HISTORY
There are 23 subspecies
of hogs worldwide (most of them warty), but there is only one species in
the US: Sus scrofa. (The family is Suidae, thus the
hog call, "sui".) Just as our countless breeds of dogs were all derived
from the wolf, our varieties of domestic hogs and their feral relatives
were all derived from the Eurasian Wild Boar. They are incidentally
not at all related to the southwest's javalina (collared peccary).
The ancestors of the
hog go back to the Ice Age, and their domestication was somewhere between
5000 to 9000 years ago. The American continents have no native hogs
as the cold, snow and glaciers of the Ice Age blocked the hog's access
to the North American Continent.
Columbus in 1493 brought
8 hogs to the West Indies. Importation to the American mainland was
in the mid 1500's by Cortez and De Soto, and in the mid 1600's by La Salle.
Pure Eurasian boar were not brought here until they were imported for sport
hunting in the early 1900's.
In the US the pure Eurasian hog is classed as an exotic, and the
rest of the wild boar--originally domestic animals gone wild--are technically
feral, but in common use the term feral is reserved for only the domestic
hogs that have more recently gone wild.
WILD BOAR APPEARANCE
American wild boar
are lean and athletic. Compact, high and wide at the shoulder tapering
to the hip, their narrow heads lead to an impossibly long snout.
Ears are smaller, legs longer and coats usually longer, more coarse and
dense than any domestic hog. The back bristles stand on end, peaking
at the shoulder, earning them their name of razorback. The typical
color is black, but they can have any color, in any pattern. The
typical weight is around 150 lbs, but they can uncommonly become much heavier,
to well over 300 lbs.
A boar's Russian ancestry
is prized by many hunters, and inaccurately assessed by about as many.
The single most reliable indicator of a European ancestry is the bristle...the
bristle tips will be a lighter, usually cream, color. The Eurasian
piglets are striped with lengthwise stripes, but so are some domestic piglets.
The Eurasian hog is typically brown with a lighter underbelly and darker
face, legs and ears.
Boars have prominent
tusks (Sows have much smaller ones.) that never stop growing. The
upper jaws have the stumpy "whetters"; the lower jaws the long, outwardly
projecting "cutters". The whetters constantly shear the edge of the
cutters (like a whetstone) making them razor sharp weapons that can fatally puncture an opponent
or easily slice through a 3 inch tree root. The cutters are frequently
worn or broken during fighting or rooting, but renew themselves with continuous
growth and sharpening.& When you see an agitated boar popping his
jaws and foaming at the mouth he is actively honing his most lethal weapon.
The shield of the wild
boar is his protection from the tusks of his adversaries. It covers
the shoulders and tapers back over his ribs. It is made of cartilage
and scar tissue and thickens and hardens with every injury. Shields
can stop bullets including .44 magnums and .45/70's. Faster modern
bullets, however, like the 30-06, can penetrate a shield.
BOAR & WATER
Wild boar, just like their
domestic counterparts, adore the water. Hogs don't sweat, so it's an important
way for them to cool themselves, as well as to protect themselves from insects.
All hogs are excellent swimmers, but you will hardly ever see them actually
swimming--they prefer to wallow. Then after wallowing, a hog will follow
it up with a vigorous scrub against a tree or anything else. They can get
so engrossed in their scratching that you can walk up on them and startle
them, and a startled hog is a loose cannon you don't want to be around.
(Photos of hog swimming, 2 of hogs plunging head under water, wallowing in
mud, suprised wallowing, and wallow on water's edge)
BODY LANGUAGE
Much of the wild hog's body
language has to do with competition, aggression and dominance, or non confrontation
and submission. A dominant boar looks it. He moves with a swagger and authority
that proclaims his strength and virility. He will make demonstrations of
his status by his bearing, but if there is any doubt that the other hog got
the message, he'll deliver bursts of aggression--by running directly at and
nosing or even hooking the target boar--causing the other boar to squeal
and move away. (photo) Here's a dominant boar in his prime. With every
step he's telling that he's tough and not to be fooled with. A boar that
doesn't accept his declaration of his status, is in for a fight. There is
a tension in his posture, he trots along self-importantly, he's swinging
his head and eyeing up the field as though saying, "Bring it on."
