Wild Boar Description;
Wild Boar (Sus scrofa Linnaeus) Info
Description A medium-size hoofed mammal built similar to that of a domestic pig. Coat usually coarser and denser than that of a domestic pig; has dense undercoat in winter. Extremely variable in color: most often black, but may be brown, gray, or black and white. Tail moderately long; lightly haired; hangs straight. Upper tusks (modified canines), usually 3–5″ but up to 9″ long, curl out and up along sides of mouth. Lower canines smaller turning out slightly rising outside mouth and point back towards the eyes. Young have pale longitudinal stripes on body until 6 weeks of age. Height to 3′ Length 4′4″–6′ weight male 165–440 lb,female 77–330 lb.
Warning If harassed or wounded, can cause serious injury with tusks. Flesh often full of parasitic worms.
Similar Species Collared Peccary is much smaller, more uniformly and thickly coated; grayish, usually with light collar over shoulders; has vestigial tail and upper tusks that point down. Larger domestic pig has much rounder body, shorter legs, and tail that is usually coiled; has finer, thinner, less shaggy fur; lacks mane and long curved tusks. Hybrids between Wild Boar and feral pig have intergrading characteristics; are sometimes spotted black and tan, and are frequently less hairy.
Breeding Mates at any time of year, but there are usually 2 peaks about 6 months apart: one January–February, and one in early summer (as with domestic pig). After gestation of about 16 weeks, 3–12 young are born, brown with 9 or 10 pale longitudinal body stripes; length at birth 6–8″.
Native to Europe and Asia, the feral pig first appeared in North America in 1893, when a herd of 50 animals was brought from Germany’s Black Forest to a hunting preserve in New Hampshire’s Blue Mountains. Russian Wild Boars were released in 1910 and 1912 on a North Carolina preserve near the Tennessee border; in 1925, near Monterey, California; and a few years later on Santa Cruz Island, off the California coast. Some of these animals escaped from preserves, and many of their progeny bred with feral descendants of domestic pigs. The pure-blooded feral pig is still found in the wild in North Carolina, in Tennessee, in parts of California, and in preserves in other states. Elsewhere North America’s wild swine are hybrids or pigs descended from purely domestic stock.Especially active at dawn and dusk, the feral pig is a fast runner and a good swimmer. It usually trots from one foraging area to another, then slows to a walk. Its wanderings seldom exceed beyond an area of 10 square miles if food is abundant, but may extend to as far as 50 square miles when forage is poor. Where oaks are prevalent, acorns are a staple; this animal also favors beech, hickory, and pecan nuts. In late fall and winter, when the nuts accumulated on the forest floor have all been eaten, the feral pig leaves to forage in swamps and marshes. It relies on a wide variety of vegetation, including roots, tubers, grasses, fruit, and berries, but also eats crayfish, frogs, snakes, salamanders, mice, the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds, young rabbits, and any other easy prey or carrion encountered while foraging; it has even been known to kill and eat fawns. The sow and her young forage in a family group, usually of about half a dozen animals, but they sometimes join other groups in herds of up to 50 individuals. Except during the breeding season, mature males are solitary or band in small groups. During the two breeding seasons, males gather as females enter estrus; the males fight for dominance, slashing at each other’s shoulders. Dominant males mate first, allowing other males to mate later. At one week old, piglets follow the sow. They are weaned at three months, and at six weeks lose the pale, longitudinal body stripes they had at birth. Young disperse the following year, are sexually mature at one and a half years, and are fully grown at five to six years.In America, the feral pig does not grow as large as the boars in some parts of Europe, probably because it must compete for ground food—especially nuts—with so many squirrels and deer. While some European boars weigh over 500 pounds, few American boars reach 350 pounds. Bears, Bobcats, and feral dogs occasionally kill a baby boar, but predation is light on older individuals because the tusks of a mature pig are as effective for fighting as for rooting; the chief predators are humans. Life span is generally 15 to 25 years. In some states, there are hunting seasons for feral pigs; in others, where they have become agricultural pests, they can be killed at any time. Feral pig populations are neither endangered nor monitored by game departments as a valuable resource.
info gathered from enature.com
Habitat
Good feral hog habitat in timbered areas consists of diverse forests with some openings. The presence of a good litter layer to support soil invertebrates and/or the presence of ground vegetation affording green forage, roots, and tubers is desirable. Hogs are also fond of marsh and grass-sedge flats in coastal areas, particularly if wild grapes are common. During hot summer months, “wallows,” or depressions dug in the mud by feral hogs, are much in evidence near marshes or standing water, such as along roadside ditches.
Food sources
The major foods in spring are herbage, roots, invertebrates, and vertebrates. Fruit, invertebrates, and herbage are most common in fall and winter diets. Herbage eaten by feral pigs includes water hyssop, pennywort, frog fruit, spadeleaf, onion, and various grasses while important roots used for food include bulrush, cattail, flatsedges, and spikesedges. Fruits and seeds such as grapes, acorns, and cultivated sorghum are important, and animal matter ingested by feral pigs includes earthworms, marsh fly larvae, leopard frogs, snakes, and rodents.
History
Wild hog piglets weigh about two pounds at birth. After three or four months, the piglets are weaned and independent of the sow. Family groups usually break up once the young reach sexual maturity, which is usually within a year of birth for both males and females. Gestation is approximately 100 – 125 days, and most litters have 3 – 8 piglets. The average hog has a life expectancy of about eight years. Male hogs are mostly solitary, except during the breeding season, while females and piglets gather in groups of two to three animals.
Bahavior
Wild boars live in groups called sounders. Sounders typically contain around 20 animals, but groups of over 50 have been seen. In a typical sounder there are two or three sows and their offspring; adult males are not part of the sounder outside of a breeding cycle, two to three per year, and are usually found alone. Birth, called farrowing, usually occurs in a secluded area away from the sounder; a litter will typically contain 8–12 piglets
Boars are the only hoofed animals known to dig burrows.If surprised or cornered, a boar (and particularly a sow with her piglets) can and will defend itself and its young with intense vigor.The male lowers its head, charges, and then slashes upward with his tusks. The female, whose tusks are not visible, charges with her head up, mouth wide, and bites. Such attacks are not often fatal to humans, but may result in severe trauma, dismemberment, or blood loss.
Shot placement on a wild boar
The best place to aim your shot is the neck. Second best is the shoulder but only with a heavy bullet as the vitals are rather small and well protected.
States that allow Boar hunting
