WILD PIGS AND PECCARIES

WILD PIGS

They are actually not special animals because they can adapt and spread, by now, all over the world. They live in a wide variety of climates and habitats, such as forests, steppes, savannah, and swamps.  Original they were not found in Australia and North and South America but with spreading of mankind they were introduced.  In some areas the wild and feral populations became pests.

They live in bushes, reeds and high grasses. They even made themselves at home in areas where there are human population. The wild pig’s main requirement for survival is water. The necessity is for them to bath in mud which is very important to their health.

FOOD AND HUNTING

Pigs are known for their extraordinary sense of smell even it is way below underground. Therefore they can find food quickly.  They dig with their hardened edge of their snout.

Their usual diet is grass, leaves, roots, fungi, fallen fruit and seeds but they are also carnivorous but only at a certain time of the year. Then they would eat rabbits, rodents, snakes, frogs, lizards, eggs, ground-nesting birds, insects and their larvae. Wild pigs had also been seen to attack and eat larger animals but this is rare.

FAMILY LIFE

Pigs are very sociable. They can be found either living in pairs or groups. They love touching each other, lying close or grooming each other. On a whole they live a very peaceful life. Now and then a little skirmish breaks out about food but nothing major. A different story is during rutting season when bloody battles break out which are always fought by males over one or two females.

In cooler climates the mating season is in the autumn and giving birth in the spring. In hot or tropical climates mating is all year round.  They give birth between one and 12 babies.

RELATIONSHIP WITH MAN

Wild boars have been killed for food way back in history. During the Middle Ages the very aggressive wild boars were a great sport for European Kings.  It was even more dangerous for the ordinary man. It is incredible when you look at the domestic pig which is such a placid animal.

The introduction of wild boar and feral pigs was very damaging to the native fauna and flora of New Zealand and Australia. They were responsible for the unique retile, the tuatara, to drive it to almost extinction.  They also cause great damage to ground-nesting birds which Australia has a number of.

In Madagascar the bush pigs are digging up the eggs of the rarest tortoise in the world, the ploughshare tortoise.  Unless there is a great control it will be lost forever.
 

SPECIALIZED TEETH

The upturned canines of wild pigs are not for digging up food.  They are there for a display of aggression and to intimidate rivals. The warthog’s upper tusks look dangerous but it is the smaller and sharper lower tusks which inflict wounds.

PECCARIES

They are living in Central and South America; the peccaries are pig-like animals with slender legs. They are living in either small groups or large herds according to their habitats.  Their habitats are a wide range of wet and dry tropical forest, chaparral and oak grassland.  Their territory can be anything between 30 to 280ha.

It was only recently discovered the Chacoan peccary which live in thorny forest.  The animal feeds on isolated groups of palms and grasses.

FOOD AND HUNTED

Peccaries are omnivorous. They feed on roots, seeds and fruits.  Sometimes they attack a small animal when there is one.  They are a favourite food for mountain lions and jaguars.  It had been notice that when a predator attacks one of the peccaries sacrifices itself to allow the rest of the group to escape.

COLLARED PECCARY

The collared peccary of the Americas looks like the wild boar of Europe, Asia and Africa. It is only distantly related.  The animals live in herds which could count up to 50.  Within a herd there are separate family groups. A family group has 14 peccaries and every male has three females.  A herd lives in a territory which is viciously defended.  Normally their enemies are jaguars and mountain lions but the worst enemy is man cutting back their habitat.