(photos)You don't have to be big to walk the walk. Here are a couple of
pint sized kingpins (here and below), that you'll see fighting on the Aggression
page. Each of these small boars was earmarked for castration and were to
be turned out as meat hogs. But their looks and attitudes were so tough and
self-confident, that we turned them out as boars.
(photo)In contrast,
here's a non dominant barrow hog. He's good sized at over 200 pounds. His
posture is slouchy and relaxed, and he has a "I'm not a trouble maker." look
on his face. While he could take a piece out of you as well as any other
wild boar, his status among boars is that he is not advertising to fight,
he would be submissive to a big boar, and would fight only a smaller or weaker
hog.
(photo)This boar looks cringing and wilted. Hogs, as well as
most animals who are sick or injured like to go to water. Some say it is
to cool a fever. The injured lay with their wound down. This keeps flies
and other insects out of the wound, and maybe there are other benefits. This
strong boar hog was injured. We found him dead the next morning. It's very
possible that he was the winner of the fight.
(photos)This boar
is showing he's not backing down and is ready to fight. This bowing stance
precedes the stiff-legged posture which directly leads to combat. Now he
shows the forward, stiff-legged posture that announces he's ready to fight.
His display, though, lacks self confidence. His rageful bearing shows that
he feels threatened, and communicates his fear. In the arena of mind games
of the wild boar, he's already lost. Here is a close-up of the boar as he
works himself up for a confrontation. You can clearly see his blunt whetters
on top and his long, pointed cutters on the bottom. A slobbering hog is a
dangerous hog, even more so when he's fearful. He can lunge to attack in
a flash. Underestimating their speed and agility is a grave mistake. A side
view of the boar. The upper lip makes a pronounced curl over the whetter.
But the thinness of the skin on his snout tells that he's an older boar.
Look at the wrinkly skin on his chest, and how the skin on his shoulder actually
wraps around the edge of his shield, making it look like a plate. The view
of him in stiff-legged stance above shows his skin at the top of his right
foreleg folding over in a wrinkle. It's probably his age that makes him feel
insecure about a confrontation. In his prime, he must have held his own for
him to be able to make it to this age.
(photo)This monster boar's
body posture is not proud or strutting, but he's enormous, in excellent shape
and even though you can't see his teeth, you can see the thick roll of his
lip that tells you that whatever he's got in his mouth teethwise--it's not
small. Sometimes the huge hogs don't have to bother advertising because their
size says it all. This is a mature but not old boar as you can see by the
thickness of his skin; he's probably 7 or 8 years old.
(photo)A
much smaller and younger boar--almost 300 pounds and 4 to 5 years old. He's
bayed up by the dogs and is giving his options serious thought. His mind
is working with cool calculation. His body's tense, and he looks rooted to
the ground. It would be easy to underestimate how actively he is planning
his escape (maybe that's his strategy), and how quickly he can explode into
violent retribution. He's a boar to never take your eyes off of--for a second.
He's desperate, determined and no dummy.
(photo)Another boar with
some years. His head is down and he looks ready to stand his ground, but
he's not acting cocky and is not spoiling for a fight. With tusks like he
has, and you can expect that he's an experienced fighter, even a boar with
a big shield has to be careful. He might not win a pushing match, but would
probably score big in a cutting match.
(photos)Talk about cocky.
This 300 lb. red boar hog is bullying a group of 200 lb. barrow hogs. He's
swaggering around like he owns the place, and is taking personal liberties
wherever he wants, without restraint. He's rudely sniffing, poking and jabbing
everyone. He clearly outclasses every hog around him and has nothing to prove,
so his intentions are not just declaring his status. With his obvious intrusions,
the barrows seem to be trying to save face, saying, "I'm just minding my
own business."
BOAR FIGHTS & BEHAVIOR
A boar fight starts
with a challenge, mostly with grunts. If the boar accepts the challenge
he will approach with a stiff legged gait, bristles up, and a soundless
pushing match starts...shoulder to shoulder, a test of brute power.
If one boar can dominate the other by pushing, there is no violent fight.
For equal combatants though, the fight is just beginning. The boars pop their
jaws and slobber foam, working themselves into a rage; the enraged boars
then slam their heads and tusks mightily into the body of the opponent. Now
starts the pounding, the grunting and the wounded squeals. The frothy slobber
flies into the air, to the ground and all over the combatants.
It can be a fight to
the death, but the death is rarely immediate.; The loser leaves the
battle ground first, to live or die on his own. The winner will then
also leave to recover from his injuries or to die.
