Golfers from a Villages church group were shocked when they spotted a wild boar on the ninth hole of Pelican golf course.
The group from Live Oaks Community Church was golfing Sunday afternoon when they spotted the boar.
Tonnya Olsen of the Village of Sunset Pointe snapped a photo with her cell phone.
“We were all so shocked and frightened we did not want to get too close,” said Villager Karen Lyon.
Tonnya Olsen’s husband Walter said the men had golfed Pelican while the women had golfed the Heron course. The ladies were done golfing and were waiting for the men to finish. That’s when they spotted the boar.
“We were all very surprised. We didn’t know they had those down here,” he said.
The wild boar is not a Florida native and may have been introduced by Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto as early as 1539, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Wild boars can be found in all of Florida’s 67 counties within a wide variety of habitats, but prefer oak-cabbage palm hammocks, freshwater marshes and sloughs and pine flatwoods. Wild pigs can reach weights of more than 150 pounds and be 5-6 feet long. They usually travel in small family groups or alone.
Wild pigs are omnivorous (eating all kinds of foods, both plants and animals) and feed by rooting with their broad snouts. They may cause disturbance of the soil and ground cover vegetation and leave the area looking like a plowed field, according to FWC.