The wild boar (Sus scrofa), also called the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a member of the suid family. It is naturally found in much of Eurasia and North Africa and has been brought to the Americas and Oceania by humans. This species is now one of the most widely distributed mammals on Earth and the most widespread member of the pig family. It is listed as "least concern" on the IUCN Red List because it lives in many areas, has a large population, and can survive in different types of habitats. In some places where it was introduced, it has become an invasive species that harms local ecosystems. Scientists believe wild boars first appeared in Southeast Asia during the Early Pleistocene and spread across the Old World, outcompeting other pig species.
As of 2005, up to 16 subspecies of wild boar are recognized. These subspecies are grouped into four categories based on the height of their skulls and the length of a specific bone in their face. Wild boars live in social groups led by females and their young, including both male and female offspring. Adult males typically live alone except during the breeding season. In most of their natural range, wolves are their main predator. However, in the Far East and the Lesser Sunda Islands, tigers and Komodo dragons take the role of primary predators. Wild boars have a long history with humans, as they are the ancestors of most domestic pig breeds and have been hunted as big-game animals for thousands of years. In recent decades, wild boars have mixed with feral pigs, creating hybrid offspring. These hybrids have become a major environmental problem in the Americas and Australia.
Terminology
Before Modern English developed, true wild boars no longer existed in Great Britain. Because of this, the same words are often used to describe both true wild boars and pigs, especially large or semi-wild pigs. The English word "boar" comes from Old English "bār," which is believed to be related to the West Germanic word "bair." The term "boar" is sometimes used only for male wild boars or for male domesticated pigs, especially those that are not castrated and are used for breeding.
The word "sow," which is the traditional name for a female wild boar or pig, also comes from Old English and Germanic languages. It is linked to Proto-Indo-European, an ancient language family, and is connected to the Latin word "sus" and the Ancient Greek word "hus." It is also closely related to the New High German word "Sau." The young of these animals are sometimes called "piglets" or "boarlets."
The scientific name "scrofa" for these animals comes from Latin and means "sow."
In hunting, wild boars are given different names depending on their age.
Taxonomy and evolution
MtDNA studies show that the wild boar originated from islands in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and later spread to mainland Eurasia and North Africa. The earliest fossils of this species were found in both Europe and Asia and date back to the Early Pleistocene. By the late Villafranchian, S. scrofa largely replaced the related S. strozzii, a large, possibly swamp-adapted suid that was an ancestor of the modern S. verrucosus across the Eurasian mainland, limiting S. strozzii to insular Asia. The closest wild relative of the wild boar is the bearded pig of Malacca and surrounding islands.
As of 2005, 16 subspecies are recognized, grouped into four regional categories:
- sahariensis (Heim de Balzac, 1937)
- sardous (Ströbel, 1882)
- mediterraneus (Ulmansky, 1911)
- reiseri (Bolkay, 1925)
- nipponicus (Heude, 1899)
With the exception of domestic pigs in Timor and Papua New Guinea (which appear to be descended from Sulawesi warty pigs), the wild boar is the ancestor of most pig breeds. Archaeological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated from wild boar as early as 13,000–12,700 BCE in the Near East, specifically in the Tigris Basin, where they were managed in the wild in a way similar to how some modern New Guineans manage them. Remains of pigs have been dated to earlier than 11,400 BCE in Cyprus, which indicates that these pigs must have been brought from the mainland, showing that domestication occurred on the mainland by that time. A separate domestication also occurred in China around 8,000 years ago.
DNA evidence from the teeth and jawbones of Neolithic pigs shows that the first domestic pigs in Europe were brought from the Near East. This led to the domestication of local European wild boars, resulting in a third domestication event in which Near Eastern genes disappeared from European pig stock. Modern domesticated pigs involve complex exchanges, with European domesticated lines being exported back to the ancient Near East. Historical records show that Asian pigs were introduced into Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Domestic pigs typically have much more developed hindquarters than their wild boar ancestors, with 70% of their body weight concentrated in the posterior, the opposite of wild boar, where most muscles are concentrated on the head and shoulders.
The Heude’s pig (Sus bucculentus), also known as the Indochinese warty pig or Vietnam warty pig, was a claimed pig species found in Laos and Vietnam. It was hardly known and thought to be extinct until a skull from a recently killed individual was discovered in the Annamite Range, Laos, in 1995. Later studies showed that Sus bucculentus was not a valid taxon. As of 2022, the Mammal Diversity Database included it in Sus scrofa.
