Wild boar are sought-after both as a treasured bounty for hunters (as they are really difficult to hunt) and for their meat. For many, hunting wild boar in Scandinavia is motivated primarily by a desire to protect land and livestock: these animals are uncomfortably intelligent (like all pigs) and a grown male boar, with its giant tusks, is downright dangerous, and can wreak havoc on crops.
Appearance
Wild boar piglets must be the cutest creatures in the world with their fuzzy fur and finely striped backs in brown and black, but they grow into rather less pretty and extremely powerful creatures. With its curved tusks, a boar’s snout is an amazing instrument which it inserts into the ground like a plough to search for food, with disastrous results for both farmers and gardeners.
Related: Scandinavian Ham
One boar let loose in your garden will eat everything and turn your topsoil for you, and a herd of boar can wreck a whole field in a matter of hours. (Mind you, the same goes for the domesticated pig, which will turn any field into mud in a very short time.)
Taste of wild boar in Scandinavia
The wild boar is delicious, a tastier forefather to the domesticated pig, with dark, juicy meat, and a spicy flavor from foraging in the wild. Wild boar are omnivores and will eat anything, including roots, small animals, worms and wild greens.
Related: Scandinavian Game
The meat that you usually buy is from farmed wild boar, which are often crossed with domesticated pigs to make them fleshier (and also to give them a more docile temperament). The flesh is nice, but naturally lacks the unique flavor of the wild version.
Related: History of Scandinavian Pork
Culinary uses
You can cook wild boar pretty much any way that you would pork or venison; while boar meat is leaner than pork, it shares the same qualities in cooking.
Feature image (on top): Wikipedia
Wild Boar in Scandinavia, written by Tor Kjolberg