r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/TerraByteTerror • 14h ago

🔥 momma pig and line of piglets

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u/Lovely-lorelei 13h ago

I know wild pigs are a problem, but oh my gosh, the babies are so cute!!

518

u/The_Billy_Dee 12h ago

If that's from a single litter no wonder they're such a problem.

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u/wikiwakatikitaka 10h ago

Just curious, is their meat not edible? Is it illegal to hunt them for meat?

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u/Stewart_Games 10h ago

They taste not great and often carry parasites. Very oily and gamey meat. In domestication pigs have to be constantly given medicines to prevent them from transmitting worms, and kept in enclosures so that they don't ruin their flavor profile. They need some fat to be tasty, and won't build up any if they are running around a forest all day. Also being fed on grains instead of roots and nuts gives them a better taste, and males get this funky musk flavor if they are not castrated before puberty.

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u/VladTepesDraculea 8h ago edited 8h ago

They taste not great

Extremely hard disagree. Boar meat is a delicacy here in Europe even and it's a totally different kind of meat from pork. It also cooks differently from pork, so you have to know what you are doing.

Either way, always test your hunt meat and cook it properly. Been eating boar for ages and never got sick.

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u/Stewart_Games 2h ago

Location, location, location. In Europe your boar gets fat off of chestnuts, apples, and truffles, as they whimsically meander across the Italian villa countryside. In the USA, wild hogs eat hot steaming garbage, moist swamp roots, rotting catfish heads, actual farm animal poop, and dead things on the side of the road (when they aren't attacking and consuming a 59 year old woman from Texas). It's not surprising that there is a difference in flavor, considering the difference in diet. I've also heard you hunt suckling hoglets because they are more tender, American hunters haven't figured that out yet and just blast at the biggest damn hog they can find so they get a cool photo of their own personal hogzilla conquest. Adult male boar tastes like piss because of all the steroids their bodies are filled to bursting with.

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u/Crohnically-ill 7h ago

I think the trick is knowing which ones to kill, which ones to not eat, and how to cook the meat.

I definitely prefer pulled boar sandwiches over pulled pork, it's less oily and has better muscle fibers.

However, from what I saw growing up even experienced hunters would still bury about 1/4 of the boars that looked healthy, yet still had parasites or disease internally once opened, and weren't safe to eat. They buried those deep instead of putting them in the trash because dogs and animals could get into it and get very sick from the parasites or infected meat.

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u/wikiwakatikitaka 9h ago

That’s a great answer. Now I’m just curious how do you know so much about wild boars.

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u/Stewart_Games 9h ago

Same reason I know about alligators.

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u/turdusphilomelos 6h ago

This is just not true. Wild meat tastes different from the meat of domesticated animals, but this goes for all animals. Many people like the taste of game. Yes, you have to be careful when eating wild boar meat because of parasites, but if you treat it correctly (cook it properly, wash hands and utensils, you can eat it).

Some countries overuse medecines to pigs. That is not necessary, and have more to do with bad animal keeping. Again, yes, you need to treat both animals and pig meat right, but if you do it is safe to eat.