Pig or wild boar?
How to tell them apart
A wild boar has a coat of long, coarse bristles over brown under-fur, and its piglets have pale stripes. Farm pigs are only sparsely haired.
The wild boar is the ancestor of most domestic pig breeds.
Quick answers
They differ on 3 of the 8 quick answers: domesticated, awake when, kept as a pet.
| Question | Pig | Wild boar |
|---|---|---|
| What is it? | Mammal | Mammal |
| Carnivore? | Omnivore | Omnivore |
| Dangerous? | Can be | Can be |
| Domesticated? differs | Yes | No |
| Awake when? differs | Daytime | Night |
| Hibernates? | No | No |
| Kept as a pet? differs | Sometimes | No |
| Do people eat it? | Yes | Yes |
At a glance
| Question | Pig | Wild boar |
|---|---|---|
| Found in differs | Worldwide | Europe, Asia, Africa |
| Habitat differs | Farmland | Forest, Farmland, Wetland, Grassland |
| Size | Large | Large |
| Length differs | – | 153–240 cm |
| Weight differs | 140–300 kg for an adult, more in some breeds | 66–272 kg |
| Legs | 4 | 4 |
| Covered in | Bristles | Bristles |
| Lives | In groups | In groups |
| Lives for differs | 15–20 years | 10–14 years |
| Can fly | No | No |
| Swims | Yes | Yes |
| Lays eggs | No | No |
About each
Pig
A domesticated omnivore farmed mainly for pork. Pigs were domesticated twice, in the Near East and in China, and around 1.5 billion are raised every year.
Wild boar
The wild pig of Eurasia and North Africa, now one of the widest-ranging mammals in the world after introductions to the Americas and Oceania. Females and young live in family groups.
Everything on the wild boar page
Sources
Last reviewed . The answers and notes come from each animal's own page, where every source is listed.
How each answer is decided: How we answer. More look-alikes: Side by side.