Blond boar

Not a single person wanted to come on the Republican Picnic today, so I went a-wandering in a very quiet valley in the pre-littoral range. There I met a 75-year old shepherd, out for the day with a couple of dozen young ewes and goats, who explained to me a number of very interesting things, including his belief that the Catalan wild boar is undergoing rapid genetic change, its colouring becoming lighter, its profile beefier, and its persona much less timid.

There is already an awareness of contact between domestic pigs and their wild cousins, which was a reason why central government approved measures to tackle classical swine fever among wild boar as well as pigs following the outbreak here in 2001. (The epidemiology of swine fever is characterised by a low signal/noise ratio, but the disease is believed to make the leap either via contaminated foodstuffs or the direct contacts that may occur when pig barns (free-range animals are rare) are not isolated from surrounding areas.)

However, if my shepherd is correct, pigs are getting out or being let out and heading to the hills for a life of rooty tooty booty. The escape hypothesis is perfectly feasible – he lives just south of the intensive, small-scale industry in Osona – but why would anyone let pigs out? That’s easy for a tipsy conspiracy theorist:

1. Currently the market is dominated by low cost factory pork products of an abysmal standard. If you’re a consumer with any kind of ethical and dietary standards, you’ve got a problem.
2. Boar provide great meat, but not everyone likes the flavour, and the yield from a carcase is much lower than from a domestic pig.
3. If you cross the two, you get higher yields than from traditional boar and higher quality than from factory pigs. And, as long as you employ professional hunters who get up early, don’t smoke cigars, drink brandy or sing loudly, it’s not difficult to bag a few a day.

I haven’t yet encountered enough boar to be able to comment on this, but I’ll certainly let you know if I bump into Miss Piggy.

Similar posts

• Why Mexicans don’t admit to playing the slide trombone
  I went into the excellent and apparently men-only Cantina La Fuente in Guadalajara, Jalisco this morning and ordered a beer. An
• Blonde virgins
  Last week I snapped a Scandinavian blonde Maria in Vilafranca del Penedès. Joan Amades (El pessebre (1959)) tells us that, in
• Boar-pig hybrids?
  I’m pretty sure this picture is of the boar-pig hybrids mentioned the other day: These little darlings have been tusked where applicable,
• Catalonia Today: light, bland, should do fine
  No, not Catalonia Today the magazine, nor Catalonia Today the Generalitat PR splurge, but the English-language daily to be launched on
• The naming of El Picazo
  Mr Muñoz Soliva postulates the participation of some peculiarly phurtive Phoenicians.