This is a good topic as I have been studying this for many years. As you may know we process 100's of skulls each year and plenty are from various species of wild swine. I like hog hunting about as much as any kind of hunting so I had a special interest in the skulls of all these "wild swine". Whether they are called Wild boar, razorbacks, Piney wood rooters, "russian boars" feral hogs or what ever name they have been given.
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<br>I have written articles for the news paper called the "Califorina hog hunter" and had long discussions with Hog hunters in Oklahoma, Texas, California, and New Hampshire, Oh yeah, even Tennesse, regarding the origins and populations of the hogs each area has. I was pretty well convinced of the True blood lines on European hogs only after hunting in New hampshire. The species of hogs they had was entirely different then anything I had ever seen. This is what really peaked my interest in figuring out why almost everybody refered to hairy wild pigs as "Russian Boars".
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<br>I suppose the name Russian boar was suppose to elevate the target to a higher status. As well it should. Those animals of a true blood Russian blood line are enormous and with certain charactistics that are much different then what most folks call "Russian boars" The great majority of wild swine likely came from european or Asian origin. Probably through shipping and the long travels across the ocean where refrigeration was not possible. With that type of live stock used for food the european origin was likely but not with a true wild boar. The hogs they carried across with them were of a domestic origin so that they could be managed. Nobody packed a true 500 pound wild beast of a boar which would fight and kill any other pig in the same enclosure all the way across the ocean for food.
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<br>There were two notable origins of true wild hogs with a third spin off population. The very first was New Hampshire by a man who imported them from Russia for hunting on a large private reserve. The second and most famous was another identical venture in Tennesse. Those hogs all escaped on the first hunting day and not a single one was killed. In Tennesse it was popular during that era to leave your hogs run wild with a certain notch pattern in the ear for identification. These wild but "domestic" hogs eventually joined up with the escaped Russsian hogs and that is the origin in Tennessee. The New hampshire hogs as far as I know are still Just Russian or European in genetic's
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<br>The Spin off population happend on Santa Cruise island in California. There were some hogs released there of pure European blood lines. As explained to me they are to this day a strong genetic population of some type of European swine, although much smaller then the true "Russian hogs" of the Soviet Union, Poland, Czec republic, etc. Now rumor has it that some of these European "pure blood line hogs" were smuggled off Santa Cruise Island a long time ago and released in A few areas of Northern California. These have since been running wild and breeding with the others species of wild swine in a similiar situation to Tennessee. The California European stock is not a Russian strain but from a smaller and faster breeding population. Still with similiar physical features, and black hair. they do not have the body mass, height, or skull size of the true Russian hogs.
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<br>Those in Texas and Oklahoma including the surrounding states of Arkansas and Louisana are simply Feral domestic stock which has run wild since the beginning of human habitation in The area. There is a web site which explains the origin or wild swine in Texas. I cannot recall the site name but I think it's associated with a college in Texas. I will include a few photo's of the various swine I have come across in reference to this.
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<br>The skull on the Left is the one direct from the Soviet Union. It is a good sized adult Boar. The one on the right is a 300 pound boar from California. Note the skull slope and size. I have seen a 100 skulls from the USA that are about as big as the one from CA. It's a big adult wild boar. However it's not even close in size to the Russian Boar skull. It's been our experience that to get a hog skull equal in size to the Pure Russian hog it must be crossbred with a domestic hog which then changes the slope of the skull. It's not to tough to get a flat skull that is smaller from the other European species, but it's not possible to get one as big as the one shown here and have the skull flat.
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<br>Look at the length of this skull ! 18 plus inches long, has anyone ever seen a skull from an American killed hog this long and perfectly flat? I think not!
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<br> Here is a good idea of the flat skull genetics of a Russian or European species of hog.
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<br>Here is a typical wild hog from the USA at about 300 pounds look at how young it is. The rear molars have not completely erupted yet and he is already about 300 pounds. The same hog in the Soviet Union would only be 150 pounds and two times the age! The American hog skull shown is from a pig that is about 6-8 months old.
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<br>This photo is from the Russian hog showing all molars fully developed and with some major tooth wear. Few wild hogs in the USA will even come close to the genitics of a True wild European hog. I have yet to see one 16" long and the European wild hogs from Europe will make that length on a regular basis with the long flat snout.