Pigs

The red river hog is a member of the Suidae family living in the rainforests of Equatorial Africa.

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Man, I love bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. Pork sausage in its many forms is divine. And the Easter ham was delicious. Barbequed ribs and pulled pork are fantastic and a stuffed pork loin is a favorite on the smoker. I’m a carnivore through and through and I owe a lot of that to pigs.

Pigs belong to the family, Suidae, and are members of the genus, Sus which houses nine species, eight of which are called pigs, if you count the domestic pig, Sus domestica, as separate from its parent, the wild boar (the single naming exclusion), Sus scrofa—an argument still up for debate. There are five other genera with a total of ten species and these are called either hogs (six of species) or babyrousa (four of species).

All suids, also called swine, are native to the Old World of Asia, Africa, and Europe. If you are like me, you are going to immediately object to this, pointing out that North America has a native pig, the peccary or javelina. It took me a few minutes and a peek at the internet to remember that peccaries are not members of the Suidae family, but rather, the Tayassuidae (New World pigs) and can be found not just in North America, but Central and South America and some islands of the Caribbean. They are close relatives to the Suidae, but we aren’t playing with hand grenades here so close isn’t close enough.

Pigs and humans have had a long history. Perhaps as far back as 10,000 years B.C., pigs were domesticated from local wild boar by farmers in the Middle East. As these farmers migrated to Europe about 8500 B.C., they took their domesticated pigs with them where they interbred extensively with free-ranging, truly wild, European wild boar. Today, not much of the original Middle East DNA is left in domestic pigs.

The domestication of animals such as pigs, cattle, sheep and goats shouldn’t be underestimated. This is what allowed us humans to transition from a nomadic to a domestic lifestyle. This in turn gave humans more time to dedicate to inventions and improving the quality of life.

Because of introductions around the world, suids are one of the most widely distributed animals. Even then, there may have been a time when they were even more widely distributed. The fossil record shows that there are at least 30 extinct genera (six extant).

With few exceptions, suids are omnivores like us. They will eat a wide variety of foods from plants to vertebrates. Who hasn’t got a family story somewhere about uncle Fred getting drunk and falling into the pig pen to never be seen again? They are also prolific, having large litters—according to a report from Purdue University the average litter is 10-11—sometimes up to three litters a year. That is good if you are a pig farmer or a bacon lover, not so good in other circumstances.

Those other circumstances are when the pigs are feral, alternatively called wild boar, wild hog, Old World swine, razorback, Eurasian wild boar and Russian wild boar, or if you are a scientist, Sus scrofa. Thirty-five states now have established wild boar populations totaling over six million animals that cause 2.5 billion dollars in damage annually to crops, forestry, livestock, and pastures.

Eradicating these wild pigs has proven to be a real challenge. It is best if you can remove an entire group, called a sounder, but that has proven to be difficult due to the extreme adaptability of these animals. Control measures include trapping, aerial gunning and professional hunting, but the pigs have continued to grow in numbers and distribution annually to the detriment of agriculture and wildlife management.

There are persistent rumors of wild boars in Idaho, and one possible wild boar was shot and killed in Jefferson County in 2020. This is one big game animal that we really don’t want to see established in our state, so if you see one, try your best to make it into some heavenly meals.

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Help Idaho Wildlife

When we traveled across the state in October 2017, most of the vehicles we saw using the wildlife management areas did not have wildlife plates. Buying wildlife plates is a great way for non-hunters and hunters alike to support wildlife-based recreation like birding.

C'mon folks, let's help Idaho's wildlife by proudly buying and displaying a wildlife license plate on each of our vehicles! 

See below for information on Idaho plates. Most states have wildlife plates so if you live outside Idaho, check with your state's wildlife department or vehicle licensing division for availability of state wildlife plates where you live. 

And tell them that you heard about it from Nature-track.com!

Wildlife License Plates

Great news! as of 2024, there are three NEW designs for license plates. They still are bluebird, cutthroat trout and elk, but they are beautiful.

Idaho Wildlife license plates provide essential funding that benefits the great diversity of native plants and wildlife that are not hunted, fished or trapped—over 10,000 species or 98% of Idaho’s species diversity. Game species that share the same habitats (such as elk, deer, antelope, sage-grouse, salmon, trout) also benefit from these specialty plates.

No state tax dollars are provided for wildlife diversity, conservation education and recreation programs. Neither are any revenues from the sale of hunting or fishing licenses spent on nongame species. Instead, these species depend on direct donations, federal grants, fundraising initiatives—and the Idaho Wildlife license plates.

Both my vehicles have Bluebird Plates. I prefer the bluebird because the nongame program gets 70 percent of the money from bluebird plates, but only 60 percent of the money from elk and trout plates - 10 percent of the money from elk plates supports wildlife disease monitoring and testing programs (to benefit the livestock industry) and 10 percent from cutthroat plates supports non-motorized boat access.

Incidentally, in 2014, the Idaho Legislature denied the Department of Fish and Game the ability to add new plates or even to change the name of the elk and cutthroat plates (very specific) to wildlife and fish plates, a move that would have allowed for changing images occasionally and generating more revenue. It would seem that they believe that we Idahoans don't want a well funded wildlife program.

I think it is time we let the Legislature know that Idahoan support wildlife funding and that we would like to see these generic plates come to fruition.