Swine

Swine are cloven-hooved rooting omnivores, typically equipped with bristly fur, elongated snouts with a flat, fleshy pad for a nose, alert ears, and beady eyes. The males have wicked tusks projecting from the side of their mouths. Swine are native to all continents except Australia and Antarctica, and they have been introduced to the former, and to many islands, by man. Swine are usually only found where there is some thick vegetation for cover, but otherwise can be found in many habitats. Swine are particularly fond of wallowing in mud.

Wild swine are fleet footed and agile. They will flee from danger if given the chance, but become very dangerous adversaries when cornered or wounded. If a swine cannot escape, it will try to catch its assailant by suprise, bursting from the underbrush and using its strength to bowl its attacker over. Males will slash with their projecting tusks in the process, leaving a nasty gash. If escape is impossible, swine fight fiercely, biting, kicking, and slashing with their tusks.

The sense of smell of swine is remarkable. They use it to locate food, often burried underground, and to identify what is and is not edible. Their hearing is also quite acute, and is used as an early warning system to alert them to predators. The eyesight of swine does not have the ability to pick up fine details, and is mostly used to detect motion. The sense of touch of a swine is most sensitive around the face and especially the fleshy pad of the nose, so they will use their face to feel things.

Swine are omnivores par excellance, eating nearly anything that is even vaguely edible. They spend their active hours rooting through the ground, digging furrows to expose worms, insects, roots, and tubers. They gobble down mushrooms, grain, fallen fruit, any small animal they can catch, and carrion. The rooting of swine churns the soil. In areas where they are native, this serves to enhance the health of the forest. When they are introduced to areas where the local life has not had to deal with frequent overturning of the leaf litter and soil, they can cause severe ecological damage.

Swine are most active at dusk, dawn, and at night, spending the day bedded down under cover. Many species or populations live in groups, others are solitary except for sows with piglets.

Swine are hunted by man wherever they are found, primarily for their suculent meat. Swine are dangerous game, and are generally hunted with herds of dogs and several hunters for backup. Mankind has domesticated the wild pig, valuing it for its ability to turn nearly any refuse into tasty pig meat. Wild swine can be a nuissance when they root up crops. Swine have been known to eat people on occasion. This is often merely the result of scavenging on a corpse, but getting knocked over in a pigpen is very dangerous.

• Wild Hog

  Sus scrofa

  Wild hogs can be found across Europe and Asia, Northern Africa, and on many of the Indonesian isles. Feral domestic pigs have become established worldwide, and take on the characteristics of their wild ancestors. Unlike domestic pigs, wild hogs invariably have a coat of bristly hair. Wild hogs are often called wild boar, although the term boar more properly refers only to a male pig. Females are called sows.

  Wild hogs will make simple nests by cutting grass and spreading it into a mat. They then crawl under the mat for shelter.

  Hogs will gather into groups of as many as 100 individuals, although groups of 20 are more common in Europe while feral pigs in the Americas tend to be more solitary. The basic unit of hog society is the mother and her litter - as many as 12 striped piglets can seen following their mother around as she forages.

  Wild Hog
  The Size (and hence Strength and damage from attacks) given in the Type is for a large continental boar, but the size varies widely. Any size between -1 and +1 L can be found for adult hogs, with island populations being smaller. Sows will not have tusks. Wild hogs crossed with domestic pigs may reach Size +2 in extreme cases.

• Domestic Pig

  Sus scrofa

  The domestic pig is a wild swine that has been domesticated. Centuries of selective breeding have resulted in animals with mostly bare skin, short or no tusks, large to extreme size, and a more tractable temperment. Domestic pigs that escape will tend to revert back to their ancestral form within a few generations.

  Domestic Pig
  Like wild hogs, the Size of a domestic pig can vary considerably, from -1 to +2.

• Peccary

  Tayassu tajacu, Tayassu pecari, Catagonus wagneri

  The three species of peccary, or javelina, are found in Central and South America. These are all small swine, but their tusks and speed can make them dangerous adversaries. The peccaries of the genus Tayassu are particularly gregareous, with Tayassu pecari often found in herds of several hundered.

  Peccary
  Like wild swine, peccaries can vary considerably in Size, from -1 to 0 S

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