Wild Boar (Sus Scrofa Cristatus)
¤ Physical Aspects
You would do better to be on your guard against this animal when in
the jungle. This is the species that has the guts to challenge even
the tiger. With typical pig-like features, an average wild boar
rises to a height of 90cm, and weighs more than 100kg, although some
can weigh as much as 225kg. The most distinctive feature of the wild
boar is a pair of elongated canines that grow upward and outward. It
wears a greyish-black coat that is scantily covered with thick
bristle-like hairs arising from its nape and winding their way to its
posterior.
The wild boar has an incredible sense of smell, although it has
fairly average eyesight and hearing. Its body is well built, but what
really makes it stand out is its courage and determination to live and
to win the wild bouts. Its thick coat with its layer of fat helps it
recover even from the gravest of injuries.
¤ Sighting of Wild Boar
It is not an unusual sight to see a herd of 5-6 animals grazing
silently in the middle of the forest, but come nightfall, and the herd
becomes really confident. Wild boars are known to raid and damage
crops of the farmers living on the peripheries of National Parks and
Sanctuaries.
Amazingly, wild boars do not have any fixed cycle for breeding. But
whenever it is the mating season, a fair and formal contest decides
the dominant male who gets to mate with the female boar. After a
gestation period of four months, the mother gives birth to 4-6 cubs.
Thanks to poaching and the loss of habitat, the number of the wild
boars is fast decreasing. Once there were 6-7 species found in the
sub-continent, but today only a single species has survived.
|
