I'm not an expert on wild pigs, but yesterday at the photo lab I work at, a customer showed me a photo of a wild boar they had hunted and it was dark and hairy just like this one. So maybe some purebreds do look like this. Except that my cusomter's was HUGE (1800 pounds)! It was a feral/wild one shot in Texas. Many parts of the southeast United States apparently have wild boars that were imported and either escaped or let loose decades ago. I have heard some grow to gargantuan proportions (much larger than any found in their native habitat), but this is the first photo I've seen. I mean I am not exaggerating at all when I say it looked like a grizzly bear!
It does look a bit... off. A little like an 'Iron Age' pig, which I believe are mostly Tamworth x Wild Boar in various proportions. A little too black and long-haired for a pure Wild Boar I would say. Does anyone know how pure the feral boar in the US are in general?
Looking at snowleopard's other photos (of which there are many, he does spoil us!), this photo looks even more dubious...
This photo shows a good-looking boar, the colour is variable of course but comparing the two the head shape is quite different.
In the 2 acre wild boar enclosure at the Greater Vancouver Zoo there are between 18-21 boars at the moment, with at least 10 piglets running around in different age groups. Some of the animals look a little like domestic pig/half-breeds, while others are more of a representation of a true wild boar.
Yes the floppy ears give it away, it is a domestic pig, perhaps a feral pig? I believe the wild pigs in the USA and Australia etc are decendant from domestic pigs that were brought there to be farmed and escaped. Pigs are one of the few domestic animals that can revert to a wild state in one generation. I watched an interesting program once on how pigs head shap changes when released in just one generation. It was quite amazing!
the last photo there is more like a proper wild boar
