hogs turning feral

[Reuben]

I've got a ranch I bought in 2004. When I bought it, it had some hogs on it mostly all reddish brown or black. Right after I bought the place Tyson turned over a truck load of young hogs. They let them all go, they don't keep anything that has touched the ground. For several years I had a lot of predominantly white as well as red, brown, black and spotted hogs. As they have bred and been trapped and hunted, most of the hogs have gradually gone to mostly black with some spotted, some red and an occasional white. After the Tyson event the hogs had shorter snouts, smoother coats and were more compact and meaty. Now you occasionally see boars that you would swear were Russian. I don't think anyone would transplant hogs here as there were plenty in the first place. My only conclusion is they change their physical structure and color fairly rapidly. In my country the hogs stay pretty fat, but I don't have many really large hogs with the exception of an occasional lone boar. Some of them are really big and rangy. So far my dogs haven't gone life or death with one, although I have had neighbors kill them in the 400 pound range and most of them are runners. Take from this what you want, but hogs change in a hurry.

its kind of like the Africanized bees...a few got loose and 50 years later all of south and central America and part of north America are covered with them...more than likely it has to do with dominant genes and stronger bees that can take over the hive and reproduce their kind...

with the pink hogs that escaped the truck, they probably didn't stand a chance to reproduce themselves...some probably died from disease if they didn't get there booster shot or that medicated feed... 

[OWL Black Mouth Curs]

hogs will turn feral with feral characteristics in very few generations...
a lot of how they look depends on the country they are in, if they are in strong country, they keep the "domestic" look a lot longer. you get them into some sorry ole caliche and cedar hills, those suckers get sorry and long headed and long haired quick.

i believe nutrition and feed availibilty has alot to do with how long hogs keep a domestic look or start turning feral...  there is some country about 15 miles down the road from me that is that old stout granite type country, the feral hogs there look like they are half or three quarter good farm blood... short heads, big hams.... and those hogs have been feral in thru there since Jesus was a baby, there isn't any on purpose farm blood introduction into them either.

[TheRednose]

I saw an egg head one time say u could take a farm hog raise it on the farm couple years and it would look farm raised. Then take same hog and put it in a wooded pen and in a couple years its skull will change to be more like feral pigs. Then put this same pig back on the farm and it would again change back to the pen raised looking skull in a couple years. He claimed this morphing of the skull was due to the manner in which they got their food. As far as them getting long hair and turning black he said that even the farm raised pig in the wild woul begin to look feral in color and coat in a few years.

Right or wrong I don't know that's just what the egg head said.


Shotgun
Arkansas

I've read a few articles that have said the same thing. and i am with you I dont know if its true or not. But you know what they say if its in a book then it has to be true! lol 

[KevinN]

I tell you this...Halfbreed and I got on a feral/pot bellied cross boar one time....I KNOW it wasn't more than a few generations crossed and it was mean sum beatch.

[TLindley]

So will a dog take a domestic pig's track just like it would take a feral pig's track. Or is there a difference in the smell?

[sfboarbuster]

I tell you this...Halfbreed and I got on a feral/pot bellied cross boar one time....I KNOW it wasn't more than a few generations crossed and it was mean sum beatch.

I'll second that one! Someone dumped some potbellies on a place I use to hunt and after a year or so I was seeing a lot if potbelly characteristics in the shoats I was catching. They were for sure rank for how big they were.

Here's an idea, someone turn out some teacup potbellies, grab some chihuhuas, and do some miniature hog hunting!

[KevinN]

I tell you this...Halfbreed and I got on a feral/pot bellied cross boar one time....I KNOW it wasn't more than a few generations crossed and it was mean sum beatch.

I'll second that one! Someone dumped some potbellies on a place I use to hunt and after a year or so I was seeing a lot if potbelly characteristics in the shoats I was catching. They were for sure rank for how big they were.

Here's an idea, someone turn out some teacup potbellies, grab some chihuhuas, and do some miniature hog hunting!

  now that's funny!! 

[cliffhanger]

Hahaha yes it is! That would be a helluva sight!

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[Black Smith]

Yea they would be Scooby Snacks!!!! LOL

[marks]

Under Ideal Conditions
A domestic pig is born and released into the wild with other domestic pigs and no feral pigs= Generation 1
At 6 months it is able to reproduce. = Generation 2
The resulting piglet is able to reproduce at 6 months = 2 generations of pigs at a reproductive age in 1 year

Wash, Rinse, and Repeat......in 7-8 years you have 15 Generations.

I imagine you release a few domestic pigs into an area with wild pigs they would be absorbed much quicker.
3 litters per year and 3 generations per year are 2 different things.

[Reuben]

Under Ideal Conditions
A domestic pig is born and released into the wild with other domestic pigs and no feral pigs= Generation 1
At 6 months it is able to reproduce. = Generation 2
The resulting piglet is able to reproduce at 6 months = 2 generations of pigs at a reproductive age in 1 year

Wash, Rinse, and Repeat......in 7-8 years you have 15 Generations.

I imagine you release a few domestic pigs into an area with wild pigs they would be absorbed much quicker.
3 litters per year and 3 generations per year are 2 different things.

and only the strong survive...the ones that can adapt...

[jagdtank]

It does seem like a woods raised hog gets longer snouts. I've seen piglets from the same litter one set was raised in a small pen and the other in a wooded inclosure that was just built. it's all beat down now but for several months they were rooting constantly in unbroken ground with alot of roots and such. when you compare the two there is a vast difference in skull shape.they have some european in them though so that may be different than pure domestic.

[hogdoggintn]

Genotype vs. phenotype.

Genotype is the genetic make up of the animal.

Phenotype is determined by how the environment affects the animal.

Jagdtank gives a perfect example of this. The litter of pigs all had practically the same genes thus genotypically they are the same, but since they were raised in different environments they were phenotypically different.

For a population to develop "new" genetics without selective breeding takes many (possibly 100's) generations, but for a phenotypical change may only take one generation. 

[Reuben]

Genotype vs. phenotype.

Genotype is the genetic make up of the animal.

Phenotype is determined by how the environment affects the animal.

Jagdtank gives a perfect example of this. The litter of pigs all had practically the same genes thus genotypically they are the same, but since they were raised in different environments they were phenotypically different.

For a population to develop "new" genetics without selective breeding takes many (possibly 100's) generations, but for a phenotypical change may only take one generation. 

Genotype and phenotype IMO are both related to the environment when we are talking about wild animals...we are talking about hogs in the wild...I can see that it would not take too many generations to change the pigs because of all the pressure that is put on them from hunters with guns and doggers...the doggers will catch the slower hogs and the ones that want to stop and fight...The smarter ones and faster ones that want to run and those that run to the thickest part of the terrain live to breed and run another day...so phenotypically they have to change as well so they can run and fight and just be a more agile type of hog...Genetics is selective as well...

Jagdtank did say that those rooters had some feral blood in them so they are not identical to the other domestic hogs...

evolution sometimes takes hundreds and thousands of years but in some cases not that long...those that can adapt survive...those that can't will become extinct...

[cliffhanger]

They say cockroaches will be the only thing to survive the apocalypse, I'm guessing hogs will adapt and evolve to survive too!

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