A father and son were attacked by a wild boar on a walk near Elspeet on the Veluwe healthlands earlier this month.

The two were out on January 4 when the boar shot out of its burrow by the side of the path and attacked 71-year-old Gerjan Bossenbroek. “It tore open my boot and bit my foot,” Bossenbroek told local broadcaster Omroep Gelderland.

His son, 33-year-old Maarten then grappled with the animal. “He threw it down and wrestled with it for 12 minutes. That is supernatural. I think God gave him the strength to do it,” Bossenbroek Sr said. The animal reared up leaving Maarten with a black eye but neither man was seriously hurt.

“This is a very rare event,” ecologist Lars Soerink told the broadcaster. “But it’s the mating season when the boar is loaded with testosterone and it sometimes happens. They were just unlucky.”

Most violent encounters between man and boar happen when the boar has been wounded during a hunt and is then approached, he said.

Boar are not interested in confrontations with people and they usually try to avoid them. Problems may arise if there is not enough food and boar venture outside their habitat.

Forester Frank Theunissen of Nature protection organisation Natuurmonumenten called the boar “the biggest bastards of the forest. They spend their days sleeping in a burrow. If it gets up and you are in the way they will throw you aside like a bowling ball,” he said.

Frank said attacks were rare but that walkers need to take care. “They are by far the most dangerous animals in the forest. People talk about the wolf but most negative experiences have involved boar,” he said.