Wild boar description.

2. Contents:
 Introduction
 Scientific Classification
 Sub-species
 Habitat & distribution
 Morphological characters
 Diet
 Predators & threats
 Reproduction & life cycles
 Behavior & social structure
 Interactions with humans
 Commercial use
 Conservation status
 References

3. Introduction:
 Wild boar is also known as wild swin or Eurasian wild pig.
 Its scientific name is Sus scrofa and it is given by by LINNAEUS in
1758.
 It is native to Central Europe.
 It has 36 chromosomes.
 The grey wolf is the wild boar's main predator.
 The Wild Boar is an extremely adaptable animal as it is found in a
variety of different habitats.

4. Scientific Classification:
 Domain Eukarya
 Kingdom Animalia
 Phylum Chordata
 Class Mammalia
 Order Artiodactyla
 Family Suidae
 Genus Sus
 Species Sus scrofa

5. Sub-species:
 Wild boar has an extremely wide distribution with the number
of estimated Wild Boar subspecies ranging from 4 to 25.
 It is hard to classify them all as they can easily interbreed.
 There are 4 main subspecies (Central European boar, North African
boar, Indian boar, Central Asian boar)

6. Habitat & Distribution:
 Wild boars are found in tropical forests and grasslands.
 They tend to favor deciduous forests where the vegetation is dense.
 Their native range extends from central Europe, right across to
Japan to east and down to the rainforest of Indonesia in the south.
 Now, they are found in all parts of the world except Antartica.

7. Morphological characters:
 The Wild Boar is a medium-sized mammal with a large head and
front end, that leads into a smaller hind.
 They have a thick and course double coat of fur that consists of
harder, bristly top layer, with a softer undercoat beneath it.
 They have poor eye sight due to small sized eyes.
 They have a long straight snout.
 They have well developed canine teeth.

8.  The middle hooves are larger and more elongated than the lateral
ones and are capable of quick movements.
 The trunk is short and massive.
 The region behind the shoulder blades rises into a hump, and the
neck is short and thick, to the point of being nearly immobile.
 Its hearing is also acute.
 Males being typically 5-10% larger and 20-30% heavier than
females.

9. Diet:
 The Wild Boar is an omnivorous animal that primarily feeds on
plants.
 Feeds on young leaves, berries, grasses and fruits, and unearth roots
and bulbs from the ground.
 They supplement their diet by eating eggs, Mice, Lizards Worms and
even Snakes and they may occasionally prey on small vertebrates like
newborn deer fawns and chicks.

10. Predators & threats:
 Due to their incredibly large distribution, Wild Boars are prey to
numerous predators.
 Leopards and Tigers are amongst the most common predators of
the Wild Boar, along with other large carnivores like Wolves and
Bears, and also Humans.
 Although their numbers in the wild have dropped rapidly due to
predation.

12. Reproduction & life cycle:
 The breeding period in most boars lasts from November to January,
though most mating only lasts a month and a half.
 The gestation period varies according to the age of the expecting
mother.
 For first time breeders, it lasts 114–130 days, while it lasts 133–140
days in older sows (an adult female pig).
 Sows attain sexual maturity at the age of one year, with males
attaining it a year later.
 Once mated the female Wild Boar gives birth to 4 - 6 piglets in a nest
found in dense vegetation

13.  Wild Boar piglets are incredibly distinctive animals as they have light
brown fur, with cream and brown stripes which begin to disappear when
the piglets are 3-4 months old.
 The mother remains with her piglets for few couple of weeks to protect
them from predators.
 The maximum lifespan in the wild is 10–14 years, though few
specimens survive past 4–5 years.

14. A young piglet

15. Wild boar with its piglet

16. Behavior & social structure:
 Boars are typically social animals.
 Wild boar frequently wallow in mud, possibly to regulate temperature
or remove parasites.
 The wild boar produces a number of different sounds which are divided
into following categories:
 Contact calls: Grunting noises which differ in intensity according to
the situation.
 Alarm calls: Warning cries emitted in response to threats.
 Combat calls: High-pitched, cries in response to threats.

17. Wild boar wallows in mud.

18. Interaction with humans:
 Wild boar attacks on humans are not common but they do occur
occasionally.
 The type of interaction ,includes aggressive ones between the humans
and boars.
 The sows will attack if they feel their piglets are threatened, especially
if a human physically come between them and their piglets.

20. Commercial use:
 In many countries, boars are farmed for their meat, and in countries
such as France and Italy. For example, boar may often be found for
sale in butcher shops or offered in restaurants.
 The meat is of higher nutritional value and having a much higher
concentration of essential amino acids.
 In Germany, boar meat ranks among the highest priced meat.
 The hair of the boar was often used for the production of
the toothbrush in the 1930s.

21.  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
was not the best material for oral hygiene as the hair were slow to dry
and usually retained bacteria. Today's toothbrushes are made with
plastic bristles.
 Boar hair is used in the manufacture of paintbrushes, especially those
used for oil painting because bristles are stiff enough to spread the
paint well.

22. Conservation status:
 Today, the Wild Boar has been listed by the IUCN as being a species
that is of Least Concern of becoming extinct in it's natural
environment in the near future.
 Population numbers are suffering on the whole however, mainly due
to hunting and loss of habitat.

24. References:
 Oliver, W. & Leus, K. (2008). "Sus scrofa". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Version 2008. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 6 March
2013. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least
concern.
 Wozencraft, W.C. (2005). "Order Carnivor". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal
Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns
Hopkins University Press.
 Heptner, V. G. ; Nasimovich, A. A. ; Bannikov, A. G. ; Hoffman, R. S. (1988)
Mammals of the Soviet Union, Volume I, Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution
Libraries and National Science Foundation.
Oliver, W. L. R. et al. 1993. The Eurasian Wild Pig (Sus scrofa). In Oliver, W. L. R.,
ed., Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos – 1993 Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan,
112-121. IUCN/SSC Pigs and Peccaries Specialist Group.
 Chen, K. et al. "Genetic Resources, Genome Mapping and Evolutionary Genomics
of the Pig (Sus scrofa)".