Description
The wild boar is a large, heavy animal with short and thin legs. Its snout is short and strong, while its back legs are less developed. The area behind the shoulders forms a hump, and the neck is short and thick, making it almost unable to move. The head is very large, taking up to one-third of the body’s total length. The head is shaped well for digging. It acts like a shovel, and the strong neck muscles help the animal move large amounts of soil. It can dig 8–10 cm (3–4 in) into frozen ground and move rocks weighing 40–50 kg (88–110 lb). The eyes are small and deep, and the ears are long and wide. Adult males have well-developed canine teeth that stick out from their mouths. The middle toes are larger and longer than the side ones, allowing for quick movement. The animal can run up to 40 km/h (25 mph) and jump as high as 140–150 cm (55–59 in).
Male wild boars are usually 5–10% larger and 20–30% heavier than females. Males also have a tuft of hair along their back, which is more visible in autumn and winter. Their canine teeth are more noticeable and grow throughout life. The upper teeth are short and grow sideways at first but curve upward over time. The lower teeth are longer and sharper, with exposed parts measuring 10–12 cm (3.9–4.7 in). During breeding season, males develop thick layers of fat under their skin, covering from the shoulders to the rump, which protects vital organs during fights. Males also have a small sac near the opening of the penis that collects urine and releases a strong smell.
The size and weight of adult wild boars depend on their environment. Those in dry areas with limited food are usually smaller than those in areas with plenty of food and water. In most of Europe, males weigh 75–100 kg (165–220 lb), stand 75–80 cm (30–31 in) tall at the shoulder, and measure 150 cm (59 in) in body length. Females weigh 60–80 kg (130–180 lb), stand 70 cm (28 in) tall, and measure 140 cm (55 in) in body length. In Mediterranean regions of Europe, males may weigh as little as 50 kg (110 lb), and females 45 kg (99 lb), with shoulder heights of 63–65 cm (25–26 in). In Eastern Europe, males weigh 110–130 kg (240–290 lb), stand 95 cm (37 in) tall, and measure 160 cm (63 in) in body length, while females weigh 95 kg (209 lb), stand 85–90 cm (33–35 in) tall, and measure 145 cm (57 in) in body length. In Western and Central Europe, the largest males weigh 200 kg (440 lb), and females weigh 120 kg (260 lb). In Northeastern Asia, large males can grow as big as brown bears, weighing 270 kg (600 lb) and standing 110–118 cm (43–46 in) tall. Some males in Primorsky Krai and Manchuria have been recorded weighing 300–350 kg (660–770 lb) and standing 125 cm (49 in) tall. These large boars are rarely hunted by wolves. However, such large individuals are uncommon today due to past overhunting.
The winter coat has long, stiff hairs covered with short, brown soft fur. The hairs are shortest around the face and legs and longest along the back. These back hairs form the tuft on males and stand up when the animal is upset. Coat color varies greatly; some boars near Lake Balkhash are very light, even white, while others in Belarus and Ussuriland are black. Some subspecies have a light-colored patch running from the corners of the mouth backward. Coat color also changes with age, with baby boars having light brown or rusty-brown fur with pale bands on the sides and back.
Wild boars make several types of sounds, divided into three categories.
They have a very strong sense of smell, which is used for drug detection in Germany. Their hearing is also good, but their eyesight is weaker, as they cannot see colors and may not recognize a standing human 10–15 meters (33–49 ft) away.
Pigs are one of four known types of mammals that have changes in a protein called the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. These changes help protect them from snake venom. Mongooses, honey badgers, hedgehogs, and pigs each have different modifications to this protein, which prevent a type of snake venom from attaching to it.
Social behaviour and life cycle
Boars are usually social animals that live in groups called sounders, which are led by an older female known as a matriarch. These groups include adult females, mothers with young piglets, and sometimes older females. Male boars leave their sounder when they are 8 to 15 months old. Female boars may stay with their mothers or create new groups near their birthplace. Young male boars may form loose groups, while older males typically live alone except during the breeding season.
The breeding season for most boars occurs from November to January, with mating activity lasting about one and a half months. Before mating, male boars develop thick skin and grow larger testicles. Their glands also produce a foamy yellow liquid. When ready to mate, males travel long distances to find a group of females, often eating little during the journey. Once a group is found, the male pushes away young animals and chases the females. He then fights other males to claim the right to mate. A single male may mate with 5 to 10 females. After mating, males often have serious injuries and may lose up to 20% of their body weight.
