Pigs and tusks

[therevjay]

I was talking to a friend about the TV show where they round up the wild hogs. Both of us are city boys but I know there must be some farmers/hog raisers here.

Are all pigs born with tusks? And the farmer pulls them when they are babies, hoglets ? (what ever ) Or only the males? Or like my buddy says, domestic pigs don't have tusks?

 

[BearBio]

Biologically, wild pigs and feral pigs/boars are the same animal/species (36 chromosomes). As far as I know, all have tusks. There is an old wives tale that they have different number of chromosomes but that's a fallacy (too complicated to go into it. If you really want to know, PM me)

BTW those a simply feral (wild) domestic pigs.

 

[Mule Packer]

The tusks on the male hogs are their canine teeth that continue to grow when they're in the wild. Because these canines are continually rubbing together, they get pretty darned sharp.

Domestic pigs have these "needle teeth" broken off with a pair of needle nose pliers as soon as possible.

Just another reason why you don't want to put lipstick on a pig.

 

[rojodiablo]

As mule packer pointed out- the cutters and whetters are pulled really quickly after birth.
Hogs are MEAN animals. And yes, I mean farm pigs too. They are calmed by castration, just like bulls. If the males were not castrated, they would go berserk every time a sow went into season. And...... with a hog pen with say 6 sows in it???? That would mean a sow in heat about every week or 2 all year long, without fail.
Boars have a tendency to dig and root a lot. And, if they are breeders, they like to break loose to form harems. Or, fight, to form harems. If the hogs had their tusks and were penned up- you would have wounded and scarred up pigs unfit for market and quite a few extra dead hogs out of your pens.

With all this said, tusk size is always a toss in the dark as to whether the wild hog you shoot will have good tusks. In soft earth areas without lots of real hard roots, you can see some incredible tusks. In hard dirt, rock and areas with tough tree roots, hogs wear out their tusks at an amazing pace. Of the 13 pigs I have taken this year, 3 had tusks 3" or better. None had a tusk exposed longer than 3-1/4". My son John took a boar with 4.75" tusks in April. Amazing, awesome pig fangs.
In all reality, pretty rare for the areas I tend to hunt a lot.

 

[Texas Star]

Biologically, wild pigs and feral pigs/boars are the same animal/species (36 chromosomes). As far as I know, all have tusks. There is an old wives tale that they have different number of chromosomes but that's a fallacy (too complicated to go into it. If you really want to know, PM me)

BTW those a simply feral (wild) domestic pigs.

BIO-

Are these all classed as Sus scrofa, and will domestic pigs gone feral eventually revert via breeding into the wild form?

 

[jaykellogg]

When I lived in Iowa I asked a friend who raised hogs what he did about tusks. He said he'd sneak up on the hog with a hammer and break it off, then catch the hog sleeping on the other side and break that off also.

 

[rojodiablo]

BIO-

Are these all classed as Sus scrofa, and will domestic pigs gone feral eventually revert via breeding into the wild form?

Breakaway hogs will revert to growing a full coat of hair within a year. They will form sounders, and become completely feral in shape and appearance within 2 years. Full on body morph; domestic pigs and cattle have fat in their muscle fiber; aka 'Marbling'. When animals revert to feral/ wild status, the fat will shift from being intertwined in the muscle to being an external fat store, which acts as a much better insulator from the elements, and also it leaves the meat much leaner and more capable of doing the work needed for survival.

And yep; the piglets will have tusks, and be rotten little shoats!!!!

 

[gtk]

pigs are mean, vile, and probably the most intelligent animal on a farm. I would rather try to head a blind pissed off adhd brahma bull than try to head a mean pig.. the only way we could keep ours in, was a souped up electric fence.. They will go under or through just about any barrier they want too..

growing up, i thought pigs just ate the slop & stuff my grandfather gave them, ... until one day I saw them devour a calf that was sick & almost dead..

 

[arjay]

My uncle was still raising hogs when I was small.Being chased by an old boar was very memorable for this suburban kid!

 

[BearBio]

rojodiablo is pretty much spot on. I've seen wild pigs eat fawns, rattlesnakes (like slurping spaghetti), grub up over an acre for acorns in one night. Terror on wild onions and domestic barley (we weighed one stomach sack at 65 pounds of wet barley).

I've got 3 hogs over 3" on tusks and one at 4 1/4. The biggest tusker was only 175 pounds==I've shot bigger hogs but with smaller tusks. Biggest weight was 270 lbs. Ours were all Central California stock--descendants of the old Hopper Bald importation, mixed with depression era abandoned stock. (the guy who managed Hopper Bald moved out to the Hearst Ranch and brought some of the original Black Forest stock with him)

A lot of "guides" will capture piglets (called "shoats"==a herd is a "sounder") and raise them to release on unsuspecting hunters. I won't say anything over 300 pounds is bogus but I've never seen any in the wild, at least in Cali. One easy way to tell is to look at the hooves. Are they all rounded from walking in a pig pen or cut up, rough, and grooved from running on rocky ground.

Within 2 generations, the shoats will develop the striped coat and the thick armor. After they become "footballers", they can hold their own unless a pack of coyotes, wild dogs, or a cat gets them.

We saw a large boar running across a field on an adjacent ranch one time (two brothers owned the ranches=we could hunt on one of them). He hit a the middle strand three stand fence at mid-chest height. (Our rule of thumb was that , if a hog had to duck under the strand, he was a keeper). He was going full tilt and stretched that wire about 20 feet==we could hear it tweaking where we were 200 yards away. A buddy (who had the hunting lease on that ranch) came tearing up on an ATV. The fence stopped stretching and shot the hog back in front of our buddy. The hog landed upside down and Brad went over the handlbars, landing a few feet on the other side of the pig. Nobody got hurt except we had sore sides from laughing so hard.

Texas Star, yes all are Sus scrofa. Some are/may be subspecies but most field bios don't pay much attention, especially on an invasive spevies.

 

[fiasconva]

I remember my grandfather having a special type of pliers that he used to either pull or snip off the tusks when the pigs were really small. He had an old brood sow that wouldn't let anyone but him get anywhere near the hog pen. That was one evil pig.

 

[arjay]

I remember my uncle doing that and getting bit.The swearing and flying piglet impressed the hell out of my 5 year old self.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

BIO-

Are these all classed as Sus scrofa, and will domestic pigs gone feral eventually revert via breeding into the wild form?

Actually the classification is Pigus Wildus

 

[therevjay]

OK, thanks everyone for the info. I was right, my buddy was wrong. All pigs pack daggers and are to be avoided. (Unless they are on a rotisserie.)

 

[williamlayton]

Certainly not Piggly Wiggly.
Blessings

 

[WPWarhawk]

My grandson was about 8 when he asked the owner of a Texas Ranch

"What's the difference between a wild pig and a 'regular' pig"

The ranch owner said ... "About three weeks"