Hi berniel
When the hogs decide to hibernate is a complex set of circumstances, which isn’t fully understood. It isn’t completely down to temperature, nor completely down to food availability, but probably a mixture of these and other things. i.e. for instance male hogs tend to hibernate a fair bit earlier than the females. They don’t have any hoglet duties like the females and so are able to put on the required levels of fat needed for hibernation earlier. I think some hogs, especially some males may already be hibernating.
The males also tend to return from hibernation earlier than the females. This is quite convenient for them as they have a bit of time to eat and put on some of the weight they’ve lost without the females around to be ‘courted’. Once the females are back, the males use up a huge amount of energy dashing around and then circling the females, rolling up other males, etc.
I usually find, here, that the males disappear first, then the females (once the hoglets are weaned) and then last the hoglets. The hoglets, in particular, can often still be around when there are frosts and don’t seem to mind too much.