The time a female boar carries her young depends on her age. First-time mothers carry their young for 114 to 130 days, while older females carry them for 133 to 140 days. Piglets are born between March and May, with litter sizes varying based on the mother’s age and health. On average, a litter has 4 to 6 piglets, though some litters may have up to 10 to 12. Piglets are born in nests made of twigs, grass, and leaves. If the mother dies, other females in the group may care for the piglets.
Newborn piglets weigh about 600 to 1,000 grams and lack fur. They have one milk tooth and one canine tooth on each side of their jaw. Piglets compete for the best nipples to get more milk, which helps them grow faster. They stay in the nest for their first week. If the mother is not present, they huddle together for warmth. By two weeks old, piglets begin following their mother. If danger is near, they hide or stay still to avoid being seen. Their baby fur fades after three months, and they reach adult coloring by eight months. Piglets start eating solid food at 2 to 3 weeks, though they still nurse for 2.5 to 3.5 months. Their permanent teeth are fully grown by 1 to 2 years old. Most of their teeth stop growing by the middle of their fourth year, except for male boars, whose canines continue to grow and curve as they age.
Female boars can begin mating at 1 year old, while males can mate at 2 years old. However, females usually start their first mating cycle at 2 years old, and males typically join the breeding season at 4 to 5 years old because older males prevent them from mating. In the wild, boars can live up to 10 to 14 years, but most do not survive past 4 to 5 years. Boars in captivity have been known to live up to 20 years.
Behaviour and ecology
The wild boar lives in many different types of environments, including cold northern forests, deserts, and mountain areas. In mountain regions, wild boars can live as high as 1,900 meters (6,200 feet) in the Carpathians, 2,600 meters (8,500 feet) in the Caucasus, and up to 3,600–4,000 meters (11,800–13,100 feet) in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. To survive in an area, wild boars need a habitat that has thick vegetation for hiding from predators, access to water for drinking and bathing, and little or no regular snowfall.
In Europe, wild boars prefer deciduous and mixed forests, especially those with oak and beech trees that surround marshes and meadows. In the Białowieża Forest, the best habitat for wild boars includes well-developed broad-leaved and mixed forests, along with marshy mixed forests. Coniferous forests and undergrowth are less important. Forests with only oak and beech trees are used only when these trees produce fruit. In the Caucasus and Transcaucasian mountains, wild boars live in fruit-bearing forests all year. In the Russian Far East, wild boars live in nutpine groves, hilly mixed forests with Mongolian oak and Korean pine, swampy mixed taiga, and coastal oak forests. In Transbaikalia, wild boars are found only in river valleys with nut pine and shrubs. In some parts of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, wild boars are often seen in pistachio groves during winter but move to open deserts in spring. They have also spread to deserts in areas where they were introduced.
On the islands of Komodo and Rinca, wild boars live in savannas or open monsoon forests and avoid heavily forested areas unless chased by humans. Wild boars are strong swimmers and can travel long distances. In 2013, a wild boar swam 11 kilometers (7 miles) from France to Alderney in the Channel Islands. Because of disease concerns, the boar was shot and burned.
Wild boars rest in shelters made with materials like spruce branches and dry hay. These shelters are used by whole families, though males sleep separately. They are often near streams, in swamp forests, or in tall grass and shrub thickets. Boars never defecate in their shelters and cover themselves with soil and pine needles when insects bother them.
Wild boars are highly adaptable omnivores, eating a wide variety of foods similar to humans. Their diet can be divided into four categories:
A 50 kg (110 lb) boar needs about 4,000–4,500 calories of food daily. This need increases during winter and pregnancy. Most of their food comes from underground sources, such as plant roots and burrowing animals. Acorns and beechnuts are the most important foods in temperate regions because they provide the carbohydrates needed for fat storage. In Western Europe, wild boars eat underground plant material like bracken, willow herb, bulbs, and roots of cultivated crops. These foods are preferred in early spring and summer but may also be eaten in autumn and winter if acorns or beechnuts are scarce. If natural foods are unavailable, boars eat tree bark, fungi, and visit fields with potatoes and artichokes. Their digging and foraging can help invasive plants grow. In Ujung Kulon National Park, Java, wild boars of the vittatus subspecies eat mostly fruit, including 50 different types, especially figs, making them important seed spreaders. Wild boars can eat many poisonous plants without harm, including Aconitum, Anemone, Calla, Caltha, Ferula, and Pteridium.
