Everything about Sus Scrofa totally explained
The
wild boar (
Sus scrofa) is an
omnivorous,
mammal of the
biological family Suidae. It is native across much of
Central Europe, the
Mediterranean Region (including North Africa's
Atlas Mountains) and much of
Asia as far south as
Indonesia, and has been widely introduced elsewhere.
Although common in
France, the wild boar became extinct in
Great Britain and
Ireland by the 17th century, but wild breeding populations have recently returned in some areas, particularly the
Weald, following escapes from boar farms.
Physical characteristics
The body of the wild boar is compact, the head is large, the legs relatively short. The fur consists of stiff bristles and usually finer fur. The colour usually varies from dark grey to black or brown, but there are great regional differences in colour, even whitish animals are known from central Asia. During winter the fur is much denser.
The size also varies highly within the range. Full grown female wild boars (5 years or older) have a body length of about 135 cm and a weight of 55-70 kg in central Europe, while adult males reach 140-150 cm and weigh between 80 and 90 kg there. In some areas, like
Astrachan and the
Caucasus wild boars grow much larger, with males reaching a body length of 200 cm and a weight of 200 kg. Even in parts of western France, Boar have been caught weighing around 100 kg. In the 1930s animals weighing 260 kg were shot in the
Volga delta and at the
Syr Daria. In the
Russian Far East and the
Carpathians, males of more than 300 kg have reported, but due to intensive hunting, the size of wild boars has declined. Currently, animals weighing 200 kg are counted as very large.
Boars also have the ability to leap 3 to 4 feet in the air.
The
tusks (the canine teeth) serve as weapons and grow continuously. The lower tusks of an adult male measure about 20 cm (from which seldom more than 10 cm protrude out of the mouth), in exceptional cases even 30 cm. The upper tusks are bent upwards in males, and are regularly ground against each other to produce sharp edges. In females they're smaller, and the upper tusks are only slightly bent upwards in older individuals.
Range
Reconstructed range
The wild boar is originally found in
North Africa and much of
Eurasia from the
British Isles to
Japan and the
Sunda Islands. In the north it reached southern
Scandinavia and southern
Siberia. Within this range it was absent in extremely dry deserts and
alpine zones.
A few centuries ago it was found in North Africa along the
Nile valley up to
Khartum and north of the
Sahara. The reconstructed northern boundary of the range in Asia ran from
Lake Ladoga (at 60°N) through the area of
Novgorod and
Moskow into the southern
Ural, where it reached 52°N. From there the boundary passed
Ishim and farther east the
Irtysh at 56°N. In the eastern
Baraba steppe (near
Novosibirsk) the boundary turned steep south, encircled the
Altai Mountains, went again eastward including the
Tannu-Ola Mountains and
Lake Baikal. From here the boundary went slightly north of the
Amur River eastward to its lower reaches at the
China Sea. At
Sachalin there are only fossil reports of wild boar. The southern boundaries in Europe and Asia were almost everywhere identical to the sea shores of these continents. In dry deserts and high mountain ranges the wild boar is naturally absent. So it's absent in the dry regions of
Mongolia from 44-46°N southward, in
China westward of
Sichuan and in
India north of the
Himalaya. In high altitudes of
Pamir and
Tien Shan they're also absent, however at
Tarim basin and on the lower slopes of the Tien Shan they do occur.
Present range
In the last centuries the range of wild boar changed dramatically because of human and perhaps also climatic influence. They probably became extinct in
Great Britain in the 13th century: certainly none remained in southern England by 1610, when King
James I reintroduced them to
Windsor Great Park. This attempt failed due to
poaching, and later attempts met the same fate. By 1700 there were no wild boar remaining in Britain.
In Denmark the last Boar was shot at the beginning of the 19th century, and in 1900 they were absent in Tunisia and in Sudan and large areas of Germany, Austria and Italy. In Russia they were extinct in wide areas in the 1930s and the northern boundary has shifted far to the south, especially in the parts to the west of the Altai.
By contrast, a strong and growing population of Boar has remained in France, where they're hunted for food and sport, especially in the rural Central and Southern parts of that country.
