Wild Boar :D

For this activity, I decided to show my short info-graphic on wild boars to my dad who holds some misconceptions of them. Having read some news on how wild boars have attacked people before, he has mentioned before that he finds them overly aggressive and dangerous, especially to residents living in those areas. I hoped to share some of what I had learnt about wild boars to him, such as their habitats and diet, and more importantly, some do’s and don’ts regarding them! In doing so, I hoped to teach him a little more about wild boars in general and show how they may not be as dangerous as he perceives them to be and correct some of this misconceptions regarding them. Hopefully by presenting these facts to him in a concise and cute manner, it can better bring across some of these messages and allay some of his fears of them 🙂

His initial reaction upon seeing the info-graphic was definitely one of intrigue and interest, which I took to be a success! To my pleasant surprise, after sharing the facts with him and going through them in greater detail, he ended up agreeing that wild boars would probably be unlikely to attack someone out of the blue unless there was some earlier sign of provocation. Such an admission was definitely in stark contrast to some of his earlier beliefs and he even mentioned that it would be great for more individuals to keep the do’s and don’ts in mind when approaching any wild animals, not jut wild boars.

The most interesting part of this activity was definitely watching the gradual shift in attitude towards wild boars. Even if he did still believe that wild boars could be dangerous, it was with the understanding that prior provocation was usually required and there were steps we could take to avoid that. This shift in mindset, no matter how slight, is one that I found to be really valuable and important because it shows that even small steps of sharing more about an animal can have quite a large impact on the way someone perceives them! This is especially pertinent when educating others on ‘dangerous animals’ they were previously terrified of and teaching them how they should act around these wild animals. With so much misinformation and fear around some animals, along with the highly urbanized state of Singapore, it is quite inevitable for us to clash with wild animals at times. If we do meet one, it is critical for us to know what to do to avoid provoking them on accident and causing an unwanted incident from happening!