Wild boars sometimes hunt small animals like newborn deer, rabbits, and bird chicks, as well as young calves, lambs, and livestock. In the Volga Delta and near some lakes and rivers in Kazakhstan, wild boars eat fish like carp and Caspian roach. They also eat cormorant and heron chicks, bivalve mollusks, trapped muskrats, and mice. There is at least one report of a wild boar killing and eating a bonnet macaque in southern India’s Bandipur National Park, though this may have been due to competition for food given by humans. There is also a record of a group of wild boars attacking and eating an adult axis deer.
Stable isotope analysis of fossil wild boar teeth from Thailand shows they ate a varied mix of plants.
Piglets are vulnerable to attacks by medium-sized cats like Eurasian lynx, jungle cats, and snow leopards, as well as other predators like brown bears and yellow-throated martens.
Wolves are the main predator of wild boars in most areas. A single wolf can kill 50 to 80 boars of different ages in a year. In Italy and Belarus’ Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park, wild boars are the main prey for wolves, even though other prey is available. Wolves are especially dangerous in winter when deep snow limits boar movement. In the Baltic regions, heavy snowfall can allow wolves to remove boars from an area completely. Wolves usually target piglets and young boars, rarely attacking adult females. Adult males are usually avoided. Dholes may also hunt boars, reducing their numbers in northwestern Bhutan despite many cattle being present.
Leopards hunt wild boars in the Caucasus, Russian Far East, India, China, and Iran. In most areas, boars make up a small part of the leopard’s diet. However, in Iran’s Sarigol National Park, boars are the second most common prey after mouflon, though adults are avoided because they are too large for leopards to hunt. This is partly due to the size of the local leopard subspecies.
Wild boars of all ages were once the main prey for tigers in Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, Middle Asia, and the Far East until the late 19th century. Today, tiger numbers are too low to control boar populations. A tiger can destroy an entire boar group by killing its members one by one. Tigers chase boars longer than other prey. In rare cases, boars have killed a tiger and a tigress in self-defense. A large male tiger died from wounds inflicted by an old boar during a fight.
In the Amur region, wild boars are one of the two most important prey species for Siberian tigers, along with the Manchurian wapiti. Together, these two species make up about 80% of the tiger’s diet. In Sikhote Alin, a tiger can kill 30–34 boars a year. Studies in India show that boars are usually secondary prey to deer and cattle, but when targeted, healthy adults are caught more often than young or sick
Distribution and habitat
The wild boar originally lived in North Africa and much of Eurasia, from the British Isles to Korea and the Sunda Islands. Its northern range stretched from southern Scandinavia to southern Siberia and Japan. It was not found in extremely dry deserts or high mountain areas. In North Africa, it once lived along the Nile River up to Khartoum and north of the Sahara Desert. It also lived on some Ionian and Aegean Islands, sometimes swimming between them. The northern edge of its range in Asia ran from Lake Ladoga (at 60°N) through Novgorod and Moscow into the southern Urals, reaching 52°N. From there, the boundary passed near Ishim and the Irtysh River at 56°N. In the eastern Baraba steppe (near Novosibirsk), the boundary turned south, encircled the Altai Mountains, and continued eastward, including the Tannu-Ola Mountains and Lake Baikal. From there, the boundary moved slightly north of the Amur River toward the Sea of Okhotsk. On Sakhalin Island, only fossil evidence of wild boar has been found. In Europe and Asia, the southern edge of its range was almost always the shoreline. It was not found in dry areas of Mongolia between 44°N and 46°N, in western China beyond Sichuan, or in northern India above the Himalayas. It also avoided high elevations in the Pamir and Tian Shan mountains, though it lived in the Tarim Basin and on lower slopes of the Tian Shan.
