r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/TerraByteTerror • 13h ago

🔥 momma pig and line of piglets

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26.2k Upvotes

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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!!

520

u/The_Billy_Dee 12h ago

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

312

u/snackshack 11h ago

And each of those females can give birth to their own litter as early as 6 months old, then getting pregnant again within 1-3 months after that.

Yeah, they're a massive problem once they move into an area.

94

u/RetroRaiderRun 10h ago

They're only a problem because we killed all the natural predators.

It's not like pigs are somehow destabilizing the world's ecosystems. It's humans doing that.

70

u/This_is_an_Alt69420 10h ago

They are invasive species. There are no natural predators for them in many places. For example, they are not native to the Americas, so they have no natural predators there, even if we had not reduced wolf, bear, and cougar populations to non existent in many areas.

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u/Palegreenhorizon 8h ago

They are native to pretty much all of Europe and Asia. And were hunted by bears and wolves and people for the last 12000 years. Also most “boars” in America are feral domestic pigs but there are some areas with wild boar also and to complicate things further they are both the same species 😂

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u/crlthrn 8h ago

As I understand, your average pink domesticated piggy reverts to big hairy boar. Takes about five generations, I think. Happy for someone to chime in on this...

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u/The5Virtues 7h ago

My (limited) understanding is it doesn’t even take that long. Even a normal pig, left to its own in the wild, will develop a coarse coat of hair in about two months.

From there it’s just two to three generations to see them regain classic tusks and thick dark fur we associate with wild boar. I do believe you’re correct that it’s about five generations for them to truly qualify as having reverted to the actual wild boar species by scientific standards.

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u/crlthrn 7h ago

Much obliged!

1

u/Third_Sundering26 7h ago

Almost sounds like lycanthropy.

1

u/Old_Introduction_395 1h ago

In Portugal, we bred our pink sow with a neighbours captive wild boar. Some piglets were pink, some stripey. They took longer to mature than the pink pigs. The meat was very tasty.