Feral pig oddities
Things I’ve noticed in my dealings with feral pigs that others may never have considered or noticed.
Just like us, feral hogs have a preference as to being left handed or right handed. For them it’s more which side of their mouth they root, dig, or fight with. Invariably on side of the teeth/tusks is shorter than the other. To me that shows a preference to right toothed or left toothed being their favorite side.
Not having doctors or plastic surgeons to correct any defects. I’ve come across two recent pigs with what I believe must be injuries suffered at some time well before their demise. First is a nice boar whose right teeth were positioned opposite the left teeth. Typically the upper tooth is behind the lower tooth. The two slide against each other “sharpening” themselves. This pig must have suffered a repositioning of its right teeth so that the upper tooth was in front of the lower tooth. This created the tooth sharpening to take place rather awkwardly. Consequently the lower tooth actually had a large exposed portion of the tooth nerve, due to the upper tooth rubbing in the not traditional location. Sounds rather painful to me, walking around eating with an exposed nerve and large hole in your tooth. I can only assume considerable force was applied to get the upper tooth forced in front of the lower tooth.
The last oddity is similar in that tooth positioning is involved. On this one the two upper teeth should be inline across from each other. They are not. Looking at the pig with fur on it it would be difficult to see or notice any difference. But looking at the underside of the skull with it boiled and clean. It is obvious that one side is positioned farther forward than the other. In comparing the other 3 euro mounts I have there is not nearly as much difference in tooth location.
Here you can see the teeth on the right or pigs left side are shorter in length for both upper and lower teeth. Definitely a left handed pig.
The teeth on the left are the out of position ones, the triangular hole in the lower tusk is easily visible. You can see how the rearrangement has affected the other teeth as well. The upper tooth isn’t kept in its normal curled state and the opposite side lower tooth is allowed to grow quite a bit longer.
Here the positioning is evident that it is off kilter.
The last pic is actually Rey’s pig from Wilderness Lodge, so he’ll have it in a week or so. This weirdness is just the stuff I’ve noticed because I kept the teeth, no telling what I’ve missed because they weren’t worth keeping.