A young lady killed a very substantial boar just about 5 minutes after getting into the blind on our hunting lease located between Abilene and Lubbock, Texas. She might not want her image on the internet, so I've cropped her face, but thought you'd like to see the hog. All of the hogs on this place have reverted to virtually the look of European Wild Boar. We used to see spotted, grays, and whites, but no more!



A half an hour later she took this eight-point whitetail with unique curly forked G-1's. Both the hog and deer were one-shot kills with a .270 Win. Some girls have all of the luck!

Congratulations to the lady on her kills.

That's not luck--that's skill!

Good on her---

That is right where I was raised...I miss northwest texas...no place like it! Congrats!!!

Ed

Thats great, thanks for sharing.
George

I find it very interesting the way hogs revert back to more primitive characteristics, so please keep posting these photos.

quote:

Originally posted by Karoo:
I find it very interesting the way hogs revert back to more primitive characteristics, so please keep posting these photos.

Some people attribute the "Russian" look to the release of European wild boars which interbreed with the feral stock. I know that this has happened in some places, but the location of this hog is rather remote and no one in the area has ever thought about releasing "Russians" in the vicinity. I suppose that you could have a DNA test done to count the chromosomes since wild boar and domestic swine have a different number (44 and 42, IIRC). But my observations over the last twenty-five years lead me to believe that natural selection brings out the latent genes of domestic swine to grow longer hair, have longer snouts, and certainly to be leggier and more fleet afoot.

quote:

I suppose that you could have a DNA test done to count the chromosomes since wild boar and domestic swine have a different number (44 and 42, IIRC).

Apparently, the only differences in chromosome number is between wild and hybrid populations of sus scrofa in the US. Please refer to the exhaustive text referenced below, specifically in the Cytological section...

http://agrilife.org/texnatwild...ntroduced-wild-boar/

The correct chromosome number is 38 in most populations of both European Boar and domestic swine. Some populations of boar in Western Europe have 36 chromosomes. Some hybrids of the Western European boar have 37 and, unlike many animals with an odd number of chromosomes can be fertile. So, it turns out that, unlike my initial assumption, it is not possible to determine Euro or domestic with simply a chromosome count.

I've read much of the literature available on the subject in the last 24 hours. There is a lot of information about potential hybridization, but no one seems to have studied the potential for the population to revert to "wild" physical features within a limited number of generations through natural selection.

I'm surprised at the amount of academic research which has gone into the question of pure/hybrid/domestic origins, but no one seems to have any pat answers.

Absolutely Outstanding!

Congrats to the young lady on her fine trophies! I've hunted pigs in California, Near Red Bluff in Tehama County, and they were long legged and ran the mtn. ridges like deer. What adaptable, and deliscious, critters they are!

Outstanding

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
I've read much of the literature available on the subject in the last 24 hours. There is a lot of information about potential hybridization, but no one seems to have studied the potential for the population to revert to "wild" physical features within a limited number of generations through natural selection.

I'm surprised at the amount of academic research which has gone into the question of pure/hybrid/domestic origins, but no one seems to have any pat answers.

There was a special National Geographic or Nova all about feral hogs, specifically Hogzilla... It also took an in depth look at the amount of time necessary for domestic hogs to revert to their "wild" appearance.

Would you believe as little as two weeks!! That is the time as was determined by a group of biologists studying the feral hog population explosion.

Seems when they are required to root for food they use different muscles than eating slop from a trough and the food source combined with the enormous amount of exercise contributes to the metamorphosis into "feral".

It was a very enlightening episode. I would love to watch it again.

Andy

I almost forgot....Congratulations to the young lady on her perfect pair-pork and venison. Makes for some great sausage!