Austria Post has introduced to collectors’ attention a special stamp within “Wild animals and hunting” series that feature a wild boar. The wild boar (Sus scrofa) belongs to the true pig family. It is also the ancestor of our domestic pig, but, unlike the latter, has a dark bristly coat. This animal is native to Europe, Asia and North America, but nowadays it also abides in other regions. Designed by Kirsten Lubach, this engraved stamp shows the impressive animal and its tracks around the stamp’s border.
Wild boar populations have undergone a systematic increase, in both size and distribution range, across most parts of Europe over the past 30 years. These are highly adaptable animals. In Austria the wild boars are mainly found in deciduous and mixed forests, where there are large quantities of oaks and beech, since it is the fruits of these trees, alongside herbs, fungi and roots, which comprise the bulk of their diet. They also eat snails, worms and carrion. While searching for food, the wild boars often lay entire fields waste and consequently cause considerable damage to agriculture. On the other hand, as they rummage they loosen the forest floor, thereby also ensuring the regeneration of the forest.
See also other bright animal stamps.