In recent centuries, the wild boar’s range changed greatly because of human hunting and escaped captive animals. Before the 20th century, boar populations declined in many areas. British wild boar likely disappeared by the 13th century. During the warm period after the ice age, wild boar lived in southern Sweden and Norway and north of Lake Ladoga in Karelia. It was once thought that wild boar did not live in Finland in prehistoric times because no bones had been found there. However, a bone discovered in Askola in 2013 showed that wild boar lived in Finland over 8,000 years ago. Humans likely prevented their return by hunting. In Denmark, the last wild boar was shot in the early 19th century. By 1900, wild boar were gone from Tunisia, Sudan, and large parts of Germany, Austria, and Italy. In Russia, they were wiped out in many areas by the 1930s. The last wild boar in Egypt died in 1912 in the Giza Zoo, with wild populations disappearing by 1894–1902. A man named Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein tried to reintroduce boar to Wadi El Natrun using Hungarian stock, but poachers killed them quickly.
Wild boar populations began to recover in the mid-20th century. By 1950, they had reached their original northern range in many parts of Asia. By 1960, they were found near Leningrad and Moscow, and by 1975, in Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan. In the 1970s, they returned to Denmark and Sweden after captive animals escaped. They later spread to Norway and by the 2020s, had established breeding populations in the southeast of the country. In England, wild boar returned in the 1990s after escaping from farms that had imported European boar.
Wild boar were already rare in Britain by the 11th century. A law from 1087 punished people who illegally killed a boar by blinding them. King Charles I tried to reintroduce boar to the New Forest, but this population was destroyed during the English Civil War in the 17th century. Between their medieval extinction and the 1980s, only a few captive boar were kept in Britain, imported from the continent. Escapes from wildlife parks began in the 1970s, but significant populations re-established themselves in the 1990s after escapes from farms. A 1998 study confirmed two wild boar populations in Kent/East Sussex and Dorset. A 2008 report identified these two areas as established breeding sites and found a third in Gloucestershire/Herefordshire and a new population in Devon. Another large group lives in Dumfries and Galloway.
Population estimates for the Forest of Dean were disputed because a photo showed over 33 boar in one group, and over 30 were seen near an escape site far from the original location. In 2010, a cull aimed to reduce the population from 150 to 100, but by August, only 25 boar had been killed. The cull failed to meet its goals by 2011. Wild boar have crossed the River Wye into Monmouthshire, Wales. A BBC wildlife expert tried to film Welsh boar in 2012. Many sightings across the UK have been reported. The impact of wild boar on UK woodlands was discussed in 2011, leading to calls for controlled culling.
In Scotland, wild boar are called "feral pigs" because they may have mixed genetics from wild boar and domestic pigs. They live in Dumfries and Galloway and parts of the Highlands, especially near Loch Ness. They can be legally killed without a license, and land managers cull them occasionally. As of 2024, an estimated few thousand wild boar live in Scotland. Locals near Loch Ness told The New York Times that boar are becoming a growing problem, as they have killed and eaten lambs.
Wild boar are invasive in the Americas, introduced by European explorers and settlers in the 16th century for food. They harm ecosystems by competing with native animals for food, destroying nests, killing young animals, damaging crops, eating tree seeds, and degrading wetlands. They also spread diseases like brucellosis, trichinosis, and pseudorabies. In some areas, it is illegal to import, breed, release, or hunt Eurasian boar. Hunting and trapping are done to reduce their numbers and prevent illegal releases by hunters.
Domestic pigs, both captive and feral (called "razorbacks"), have also been introduced to the Americas, but the text does not provide further details about them.
Diseases and parasites
Wild boars can carry at least 20 types of parasitic worms, with the highest number of infections happening during the summer. Young boars are especially at risk from parasites such as Metastrongylus, which they may eat through earthworms. These parasites can harm the lungs and may cause death. Wild boars also carry parasites that can infect humans, including Gastrodiscoides, Trichinella spiralis, Taenia solium, Balantidium coli, and Toxoplasma gondii. In southern areas, wild boars often have ticks (such as Dermacentor, Rhipicephalus, and Hyalomma) and hog lice. They also face problems with blood-sucking flies, which they try to avoid by bathing or hiding in thick shrubs.
Swine plague spreads quickly among wild boars, and outbreaks have been reported in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Belarus, the Caucasus, the Far East, Kazakhstan, and other regions. Foot-and-mouth disease can also become widespread in wild boar populations. Wild boars rarely get diseases like Pasteurellosis, hemorrhagic sepsis, tularemia, and anthrax. Occasionally, they may contract swine erysipelas through contact with rodents, hog lice, or ticks.