By 1950 the wild boar had once again reached the original northern boundary in many parts of its Asiatic range. By 1960 they reached even
Saint Petersburg and
Moscow, and by 1975 they were to be found in
Archangelsk and
Astrakhan. In the 1970s they occurred again in Denmark and Sweden, where captured animals managed to escape and survive in the wild. In the 1990s they migrated into Tuscany in Italy.
Status in Britain
Between then and the 1980s, when wild boar farming began, only a handful of captive wild boar, imported from the continent, were present in Britain. Because wild boar are included in the
Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, certain legal requirements have to be met prior to setting up a farm. A licence to keep boar is required from the local council who will appoint a specialist to inspect the premises and report back to the council. Requirements include secure accommodation and fencing, correct drainage, temperature, lighting, hygiene, ventilation and insurance.
Occasional escapes of wild boar have occurred since the 1970s. Early escapes occurred from Wildlife Parks but since the early 1990s more escapes have been from farms, the number of which has increased as the demand for wild boar meat has grown. By the 1990s a breeding population was rumoured to have established in areas of
Kent and
East Sussex.
In 1998, a
MAFF (now
DEFRA) study on wild boar living wild in Britain confirmed the presence of two populations of wild boar living in Britain, one in
Kent and
East Sussex and another in
Dorset. New Zealand wild pigs are also frequently known as "tuskers", due to their appearance.
The term
boar is used to denote an adult male of certain species, including, confusingly, domestic pigs. In the case of wild pigs only, it's correct to say "female boar" or "infant wild boar", since
boar or
wild boar refers to the animal itself.
One characteristic by which domestic breed and wild animals are differentiated is coats. Wild animals almost always have thick, short bristly coats ranging in colour from brown through grey to black. A prominent ridge of hair matching the spine is also common, giving rise to the name
razorback in the southern
United States, where they're common and tend to roam in groups, rarely settling in one place permanently. The tail is usually short and straight. Wild animals tend also to have longer legs than domestic breeds and a longer and narrower head and snout. European adult males can be up to 200 kg (sometimes up to 300 kg in certain areas, particularly Eastern Europe) and have both upper and lower tusks; females don't have tusks and are around a third smaller on average.
A very large swine dubbed
Hogzilla was shot in
Georgia, USA in June 2004. Initially thought to be a hoax, the story became something of an internet sensation.
National Geographic Explorer investigated the story, sending scientists into the field. After exhuming the animal and performing DNA testing it was determined that Hogzilla was a hybrid of wild boar and domestic swine.
Behavior
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.
If surprised or cornered, a boar (and particularly a sow with her piglets) can and will defend itself and its young vigorously. The male lowers its head, charges, and then slashes upward with its tusks. The female, which is tuskless, charges with its head up, mouth wide, and bites. Such attacks are rarely fatal to humans, but severe trauma and blood loss can easily result.
Adult wild boar have few natural predators, though there have been cases of predation from
tigers and wolves.
Subspecies
Sus scrofa has wild subspecies, each occupying distinct geographical areas:
Sus scrofa scrofa (western Africa, Europe)
Sus scrofa ussuricus (northern Asia and Japan)
Sus scrofa cristatus (Asia Minor, India)
Sus scrofa vittatus (Indonesia)
Sus scrofa taivanus (Formosan Wild Boar 台灣野豬（山豬)） (Taiwan)
The domestic pig is usually regarded as a further subspecies, Sus scrofa domestica – but sometimes as a separate species, Sus domestica.
Spanish and French boar specimens have 36 chromosomes, as opposed to wild boar in the rest of Europe which possess 38, the same number as domestic pigs. Boars with 36 chromosomes have successfully mated with animals possessing 38, resulting in fertile offspring with 37 chromosomes.
Mythology and religion
In Greek mythology two boars are particularly well known. The Erymanthian Boar was hunted by Hercules as one of his Twelve Labours, and the Calydonian Boar was hunted in the Calydonian Hunt by dozens of other mythological heroes, including some of the Argonauts and the huntress Atalanta.
In Celtic mythology the boar was sacred to the goddess Arduinna, and boar hunting features in several stories of Celtic and Irish mythology. One such story is that of how Fionn mac Cumhaill ("Finn McCool") lured his rival Diarmuid Ua Duibhne to his death - gored by a wild boar.
