A wild boar named Frieda runs between two cows on Thursday in a pasture near the river Weser in Holzminden, Germany. The herd has gained an unlikely following after adopting the lone wild boar piglet.

A wild boar named Frieda runs between two cows on Thursday in a pasture near the river Weser in Holzminden, Germany. The herd has gained an unlikely following after adopting the lone wild boar piglet. / dpa via AP

BERLIN — A cow herd in Germany has gained an unlikely following, after adopting a lone wild boar piglet.

Farmer Friedrich Stapel told the dpa news agency that he spotted the piglet among the herd in the central German community of Brevoerde about three weeks ago. It had likely lost its group when they crossed a nearby river.

Wild boar Frieda eats next to a cow Thursday in a pasture in Holzminden, Germany.

Wild boar Frieda eats next to a cow Thursday in a pasture in Holzminden, Germany. / AP

Stapel said while he knows what extensive damage wild boars can cause, he can't bring himself to chase the animal away, dpa reported Thursday.

The local hunter has been told not to shoot the piglet — nicknamed Frieda — and in winter Stapel plans to put it in the shed with the mother cows.

"To leave it alone now would be unfair," he told dpa.

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Tags: cows  Germany 

Correction

The captions in an earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Frieda the piglet.