Boar–pig hybrid

pest animals has reached crisis proportions in Australia, parts of Brazil, and parts of the United States

back-breed"— the look of pigs represented in prehistoric artworks of the Iron Age and earlier in ancient Europe. A project to create them, under the name Iron Age pig, started in the early 1980s by crossing a male wild boar with a Tamworth sow to produce an animal that looks like the pig from long ago.^[1] Iron Age pigs are generally only raised in Europe for the specialty meat market, and in keeping with their heritage are generally more aggressive and harder to handle than purebred domesticated pigs.^[1]

feral, or where there is reasonable access by wild boars to penned pig populations. The appearance and temperament of the wild boar is dominant, and after three generations of interbreeding, most domesticated characteristics disappear.^{[citation needed]} Prior to closure of the meat export market, Australian hunters with the appropriate qualifications and certificates sold hybrid and feral pig meat to be exported to specialty meat markets in Russia and Italy.^{[citation needed}

pest animal responsible for significant agricultural and property damage^[6] and environmental harm, especially in the U.S. Deep South from Florida^[7] to Texas;^[8] The Southwestern Naturalist estimated about 2.6 million free-roaming porcines in Texas in 2013,^[9] which may cast doubt on the 6-million nationwide estimate. A 2014 Outdoor Alabama article termed them "wildlife enemy number one" in that state.^[10] They have become problematic even in cooler, forested northern states (and into Canada); a particular conservation problem is that they strip plant life in woodland areas of their berries and other nutrients needed by the native American black bear.^[11] Wisconsin, for example, imposes no hunting restrictions of any kind on them to promote their elimination.^[12] Only a few animals are large enough to prey on hybrid and feral pigs, and are too few in individual numbers to control their population.^[13]

the Americas and allowed to become feral from the 16th century onward, beginning with Christopher Columbus in the West Indies.^[15] Actual wild boars were introduced in the early 20th century into Uruguay, again for hunting, and have since spread into Brazil, where they have been deemed an invasive species since at least 1994,^[16] especially in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and São Paulo. Since 2005,^[17] Brazil has issued hunting licenses for hybrid and feral pigs, and expanded this hunting program in 2008.^[18]

U.S. Southwest, are native to western hemisphere, and are not pest animals, though they compete for resources with hybrid and feral pigs. The dynamics between these populations are not yet well studied. Jaguars appear to prefer boar/pig over peccary prey when available.^[19]