The Norse gods Freyr and Freyja both had boars. Freyr’s boar was named Gullinbursti ("Golden Mane"), who was manufactured by the Sons of Ivaldi as a gift to Freyr. The bristles in Gullinbursti’s mane glowed in the dark to illuminate the way for his owner. Freya rode the boar Hildesvini (Battle Swine) when she wasn't using her cat-drawn chariot. According to the poem Hyndluljóð, Freyja concealed the identity of her protégé Óttar by turning him into a boar. In Norse mythology, the boar was generally associated with fertility as well as a protective talisman in war, due to the animal's sometimes fierce nature.
In Persia (Iran) during Sassanid Empire, boars were respected as fierce and brave creatures and the adjective "Boraz (Goraz)" meaning Boar was sometimes added to a person's name to show his bravery and courage. The famous Sassanid spahbod, Shahrbaraz, who conquered Egypt and the Levant, had his name derived Shahr(city) + Baraz(boar like/brave) meaning "Boar of the City".
In Hindu mythology, the third avatar of the Lord Vishnu was Varaha, a boar.
In Chinese horoscope the boar (sometimes also translated as pig), is one of the twelve animals of the zodiac, based on the legends about its creation, either involving Buddha or the Jade Emperor.
Heraldry and other symbolic use
The boar and a boar's head are common charges in heraldry. A complete beast may represent what are seen as the positive qualities of the boar, namely courage and fierceness in battle; a boar's head may represent hospitality (from the custom of serving the boar's head in feasts), or it may symbolize that the bearer of the arms is a noted hunter.
Scottish Highland Clan Campbell uses the boar on its badge to symbolize courage and fierceness. The chiefs of clans Gordon, Nesbitt and Urquhart similarly uses three boars' heads on their coat of arms. The wild boar was a symbol of Richard III of England.
However boar charges also lend themselves very well to canting (heraldic punning). The German towns of Eberbach and Ebersbach an der Fils, both in Baden-Württemberg, and Ebersbach, Saxony use civic arms that demonstrates this. Each depicts a boar - in German (and in two cases a wavy fess or bars meant to represent a brook - in German).
The flag of the Serbian rebel forces during the First Serbian Uprising featured the wild boar, together with other national insignia. During that time wild boars were common in Serbian forests and mountains, and pigs were the main export of the region.
In Belgium, the wild boar is the symbolic animal of the Ardennes forests in the south of the country, and is the mascot of one of the Belgian Army's premier infantry regiments, the Régiment de Chasseurs Ardennais, the soldiers of which wear a boar's head pin on their beret.
Shakey the Pig is the mascot of the U. S. Air Force's 36th Air Base Wing's Munitions Squadron. Shakey is a wild boar caught within the jungles of Guam that's cared for and fed by the airman of the unit. Shakey is featured on the unit's patch.
The 390th Fighter Squadron based at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho is known as the Wild Boars. The 390th currently flies the F-15 air superiority fighter, but has a long and rich heritage dating back through Vietnam where they flew F-4 Phantoms.
Three boars are seen on the Grimsby coat of arms.
Image: Zastava_1ustanak.jpg|Flag of the First Serbian Uprising, wild boar discernible on the right.
Image:Wappen Eberbach Baden.png|Arms of Eberbach, Germany
Image:Wappen Ebersbach an der Fils.png|Arms of Ebersbach an der Fils, Germany
Image:Wappen Ebersbach Sachsen.PNG|Arms of Ebersbach, Saxony, Germany
Image: Wappen von Ebersberg.png|Arms of Ebersberg, Germany
Commercial use
The hair of the boar was often used for the production of the toothbrush until the invention of synthetic materials in the 1930s.
The hair for the bristles usually came from the neck area of the boar. While such brushes were popular because the bristles were soft, this wasn't the best material for oral hygiene as the hairs were slow to dry and usually retained bacteria. Boar hair is also used in the manufacture of the boar bristle hairbrush. Despite claims that Boar bristles have been used in the manufacture of premium dart boards for use with steel-tipped darts these boards are, in fact, made of other materials and fibers--- the finest ones from sisal rope.
In many countries boar are farmed for their meat and, in countries such as France, for example, boar may often be found for sale in Butchers shops or on offer in a restaurant. (Although the consumption of Wild boar meat has been linked to transmission of Hepatitis E in Japan).
Further Information
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