It is still quite early to be thinking of hibernation, but some males disappear to hibernate in September. Females tend to go later as they more often have hoglet duties. Raising hoglets takes a lot out of them. But then males return earlier than females and it all works very well because the males have time to put on a bit of weight before the females return and the males waste a lot of energy running around after them! That’s a bit of a simplistic explanation – there are various ifs and buts and variations.
As with much about hogs, what triggers hibernation is not fully understood. I don’t believe it can be solely cold weather – some hogs choose not to hibernate at all and continue to visit in well sub-zero temperatures with seemingly little concern and it would not explain the variation in timing of different starting times of various hogs’ hibernation. It may be one of those things which hogs continue to keep us all guessing about.
