Wild Boars of the Iberian Forest

Oliver settled himself on a flat stone by the path and opened his notebook wide. The dust on the trail was soft as flour, and across it ran a neat line of prints. Each one was like a small, rounded heart, split in two at the tip.

“Cloven hooves,” he murmured, sketching carefully. “Two toes at the front, and sometimes a faint mark of two smaller toes behind.” These, he knew, were the tracks of a wild boar. Unlike the rounder prints of farm pigs, boar tracks were narrower and pointed, made for walking long distances through forest and hillside. As he drew, he added little notes: “Mostly active at dawn and dusk. Excellent sense of smell. Very shy of people.”