With the winter the hunting season opened. This was the best time for hunting wild boar, the leaves having fallen and the water frozen on the eternally wet marshes. By Epiphany snow has fallen, thus to the hunters’ joy, conditions were the best for wild boar hunts in Bős.
The noise of the gathering was interrupted by the attention-demanding voice of the horn and in addition to the guns - in accordance with regulations - hunters armed with visibility elements stood quietly in rows. Even the excitable hunting dogs go quiet as if they too were interested in the sermon on the mount and they turn toward the leader Tibor Liszkay. The hunt begins with the usual briefing. The leader repeats the security instructions, he explains the programme of the day and reports on the details of the sites of individual hunts, listing the species that can be shot. Today guns can be aimed at wild boar and foxes. Finally, the drivers and hunters are divided into groups. They announce that whoever shoots an albino or polka-dotted boar will be the hunter of the day. Animals with genetic defects have proliferated in the region.
After this everybody takes up the designated position, then at the sign the drivers set off and the circle tightens. Wild boar are very intelligent animals and many drivers and dogs are necessary to rout them from the bushes. The drivers have their own leaders who divide them into several sections. Each one has its own leaders, who have to know the area very well, as this is not an open space, so they do not get lost among the reeds or bushes. At the signal the hunters in position can load their guns. They have nothing else to do but wait for the game. At the same time the standing hunters could find themselves behind the drivers, to encounter the wilier wild boar.The more experienced can break through the line of drivers, so the surprise reaches them from behind.
It is a special feature of Csallóköz, that not only the drivers but also the pigs know the region very well, the watercourses, the marshes, and the small islands in the Danube helped them to escape. Pigs are not at all afraid of water and it is sure that they will head in its direction. This is dangerous in winter, as the thin ice can break under their weight and the animals that fall under the ice will perish.
Today the drivers are skilful and the hunters are not green. One after the other the pigs are the targets of the guns. The successful hunters get a töret, or twigs dipped in the blood of the quarry, which can be pinned to their hats. They pull the carcass out, and gut it, removing its insides. This is necessary for the wild boar has a very thick skin, which keeps the heat for a long time, so that putrefaction sets in quickly. A wounded animal is sought with bloodhounds after the drive is over. Unfortunately, nobody has shot an albino nor a polka-dotted pig. Demonstrating the above-mentioned intelligence of the wild boar, they are willing to show themselves only to our photographer. They skilfully avoided the guns.
Today there are three drives. After the hunt, the animals are laid out and final respects are paid that is their due. The quarry is laid out in an area enclosed by pine branches, on four corners of which fires burned. The hunters accompanied by the horn salute the quarry, then they divide it up amongst themselves. And before anyone should accuse them of murderous passions, the organised hunts care deeply about regulating the wild-game population. Game tends to overpopulation. Wild boar are particularly numerous in these parts. Formerly they were not very common in Csallóköz, their numbers exploded in the 1950’s. The Danube facilitated their arrival from the Little Carpathians and the methods of growing plants used here, provided excellent conditions for them. They are particularly prolific animals, they can give birth to as many as ten piglets in a litter. The feeding all year round led to the mix-up in their reproductive cycle. Under normal circumstances, their coming into heat, that is, the mating season takes place around December; however, these days you can find striped piglets at any time of the year. Csallóköz is characteristically a region of small game and wild boar can do them a lot of harm. Their sense of smell is better than that of foxes and they can destroy the nests of pheasants, even the rabbit dens, say the hunters, while they invite us to their feast. A hunt cannot end without a feast. They relive the events of the day at the table, fretting over what was stupidly let slip and reminisced about past hunts.
