Meet The Wild Boar - Wild Boar In Science Speak

A bit of mumbo jumbo to impress your hunting friends.

By now boar hunters know from many an expert website that boar and their wild hybrids are scientifically known as sus scrofa. You cannot miss it because every boar hunting related website and a host of guides establish their expertise by name dropping – sus scrofa, sus scrofa, sus scrofa. You will never see 'sus domesticus, sus algira, sus meridonalis or even sus sibiricus' on those sites.

Wild boar are indigenous to Eurasia and North Africa. Today they are found on all continents except Antarctica. Porcine mammals aka sus scrofa (sic) count among the most numerous of all large mammals. Some authorities even claim that they are the most numerous and successful big mammals.

The full taxonomic classification of wild boar is:

Kingdom:	Animalia
Sub-kingdom:	Eumetazoa
Superphylum:	Deuteostomia
Phylum:	Chordata
Sub-phylum:	Vertebrata
Super-class:	Gnathostomata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetartiodactyla*
Sub-order:	Suiformes
Family:	Suidae
Genus:	Sus
Species:	S. scrofa

Formerly referred to as Artiodactyla. This order also includes whales and dolphins. Cetartiodactyla is hybridized from Artiodactyla and Cetacea.

Originally scientists organized suidae, the pig family, into 31 sub-species based on length and shape of the lacrimal bone. Never satisfied with simplicity and easily understood facts, scientists meticulously studied the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). . Mitochondrial DNA can only be passed on by females to their female offspring allowing to trace maternal lineage clearly and accurately. The result?. 
Thirty one subspecies of boar turned into only sixteen true sub-species of wild boar. They are:
* Sus scrofa algira Loche, 1867
* Sus scrofa attila Thomas, 1912
* Sus scrofa cristatus Wagner, 1839
* Sus scrofa davidi Groves, 1981
* Sus scrofa leucomystax Temminck, 1842
* Sus scrofa libycus Gray, 1868
* Sus scrofa majori De Beaux e Festa, 1927
* Sus scrofa meridionalis Major, 1882
* Sus scrofa moupinensis Milne-Edwards, 1871
* Sus scrofa nigripes Blanford, 1875
* Sus scrofa riukiuanus Kuroda, 1924
* Sus scrofa scrofa Linneo, 1758
* Sus scrofa sibiricus Staffe, 1922
* Sus scrofa taivanus Swinhoe, 1863
* Sus scrofa ussuricus Heude, 1888
* Sus scrofa vittatus Boie, 1828

Quoted commonly on websites and in articles as Sus scrofa (linaeus 1758).
That's the monster beast your guide is talking about on his website.

These sixteen subspecies of boar are unofficially divided into four major groups:

Indian
Indonesian
Western
Oriental.

Western boar have longer lacrimal bones than their Asian counterparts. In addition, boar also have differing sets of chromosomes. Our house swine (sus domesticus) has 38 and so do European wild boar - except for Spanish, French and Sardinian wild boar. Together with Indian, Indonesian, and Oriental boar they posses only 36 chromosomes.
But 'tu felix sus nube' (paraphrasing - But you lucky pig procreate!). Boar and sows with 36 and 38 chromosomes happily obey the call of nature to engage in a little extra marital romping in the fields. These activities invariably result in fertile offspring with 37 chromosomes. Not 36, not 38 but the happy medium of 37. I call that a true compromise.
Regardless of subspecies, unofficial group designation and differing number of chromosomes wild boar and their hybrids are a challenging game, highly adaptable survivors that can use almost any food resource available, take advantage even of marginal habitats, intelligent, cunning, equipped with superb senses for self-preservation, courageous and tough in combat and defense and therefore able to make their home in almost all but the very most inhospitable environments.
Next to man boar and wild pigs are among the best, if not the most successful, colonizers on this planet.
They can on occasion run around in people's backyards.
And they taste good, I might add.

This name calling does this not have much  to do with my boar hunting activities, you say?
A wild pig is a wild pig regardless of the number of its chromosomes, the sub-species and the group membership. I cannot determine either by sight when in the hunting field.
Correct. But it certainly will help you to drop a few names and to impress your hunting buddies around the campfire or while feasting on gourmet food in the luxury dining area of one of the posh hunting resorts.
That does not convince you either?
How about this: “Know thy enemy.“ The better you know your quarry and what makes it tick, the better your chances of success will be.
Maybe -  provided you are in the right place at the right time with the right equipment, attitude and knowledge.
To assist you in doing just that to the best of your knowledge I will continue this article with more not so well known facts of boar psyche, boar habits, the social life of wild pigs and other boar curiosities
PJJ