Wild boar (sus scrofa) have existed on earth for more than three million years. The ancestors of today's common barnyard pig, they were probably first raised in a domestic capacity about 8,000 years ago. Even so, large numbers of wild boar were imported into the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These first arrivals were released into large fenced enclosures where they were left to fend for themselves. They did so well in their new home that their direct descendants can still be found roaming the same hills today. Boar, adult male of any species of swine. (Goulding, M.J. & Roper, T.J. (2002))
Adult females are known as sows. The name also applies to the wild boar that originated in Europe and formerly ranged the entire continent, northern Africa, and western Asia. The European wild boar is grayish-black and about 1.2 m (about 4 ft) long and 91 cm (36 in) high at the shoulder, with short, woolly hair interspersed with bristles forming a mane along the spine. The lower teeth grow into formidable tusks, which turn up and are sometimes 30 cm (12 in) long. They are used for defense and digging. The boar usually inhabits marshy forestland, feeding largely on roots and grain, although occasionally it kills and eats small animals. (Goulding, M.J. & Roper, T.J. (2002))Boars travel in small groups. Size and body variation in boars is probably due to interbreeding between wild boars and domestic stock that have escaped and become wild. Wild boars have been introduced to 20 states in the United States. Boar hunting was formerly a popular sport throughout Europe, but is now confined chiefly to central and eastern Europe, the only part of the continent where the animal is still abundant. In India a wild boar, larger than its European counterpart, is hunted by people on horseback with lances in the sport called pigsticking...................