Relationships with humans
The wild boar has played an important role in the traditions and beliefs of many Indo-European cultures. These groups often saw the boar as a symbol of bravery and strength. In Europe and Asia Minor, killing a boar was considered a sign of courage. Neolithic people, who lived about 11,600 years ago, carved images of fierce wild boars on temple pillars at Göbekli Tepe. In Greek mythology, many heroes fight or kill a boar. For example, the hero Herakles must capture a boar as part of his third task. Theseus kills a wild sow named Phaea, and Odysseus is recognized by his servant because of scars from a boar attack. To the mythical Hyperboreans, the boar represented spiritual power. In some Greek stories, the boar is a symbol of darkness, death, and winter. One such story involves Adonis, who is killed by a boar and returns to the world only during spring and summer. This idea also appears in Irish and Egyptian myths, where the boar is linked to October, the start of autumn. This connection may come from the boar’s dark color, its habit of eating crops, and its nighttime activity, which were sometimes seen as signs of evil. The city of Ephesus was said to be built on the site where a prince named Androklos killed a boar. On Greek tombstones, boars were often shown with lions, representing brave people who had met their end, unlike lions, which symbolized victorious hunters. This idea also appears in Hittite culture, where boars were sacrificed after military defeats.
In Germanic cultures, the boar was engraved on shields and swords for protection. It also appeared on helmets, like the Benty Grange helmet, and was thought to help warriors in spiritual transformations. The boar was important in Germanic religious practices, especially with the god Freyr. Some believe the boar was a sacred animal to the Swedes, particularly the Yngling royal family, who claimed to be descendants of Freyr.
According to the Roman writer Tacitus, the Baltic Aesti people wore boar masks and decorated their helmets with boar images. The Celts held boars in high regard, considering them their most sacred animal. Some Celtic gods, like Moccus and Veteris, were linked to boars. Some myths suggest the Welsh hero Culhwch might have been the son of a boar god. However, the Celts’ love for boar meat may not have been as great as shown in stories like Asterix, as few boar bones found in archaeological sites show signs of being eaten, suggesting they were used in rituals instead.
The boar appears in Vedic and Hindu mythology. In one story, the god Indra kills a greedy boar that stole treasure and gives its body to Vishnu, who sacrifices it to the gods. In another version, the boar is described as a form of Prajapati, who lifted the Earth from water. In the Ramayana and Puranas, the boar is shown as Varaha, an avatar of Vishnu.
In Japan, the boar is seen as bold and reckless, with many words for recklessness referencing boars. The boar is the last animal in the Chinese zodiac, and people born during the year of the Pig are said to have boar-like traits like determination and impatience. Japanese hunters admire the boar’s courage and often name their sons Inoshishi (猪). Boars are also symbols of fertility and wealth. In some areas, people believe boars are drawn to fields where pregnant women live, and hunters with pregnant wives may be more successful. During the Meiji period, the boar was on the ¥10 note, and some believed keeping boar hair in a wallet could bring wealth.
In Mongol and Buryat folklore, the boar is connected to the afterlife. The Altai Uriankhai tribe believed the spirits of the dead entered boars before being taken to water. Before converting to Islam, the Kyrgyz people believed they descended from boars and avoided eating pork. In Buryat mythology, the Buryats’ ancestors were nourished by a boar. In China, the boar is the symbol of the Miao people.
The boar (sanglier) appears in the heraldry of England, Scotland, and Wales. Like the lion, it is often shown with weapons and specific colors. Scottish and Welsh heraldry shows the boar’s head with a cropped neck, while the English version keeps the neck. The white boar was the badge of King Richard III of England, who gave it to his supporters.
Humans have hunted boars for thousands of years. Some of the oldest artwork shows people hunting boars. In China, during the Holocene Climatic Optimum, boars made up 73% of large mammal remains, showing they were a major food source. The Ancient Greeks hunted boars for food, sport, and stories. The Romans continued this tradition, with Scipio Aemilianus being an early example. Boar hunting was popular among young nobles in the 3rd century BC as training for battle. Hunters used nets, dogs, and short spears to catch boars. As Christianity spread, boars were sometimes shown as symbols of evil, like the dragon in the story of Saint George.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Germanic tribes preferred hunting deer over boars. However, nobles still hunted boars for battle training. During the Middle Ages, hunters often targeted boars during breeding seasons when they were more aggressive. In the Renaissance, boar hunting became a privilege of the nobility, leading to criticism during the German Peasants’ War and French Revolution.
During the Soviet era, thousands of boars were caught in the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia using dogs and traps. In Nepal, farmers and poachers often kill boars to protect crops.