Originally Posted by
Double Naught Spy
That is interesting. From what I have read of wild boar in the UK and Estonia, the boars will stay with the sounder throughout the breeding season before behind chased off. As we don't have a breeding season here, per se, females coming into heat at various times (depending on the individual females), the boars may be associated with sounders more often.
As for evolution. All animals are in that process, be it via phyletic gradualism or punctuated equilibria. Remember that nature does not care about titles such as species and subspecies. Those are something of artificial constructs with arbitrary definitions. There are already quite a few subspecies named, though most folks would be hard pressed to understand the differences between some of them.
I really can't remember ever seeing a mature male Boar mixed in with the sounder this time of year, I'm sure it happens occasionally. When the Boar starts driving a sow in season, they usually move away from the sounder, it can get noisy. There is a window when the male Boar is mature and transitions from sounder member to full grown male and splits from the sounder, they sometimes pair off in brother pairs when they first leave the sounder. There is also a window when the mature or the lead Sow comes in season and a mature male Boar tracks the sounder and tries to mix in. Maybe I'm splitting hairs.
You are probably right, the random times the mature sows in a hybrid sounder come into season probably trumps genetic tendencies.
Most times when a sounder shows up, the Deer take off, often screaming alarm. When the Deer spook and flee screaming I set up for Hogs. Then when you think it is a rule, you see them grazing together. I remember once watching a Doe with fawn grazing right along beside a loner Alpha Boar. Which I found to be really odd.
The old timers say the Sows run off the mature Boars to protect the piglets. They say a mature Boar will sometimes eat the piglets. We have all heard the stories about how protective a Sow can be.
I'm always looking for anomalies and studying animal behavior, I find it really interesting.
The social dynamic of a sounder can be kind of fluid, I try to spot trends and probabilities.
When I'm hunting for male Boar, late summer/autumn, I'll often let the sounder settle in to feed and watch their back trail. As often as not I'll see a Boar wander in half an hour to an hour later. If he gets too close, the lead Sow will confront him. Not a rule just a tendency.
I don't have to go far to find wild Boar, there is a sounder on county lands maybe a mile and a half from my house. I see them a few times a month.