They were once considered extinct in Britain but now ministers are thinking of introducing road signs to warn drivers of the presence of wild boars.

It is thought at least 200 of them live in woodland in the Weald and along the Sussex border – the second largest breeding population in the UK.

They are thought to originate from a group which escaped from a Tenterden farm after the Great Storm in 1987 blew down fences.

In the last decade sightings of them have been reported in Coxheath, Hawkhurst, Bedgebury, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge and even a garden in Wrotham.

The proposed sign – which would include a red triangle showing a boar leaping across a road – is being considered by roads minister John Hayes for areas with large populations.

It comes after a man was killed in a collision with a boar in Wiltshire on the M4 earlier this month.

A Kent County Council spokesman said the authority considered requests for signs in the same way as other road improvements, including factors such as crash history and community support.

Drivers are not legally obliged to report accidents involving wild boars so there are no definitive accident statistics.

But in 2013 a small family of boar caused havoc in Pembury when they ran onto Tonbridge Road and two days later held up traffic on the A21 near the Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

Derek Harman, 73, has been studying them since 1989 when his wife saw
one near their home near Tenterden.

He has written a book about his findings and reckons there are 200 to 300 in Kent and Sussex.

He said: “I have heard of around 30 or 40 incidents where dead wild boar have been found at the roadside, but sometimes there is no trace as people will take them to eat.

“It is about time governments and councils did something to get people to think about the dangers of them on the road. You are lucky if it is just the car that is damaged because they are very heavy.”

He added that most forests in the borough are likely to have been home to wild boar at some point and particularly vulnerable roads are those between woodland.