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Originally posted by gohip2000:
I suppose the first thing would be to go somewhere that actually has them.

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Originally posted by swampshooter:
If you want to hunt free ranging, wild, pure Russian boars you'll have to go to Russia. What's here in the U.S. are feral hogs, 37 chromosome hogs. Russian hogs are 36 chromosome hogs and domestic hogs are 38 chromosomes. There are some Russian hogs on a few game preserves, but they are not free ranging. wild hogs. The feral hogs offer a lot of sport and danger. The mature boars are smart and mean. Doesn't matter that they might have a sot or two on them. Book a hunt, you'll love it like we do.

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Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Gato: When I read the above I would have bet money otherwise, but a quick Google search of "hog chromosomes" turns up several sources that show domestic swine with 38 chromosomes and European wild boar (which is exactly the same thing as "Russian Wild Boar", by the way) with only 36 chromosomes, while warthogs and red river pigs of Africa are listed with 34 chromosomes. None have the impossibly odd 37 chromosomes, however.

Considering how closely related all of the suidae are, I'm totally surprised at this chromosomal difference. As we have learned with many other species, however, the small difference in chromosomes does not prevent the various swine from interbreeding. After all, I've seen Texans sire children with Okies, and you can tell that Okies don't have the same number of chromosomes just by lookin' at em.

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Cytological Characters

The ancestral or basic diploid number of chromosomes (2n) within the genus Sus is 38 (Bosma et al. 1991). This number is variable within Sus scrofa, ranging from 36 to the ancestral 38 (Bosma et al. 1991). This polymorphism in the diploid number is the result of Robertsonian translocations (McFee et al. 1966). These translocations reportedly can be either of two types, one involving chromosomes 16 and 17, or another involving chromosomes 15 and 17 (Bosma et al. 1991). Rary et al. (1968) reported cytogenetic differences to be more useful than morphological characters for identifying the three forms of wild swine. However, within the geographic range of Eurasian wild boar, there appears to be a shift from 2n=38 in eastern Asia to 2n=36 in the western Europe (Bosma et al. 1991), and all three diploid numbers have been found in some populations (Tikhonov and Troshina 1974, Bosma 1976, Arroyo Nombela et al. 1990). The diploid number of chromosomes in both domestic and feral swine is 38 (Barrett 1971, Bosma et al. 1991, Mayer and Brisbin 1991). Wild boar/feral hog hybrids can have 36, 37 or 38 chromosomes (Mayer and Brisbin 1991). An animal with 2n=38 could therefore be any one of the three forms, and one having 2n=37 or 36 could be either a wild boar or a hybrid, and differences in karyotype are thus not nearly as useful as were initially reported.