It's the personality
of the wild boar that has beguiled so many hunters now, and over ages. Wild
boar are secretive and wiley--and can be terrifying. When cornered they can
become vicious...and they can hold a grudge.
At times the squalling
of a caught hog will draw in other enraged hogs, but it's not because they
want to rescue a buddy...they come purely from inflammation of their aggressive
drive. Hogs that approach a downed comrade come not to mourn, but to dine.
Hogs are not nice to each other, or to anyone else for that matter (apart
form maternal groups, but after pigs are weaned, even they're not that nice).
Boars have been known to circle around a human adversary to initiate their
own attack from behind. A boar, pressed by a pursuing pack of dogs will still
make the extra effort to hook the hunter as he's passing, and some boars
get so ticked off and insulted that they'll continue to harrass and bite
at a hunter that is already up a tree.
Someone who has injured a
wild boar, might get a look--directed to only him--that could kill, and with
the boar's first opportunity, be the target of its charge.
The hunter's
wisdom when boar hunting is to, in a confrontation, "pick your tree" so you
will not take that extra millisecond to decide which one to climb
BREEDING
Wild hogs will breed
year round, but births peak in spring and fall. Gestation is 114
days, and a sow will give birth to anywhere from 1 to a dozen piglets.
She can have 2 litters a year.
The sow is a superb
protectoress of her young. Sows can form cooperative groups, and
in danger will place their piglets in the center of their vicious circle
of snapping, foaming jaws. It is not necessary to threaten a piglet
to invoke the wrath of the sow...like a bear sow, just being near can be
enough provocation.
Maternal family groups
can travel together as well as back each other against danger. These
groups are called "drifts" or "sounders". The boars though are solitary.
Boars will mate with
any sow in season, often battling for the opportunity, and do not remain
to perform any familial duties.
HOG SIGN
The terrain most favored
by wild hogs is moist with dense cover, and preferably near water.
They love to wallow both to cool off and to help control tics and lice.
After a good wallow the mud caked hogs rub their bodies on nearby trees
and the muddy tree bases are called "hog rubs". Their wallowing behavior
includes urinating and defecating in the water.
Signs of a hog's presence are
not subtle. Besides the wallows and rubs, you will see rooting signs. Feeding
hogs can root up literally acres of land, and they have actually been used
to plow fields before planting. They will flip up entire mats of forest
floor to get at the meal underneath.
You can also, uncommonly, see gashes in the trunks of trees that were cut
with the teeth of an aggressive large boar, and you often see large roots
that they have chopped through with thier tusks, and even more often will
see dead wood that has been chewed open so the hog can get the worms, insects,
fungus and occasional small mammal or bird that are tucked into it.
Hogs will also make holes to rest in that keep them cool in summer and warm
in winter--they are just large bowl shaped craters but usually under some
type of cover. Whenever you see palmetto fronds flattened and disarranged
in an area, that is usually from hogs bedding down on and under the leaves.
Sometimes a sow will make a nest in a depression, and often, just like a
bird, you can see them plucking palmetto leaves and carrying them in their
mouths to their nest (which can also be on flat ground or tucked into a sheltered
spot in a woodpile or under palmettos) to line it with the vegetation in
preparation for the piglets.
A hog track is (usually) easily distinguished
from a deer track (see next page for pictures), and is probably one of the
best signs as you can see the direction he came from and went to.
The trails used by hogs are another valuable sign. Like most animals they
are creatures of habit and it is possible to see clearly worn trails on the
ground and tunnels in the brush. Tunnels that you might miss seeing in the
daytime, can stand out like distinct, shadowy doorways at night in your
lights.
You don't need the sensitive nose of a canine to smell some hogs, especially
a worked up boar. The boar hog smell can nearly knock you over, or you might
just get whiffs of it, but it's unmistakable. It would be easy to think
of the foul smell of a hog pen and imagine that that is what to expect, but you'd
be very wrong. A pen where hogs are kept in dense populations with
large accumulations of feces is nothing close to natural conditions, and
you will not find it out in the woods.
The hog scat is variable in appearance depending
upon the animal's diet, and sometimes hogs will eat the droppings of other hogs.
Back bristles, usually trapped on the bottom wire of fences,
is one more helpful sign.
