusks can gore you
Have you spotted a wild boar?
3 Comments
genkidesu
23 hours ago
Our local city also has a leaflet (there's a PDF online: https://www.city.minamiuonuma.niigata.jp/fs/2/6/6/3/4/1/_/%E6%96%B0%E6%BD%9F%E7%9C%8C%E3%82%A4%E3%83%8E%E3%82%B7%E3%82%B7%E6%B3%A8%E6%84%8F%E5%96%9A%E8%B5%B7%E3%83%81%E3%83%A9%E3%82%B7.pdf) with similar warnings as yours. A good reminder at this time of year! I'm more scared of bears than boars, though, but I don't think encountering either up close in the wild would be great.
TonetoEdo
15 hours ago
@genkidesu I've never had an encounter with bears or inoshishi here. Lucky me. However, on hikes and rides in various parts of Japan, I've seen inoshishi and kamoshika - the Japanese serow or goat-antelope. Kamoshika avoid people.
BigfamJapan
12 hours ago
We used to get more boar sightings about ten years ago. Thankfully they seem to have moved on (or where caught). When I'm on my bike I am not nervous, but I don't hike alone as much as I used to because bears and boars are a real possibility in the mountains of Saitama.