Wild Boar (Sus scrofa)

Wild Boar overview

The wild boar is a stocky, bristly-coated wild pig and the ancestor of nearly all domestic pigs. It has a large wedge-shaped head, small eyes, a powerful snout for rooting and, in males, sharp lower tusks that grow throughout life. Native to Eurasia and North Africa, it is one of the most widely distributed mammals on Earth, helped by introductions to the Americas and Australia, where free-living populations are usually called feral hogs or feral swine and are often hybrids with escaped domestic pigs. Females and young live in groups called sounders, while adult males are mostly solitary.

How Long Do Wild Boar Live?

Wild boar can live 10–14 years in the wild and up to about 20 years in captivity. In practice, most wild boar die much younger. In hunted populations, which includes most of Europe and North America, few animals survive beyond four or five years, and piglet mortality is high.

How Much Does a Wild Boar Weigh?

Adult wild boar typically weigh 50–100 kg (110–220 lb), with sows at the lower end and boars at the upper end. Size rises toward the north and east: males in eastern Europe and Russia often top 200 kg, and the largest boars in northeast Asia have been recorded near 300 kg.

How Tall Is a Wild Boar?

A wild boar stands 55–110 cm (22–43 in) tall at the shoulder and measures about 0.9–2 m in head-and-body length. Mediterranean and Southeast Asian boar are smallest, while the biggest animals live in Russia and northeast Asia. The lower tusks of adult males usually show 5–10 cm outside the gum.

How Fast Can a Wild Boar Run?

Wild boar can run at about 40 km/h (25 mph) and are agile for their weight. They can also jump obstacles over a meter high and swim well, crossing rivers and even stretches of sea to reach islands.

How Long Is a Wild Boar Pregnant?

A wild boar sow is pregnant for about 115 days, often summed up as three months, three weeks and three days, though pregnancies of up to 140 days are reported. Litters usually contain four to six striped piglets, born in a nest of vegetation the sow builds.

What Do Wild Boar Eat?

Wild boar are omnivores and eat almost anything. Plants make up roughly 90 percent of the diet, especially roots, bulbs, acorns, beechnuts and crops such as corn. They also eat worms, insect larvae, eggs, small animals and carrion, finding most food by rooting through soil.

Diet type: omnivore. Roots, tubers, bulbs, acorns, beechnuts, fruit and farm crops form the bulk of the diet, along with earthworms, insects, eggs, small vertebrates, fungi and carrion rooted out of the soil.

Where Do Wild Boar Live?

Wild boar live in forests, scrub, reedbeds and farmland across Europe, Asia and North Africa, and as introduced animals on other continents. They need cover, water for drinking and wallowing, and ground soft enough to root in, and they avoid deep snow and open desert.

Are Wild Boar Endangered?

The wild boar is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It is abundant and expanding across much of Europe, and in countries where it has been introduced, such as the United States and Australia, it is treated as a destructive invasive species.

Least Concern

Wild Boar fun facts

• Wild boar piglets are born with pale and dark brown stripes that camouflage them on the forest floor and fade after about four months.
• A wild boar's sense of smell is sharp enough to find food buried well below the surface; its relatives, domestic pigs, were long used to hunt truffles.
• Boars develop a layer of thick tissue over the shoulders, sometimes called a shield, that protects them during fights in the mating season.
• Domestic pigs that escape can start to look like wild boar within a few generations, growing longer snouts, coarser hair and bigger tusks.
• Wild boar have colonized the suburbs of cities such as Berlin, Barcelona, Rome and Hong Kong.

Wild Boar FAQ

Related animals

All mammals