But often here in Florida, though, hogs will favor swamp with dense cover,
tangled vines too thick to get through, every kind of reptile (Hogs eat snakes,
including rattlers, and where the hog density is up, the snake density is down--on
our ranch we've had two rattlesnakes since 5-99.) and insect
that you can imagine, and even if there is hog sign there, the odds of your
being able to get to it, much less see it are slim to the point of being
impossible. And that's the unique advantage of the Southern tradition of hunting hogs with dogs,
who can get though all the barriers, and use their accute sense of smell
to track the hogs down.Signs of a hog's presence
are not subtle. Besides the wallows and rubs, you will see rooting
signs. Feeding hogs can root up literally acres of land, and they
have actually been used to plow fields before planting.
A hog track is easily
distinguished from a deer track in three ways: the hog's hoof has rounded
tips unlike the sharply pointed deer hooves, the hog's foot shape is square
while the deer's is a triangle that is pointed at the front, and the hog's
toes usually spread when they walk while the deer's usually stay together.
Both have dew claws which can show in the tracks of the running animal.
The trails used by
hogs are another good sign. Like most animals they are creatures
of habit and it is possible to see clearly worn trails on the ground and
tunnels in the brush. Hog scat is variable in appearance depending
upon the animal's diet. Hair, usually on the bottom wire of fences
is another helpful sign.
HOG TRACKS
(photo) This hog left
a good track. The hoof tips are rounded, and we can tell he was not
in a hurry because his toes did not spread. If the hoof tips
don't clear the ground, they can drag forward to make lines in the dirt
that make the toes look pointed. This will sometimes make the hog track look like a deer track.
(photo) Here we have
a hog's front and back hooves. Again, the toes are rounded, and in
this more typical example the front hooves are spread. Toes can be spread
because the animal is heavy, or they can spread from the impact of running.
Deer tracks can imitate hog tracks though if the toe tips push deeply into
the ground so that all you see on the ground surface is the rounded middle
part of the hoof
(photo) Here is a deer's
hoof print that clearly shows the differences between the deer and the
hog print: the hooves are sharply pointed, the overall shape is triangular
and the two toes of the hoof are most often tightly together.
As with hogs though, more weight or more striking imact can spread their toes.
Both deer and hogs have dew claws that can leave an imprint on either side
of each track if the hooves sink deeply into the ground for what ever the
reason.
DIET AND PREDATORS
It would be shorter
to list what hogs do not eat than what they do eat. They are omnivores
and will eat virtually every plant or animal available. They are
not generally thought of as predators, but they are. They are drawn
to birthing areas by their acute sense of smell, and will eat the newborn
and placenta so there is no trace left. Ranchers cannot tell whether
they lost newborn stock or never had it.
They prey on reptiles
including the rattlesnakes, amphibians, birds, insects, worms, and any
smaller mammal that makes itself available. Carrion is eaten with
relish, and hogs are known to eat manure.
Favored vegetation
is acorns, any fruits, seeds or nuts, mushrooms, roots, bark, and although
they are not grazers, they will eat some grasses. They compete with
whitetail deer (Who also are not grazers; they are browsers.) to the detriment
of the whitetails.
Predators of the grown
hogs are humans, bears and panthers. The shoats and pigs can be taken
by dogs, coyote, bobcats and the larger raptors such as owls and eagles.
True to the hog's nature, shoats and pigs are commonly cannibalized by
larger hogs.
DISTRIBUTION IN THE US
The largest US populations
of wild boar are in Florida, Texas, California and Hawaii. They can
be found in half of the US states, and their range is spreading to include
the more northern states of Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky
and Ohio.
HUNTING REGULATIONS IN FLORIDA
Here in Florida hogs
on private land can be hunted year round with no bag limit. They
are considered as livestock of the owner. However a license is required
whether you are hunting private land or public. Public or leased lands
have very specific regulations on season, size and number, and the rules
will vary with location and conditions, so it is necessary to check with
the Florida Game and Fish Commission
in advance.
GLOSSARY OF NAMES FOR HOGS
Finally, here is a
glossary of hunters' and farmers' terms for hogs.
The term . hog covers any age, status or gender of animal.
A . boar is a mature male hog.
A . barrow (shortened to "bar") is a castrated boar.
A . sow is a female that has reproduced.
A . gilt is a female that has not reproduced.
A . shoat (shote) is any young hog that has been
weaned.
A . pig is any unweaned baby hog.
And a . piglet is only the very young baby hog. |
