Hogs, Wildboar, feral pigs uk

[howard01233]

Reading different book seems like the hogs in the USA sows will allow other sows piglets to latch on if sow is killed.
Uk the Wildboar on average south east and overall have 2.4 young (average) but won’t allow others to latch on, I have seen a couple of sows with 6 young in toe.
I have also seen sows Forest of Dean with multiple young, and others sows nowhere to be seen.
Different views uk would be interested to just confirm.

 

[mereside]

Wild boar are social and in the family units have a tier system and play a role of responsibility, they will feed other Frischling or look after them if needed people talk of lower numbers but I think it’s under egged as from what I have have seen the litters are normal, can’t think there is a lack of food or habitat to have a lot lower yields than Europe, our weather is also kinder so again to me doesn’t go with figures stated.
They only need to hit a weight of around 40kg to breed and that can be achieved in the first year and it’s possible to have two litters a year, I have seen and shot boar in Europe that were under that weight carrying a litter so anything is possible and to me ours are no different to ones in France or Germany or any other place in Europe, regards Wayne

 

[howard01233]

Wild boar are social and in the family units have a tier system and play a role of responsibility, they will feed other Frischling or look after them if needed people talk of lower numbers but I think it’s under egged as from what I have have seen the litters are normal, can’t think there is a lack of food or habitat to have a lot lower yields than Europe, our weather is also kinder so again to me doesn’t go with figures stated.
They only need to hit a weight of around 40kg to breed and that can be achieved in the first year and it’s possible to have two litters a year, I have seen and shot boar in Europe that were under that weight carrying a litter so anything is possible and to me ours are no different to ones in France or Germany or any other place in Europe, regards Wayne

I have seen quite a bit of information in books saying won’t take on other young mostly uk but have seen to the contrary.
Think USA the sounder & groups over there so large the well being is to look after one another.
Thanks for your view Wayne

 

[VSS]

The European Wild Boar (such as now lives in feral populations in the UK) is a completely different type of animal to the feral hogs found in the USA, which are simply domestic pig breeds that have "regressed".

 

[mereside]

I have seen quite a bit of information in books saying won’t take on other young mostly uk but have seen to the contrary.
Think USA the sounder & groups over there so large the well being is to look after one another.
Thanks for your view Wayne

I know from seeing them they do take on others young and will also guard and protect them, I have also friends that have huge areas of hunting grounds in Germany and they also tell me this is the case, regards Wayne

 

[howard01233]

The European Wild Boar (such as now lives in feral populations in the UK) is a completely different type of animal to the feral hogs found in the USA, which are simply domestic pig breeds that have "regressed".

I am talking about both European wild boar, plus Sussex were I am loads of crossed domestic
That is why I set up a uk group to follow the variations here

 

[Oldstalker]

European wild boar [sus scrofa] will only breed once a year. The French have a problem with "cochonglier" - that is hybrid domestic pig [cochon] crossed with boar [sanglier] so the litters are larger and may breed twice a year rather than once. Very few of the wild boar we have in UK are purebreds; even farmed wild boar in the UK tend to start life as 7/8 in order to make them more handleable and easier to control. So most of the wild boar we have in the UK are at best 7/8 pure and as there have been sightings in almost every county in the UK now they are genuinely widely distributed. I remember seeing slots in S Warwickshire on the Compton Wynyates estate something like 35 years ago when nobody would claim there were wild boar in the county then. If one looks at the UK Wildboar website there are (or used to be) recordings set out county by county for the mainland. It is probably fair to say there are self-sustaining populations of significance in every county along the S coast of England. MAFF (now DEFRA) have studiously avoided the question for very many years but the advent and closer proximity of African Swine Fever in Europe as it marches eastwards from Belorussia and is now general in Poland and the Baltic states but has also jumped to E Belgium is, I believe, making them take more notice. Shortly they will have so to do.

In similar vein and time-frame an ex-army officer who set up a farm in Galloway was accused within a fortnight by his neighbours of allowing escapes. His reply was that he started with 42 and he still had 42 within the (genuinely very secure fences) and that any boar seen by his neighbours had come in from the surrounding countryside in order to mate with his sows and gilts. True, they had come from several different directions, as the wind boxed the compass, and that many years ago.

 

[howard01233]

Just a couple of escapees/released been following for many years.

 

[Lateral]

From my limited experience in Hungary, Serbia, and to a lesser degree, the UK, it’s common to see several sows, and their young, together as one big group.

 

[howard01233]

From my limited experience in Hungary, Serbia, and to a lesser degree, the UK, it’s common to see several sows, and their young, together as one big group.

Yeah reference sow s but the groups in uk aren’t anything like they used to be, other than heavily populated like the Forest of Dean. The young especially young males get pushed out quicker, this is of course like most animals reference balance within the group.
This is why there are good times of the year to shoot Wildboar due the these young males looking for there territory.
There seems to be a fair bit of conflicting info in the uk books, but all animals behave different if there is more of them, and abundance of food.