Some animals of the same family but different species have many similar features. This creates a little confusion and problem in differentiating between them. Boars and pigs both are an example of such animals. Both of them are similar due to their same family and similar physical characteristics. For example, black pigs and black boars look the same.
Despite their similar features, both animals have several differences. Below are differences and other information about them, which make it easy to differentiate. Differentiation is important for people studying biology, and in general, knowledge of animals is useful.
Pig vs Boar
The main difference between pig and boar is in their body structure and nature. They mainly can be differentiated on the fact that not both of them can be used for domestication, pigs can be domesticated while in some cases they cannot as they can be wild sometimes in such cases they will not be domesticated whereas boar is a wild animal that makes not suitable for domestication. Pigs are taller, which also makes them heavier than boar, which is relatively lighter and shorter than pigs. Pigs are found is less cold environment hence they have less thick fur when compared to boar which lives in harsh environment and have thicker fur. Except for these, they also differ in terms of colors, dork, and canines.
Pig is an animal often called swine. They are also domesticated for several reasons. Eating them is one of them. They can be of different colors, such as yellow, pink, black, brown, etc. they can eat plants as well as other animals, which means they are omnivores. They have a lifespan of around 15 to 20 years. Piglets or baby pigs have pointed teeth known as canines that are removed during childhood to avoid aggression.
Boar is wild swine or sometimes refers as wild pigs that are not domesticated. They always have a black or brown body with short, thin legs. They have the scientific name Sus scrofa, they have a gestation period of about 115 days. They are among the widest-ranging mammals in the world. They have thick fur on their body to protect them from extreme cold or hard weather. Like pigs, they also have canines.
Comparison Table Between Pig and Boar
| Parameters of Comparison | Pig | Boar |
| Domesticated | They can be | They cannot be |
| Color | Dark and light | Dark color |
| Size | Bigger | Comparatively less big |
| Removal of canines | Are removed | No such process |
| Fur | Less thick | Thicker |
What is Pig?
Pigs can be seen easily rolling down in the mud, but otherwise, they are said to be one of the cleanest animals as they take body waste out in a far place than their living area. They only like mud as it makes their body cool and for having fun. A baby pig is called a piglet. Wild pigs can survive in harsh conditions while domesticated ones cannot. They do eat meat but not by hunting. Along with this, they also like to experiment with their food and like to eat a lot. They have good taste sense but very weak eyesight.
They are said to be smarter than dogs. There are over 2 billion pigs in the world, and they can be found everywhere except Antarctica. In China, they are represented as honesty, fortune, happiness, and virility. To keep their body warm, they like to cuddle and hug each other. They have a good memory, as they remember things for years, things including people, places, food, etc. piglets can walk and run immediately after being born, and they are born with open eyes.
What is Boar?
There are subspecies of them with similar features and are close relatives of pigs. Their body color differentiates that is based on their environment; they are medium size animals with the oval-shaped body. Boars have harsh and bristly hair on their body; they have a thicker coat of different colors to protect them from harsh climatic conditions. During mating season, male boar use their tusks. They are omnivores and mainly eat reptiles and fruits-vegetables. They are active at night and hide during the day by sleeping for around 12 hours.
Large boars have several enemies that hunt them, mainly being lions, tigers, bears, and humans also. They like solitary life, apart from the mating period. A female pig can give birth to 4-6 pigs at a time. During the first couple of months, baby boar depends completely on their mother. They have a life span of around 10 to 20 years. They have stripes on their body during the initial months, which start disappearing after a couple of months.
Main Differences Between Pig and Boar
- Both of them differ in terms of domestication. Some species of Pigs are domesticated while some of them are not due to their wild nature, whereas Boar is never domesticated due to their wild nature. This also means pigs can be used for some domesticated purpose by humans while boar does not serve such purposes.
- In terms of color, pigs can be of dark and light color. For example, pigs that are domesticated are pink, wild pigs are dark black, while some of them can be yellow whereas boar are always dark in color, they can be brown and black, they cannot be of any light color such as pink.
- Although both of them have short legs if compared, pigs have longer legs slightly with a wider body which makes them look taller than a boar, whereas boar has short, thin legs, which makes them look shorter. Boar has a relatively short body with a large head, while pigs have a broader and massive body along with a big head.
- Both of them have canines; these are types of teeth that are pointed. In pigs, these teeth are removed as they can be dangerous due to their aggressive nature when pigs are domesticated, whereas board, due to not-domestication nature, does not need these canines to be removed.
- Lastly, the tail in pigs that are domesticated is removed when they are babies. This makes the tail of the short, whereas boar also has a tail, but they need to be cut to make them short as they are wild and not kept as a pet.
Conclusion
Therefore, there should not be any problem in recognizing whether it is a boar or pig. Both of them are also called swine. Apart from color, both of them have tails, pointed teeth called canines, short oval bodies, and belong to the same taxonomic family, Suidae. The major difference between them is in terms of domestication, and due to this, there are other differences as well between them. For example, pigs can be seen more commonly, while boras are seen rarely (mostly in forests). They can be even mistaken by biologists, then for a common man, these terms might be the same and used interchangeably.
References
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0531.2011.01828.x
- https://science.sciencemag.org/content/307/5715/1618.abstract
- https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-6148-8-7
- https://academic.oup.com/jas/article-abstract/62/3/632/4658542
- https://rep.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/rep/84/2/jrf_84_2_025.xml