A pineapple farmer is licking his wounds after coming off worse in a tussle with a wild boar in Koh Kong in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Seng Nem, 51, was sleeping in his Mondul Seima district home when he was roused by his dog’s frantic barking at 4am.

Nem soon found the source of his canine’s distress: a large pig – about 100 kilograms – was making a feast of his pineapple plantation.

Not willing to let the pig squander the fruits of his labour, Nem grabbed a makeshift weapon and slowly approached his nemesis.

“I grabbed a wooden log and went to hit it, but it came at me first,” Nem told Bak Khlang commune police chief Leum Hy.

“It started attacking me until I fell onto the ground. Suddenly, it ran back into the forest. Then, I crawled to my cottage to search for my phone and made a call to my children to bring me to the hospital.”

Hy said Nem had suffered several gashes to each of his legs after he tangled with the boar’s sharp tusks.

Nem was treated at Koh Kong Provincial Hospital where he remains, Hy said.

Nem is not the only farmer to come off worse for wear in a battle with a boar. In one notable and tragic case, a Prey Veng man was gored to death by a large pig with a “small fifth leg” in 2011.