{"id":4164,"date":"2026-11-12T20:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T20:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/sow-biscotte-travels-30-kilometers-from-aveyron-to-cantal-a-rare-journey-for-a-female-wild-boar\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T20:25:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T20:25:15","slug":"sow-biscotte-travels-30-kilometers-from-aveyron-to-cantal-a-rare-journey-for-a-female-wild-boar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/sow-biscotte-travels-30-kilometers-from-aveyron-to-cantal-a-rare-journey-for-a-female-wild-boar\/","title":{"rendered":"Sow Biscotte Travels 30+ Kilometers From Aveyron to Cantal, a Rare Journey for a Female Wild Boar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Captured in June 2026 in the northern part of Aveyron, a sow nicknamed Biscotte wears a GPS collar placed by the Aveyron Departmental Hunters’ Federation (FDC 12). After three months with no deviation, she moved to the Cantal<\/strong>. This relocation runs counter to what telemetry has shown about females reputed to be highly attached to their territory.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Collared in June near Saint-Hippolyte, the sow was located on October 16 in Sansac-de-Marmiesse, near Aurillac<\/h2>\n

The Aveyron Hunters’ Federation (FDC 12) captured the animal at the start of the summer, accompanied by three piglets<\/strong>. The GPS collar then transmitted regular positions. Thus, throughout the summer, Biscotte did not wander far from Saint-Hippolyte, a commune near the Lot valley.<\/p>\n

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From mid-September, the points change in pattern and head north. On October 16, the sow is located in Sansac-de-Marmiesse<\/strong>, in the Cantal, between Aurillac and Saint-Mamet-la-Salvetat. According to the federation, the distance exceeded 30 kilometers in a straight line.<\/p>\n

However, the exact route remains incomplete. Indeed, the collar ceased broadcasting for five days<\/strong>, and the map then showed only a straight line between two points. Furthermore, nothing allows us to know whether the piglets followed their mother to the Cantal.<\/p>\n

Telemetry studies describe groups of females faithful to a few hundred hectares across the seasons<\/h2>\n

The wild boar lives in matriarchal groups, organized around the adult sows. In Germany, Oliver Keuling and his colleagues tracked females by radiotelemetry, with results published in 2008 in the European Journal of Wildlife Research. The family groups<\/strong> occupied on average about 460 hectares, compared with nearly 790 for one-year-old young sows.<\/p>\n

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These ranges vary according to food, forest cover, and human pressure. Nevertheless, adult females mostly move their home range between seasons, by about one to two kilometers on average, without leaving it. Therefore, a jump of more than 30 kilometers clearly deviates from the classic pattern<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Aveyron federation observes the same tendency on its own equipped animals. Between 50 and 60 %<\/strong> of them remain sedentary, with limited movements. Consequently, Biscotte stands among the exceptions in the program.<\/p>\n

In this species, long dispersals are mainly associated with young males, more than settled adult sows<\/h2>\n

Long movements do exist, however. In Wallonia, a study by C\u00e9line Pr\u00e9vot and Kevin Morelle set the threshold at 3.8 kilometers<\/strong> beyond which a wild boar may be considered dispersing. About 44 % of young males crossed this distance, compared with far fewer females.<\/p>\n

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This departure of subadults helps limit inbreeding and competition within the groups. Conversely, a sow with piglets has more interest in staying within a known area, rich in shelter and food. Thus, Biscotte’s journey is all the more intriguing.<\/p>\n

A hunt organized on September 20 in her sector could have triggered the escape, a hypothesis still debated<\/h2>\n

The federation cites hunting pressure as the main lead. A drive hunt was held on September 20 in the sow\u2019s sector, shortly after the first signs of departure. Moreover, the animal may have encountered other hunts along the way, which could have pushed her further.<\/p>\n

Scientific work, however, nuance this scenario. In Italy, the team of Laura Scillitani showed in 2010 that movements caused by intensive drives<\/strong> remained most often brief. Only the groups hunted repeatedly abandoned their original domain.<\/p>\n

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Ultimately, Biscotte’s case does not settle the matter, but it illustrates the value of GPS monitoring. Increasing the number of such collars will help measure the real impact of hunts on wild boars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2719,2717,2721,2720,267,1260,257,983,2716,2718,1591],"class_list":["post-4164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-aveyron","tag-biscotte","tag-boar","tag-cantal","tag-female","tag-journey","tag-kilometers","tag-rare","tag-sow","tag-travels","tag-wild","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4166,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4164\/revisions\/4166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}