Wild Boar Family
Ornery, fecund and delicious, a strange three word combination to describe any creature and yet, by and large that description fits this family to a tee. Domesticated herds of swine, close relatives of various wild species, are common place now in many rural areas across Valerick. These hardy beasts are adaptable and swift enough in their breeding to transplant well, sometimes problematically so. So it should be little surprise that various members of this family exist, adapted for a wide variety of environments. They are also something of a limitless omnivore, a thing that can only be properly witnessed, not described, however we must attempt it. Swine of all sorts seem to have the unique capability to eat....well almost anything and get some sort of nutritional value out of it. They eat any and all manner of plants and roots, fruits and vegetables, rotting or not they can reach. However this is not all. Though not active hunters, they will eat insects, worms, small animals, bird or reptile eggs, and even carrion. None of this seems to have any ill effect or repercussions on the creature. It really is something that defies explanation.
Mochi, a naturalist whom cannot help but be most curious of how such a creature exists and functions.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Though there is some wide variety in exactly how it presents, what they look like visually, all members of the wild boar family have some form of two teeth like growths (though it would seem with less sensitivity or nerve endings) that protrude from their muzzle, snout or from their bottom jaw out of line with their lips. These tusks serve many purposes, including helping to identify one species of this family from another, as they are the most notable and stark differences. The standard underslung hooks of the Durolan common boar, the strange barbed hooks of the Wastonian Jungle Hog, the wild and skinny and spiraled growths protruding up and through the front of the nasal cavity of the Susman Sand Pig, they are wildly varied and yet they seem to serve different versions of the same purposes. Helping with food acquisition, as well as mating displays.
Genetics and Reproduction
The entire swine family is particularly fecund with a rapid turn around between birth and able to breed again. Litters can be as many as 12 piglets, and unlike many other mammals, everything from pregnacy to weaning off the mother's milk is all accomplished in just under a calendar year, meaning the female will be reproductively receptive the very next mating season. It is this, combined with their adaptability of diet that has seen the spread of swine species so successfully across Valerick.
Growth Rate & Stages
By and large piglets are weaned within a handful of weeks, perhaps two months, it will depend on the species in question. From there however they will be more or less fully independent of their mother by the ripe age of 10 months, and fully mature and grown by about 2 years of age. Boars can live for up to twenty years by some accounts, though most research into the matter suggests 10-15 years is far more common a window.
Ecology and Habitats
This family of animal is so widely adaptible that you will find a species in almost any biome you can imagine that isn't aquatic. Swamps and jungles, mountains and valleys, forests and wild plains, even deserts and tundra.
Dietary Needs and Habits
They need to eat a notable amount, in truth they are almost always eating, and they can eat an astonishing variety of foods, they have one of the most hardy, robust and adaptible digestive systems in the animal kingdom.
Behaviour
Forming into groups known as sounders most of the time, which are dominantly female and young, come mating season that changes as the males will enter the picture, splitting from their own smaller groups of 3-5 individuals to persue sounders and become competitors. However barring this brief period of isolative conquest behavior for mating, these are by and large, highly social animals, whom rely on numbers, as well as their tough hides, tusks and general ill temper, to protect and alert them to threats and dangers.
Additional Information
Domestication
They were one of the first targets for domestication, and have been a boon ever since, providing a glut of food, a high fat, dense and filling meat source that is easy to care for and feed, comparatively to things like deer, bison, cattle or other such animals. They cannot leap, meaning enclosures are easy enough to build, and though powerful they lack the raw mass and sheer destructive force of a bison or a bull, so similar pen/paddock construction to those animals is more than sufficient to contain them.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
By and large they are used for their meat, though other products do make use of the bones, blood and other bits that wouldn't be consumed. Animal feed for hunting dogs or sled dog teams, the blood sometimes used for alchemical or medicinal purposes, and the hide can be tanned into a simple but durable leather which is favored for tool handle grips.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Again you can find members of this family across all of terrestrial Valerick, some 14 species in total, more if one wished to differentiate more thoroughly between domestic and wild populations though at this time I would argue enough of the behaviors and physiology remains the same that such differentiation is unnecessary.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Wild boars and all their relatives, regardless of region, have notoriously poor to middling eyesight, but their senses of smell and hearing are absolutely top notch.
Wild Boar Base Stat Sheet
Scientific Name
Comun Swinerian (_______)
Lifespan
10-15 years
Average Height
Varies noticeably between the various species that make up the family, however broadly speaking the ranges across all biomes combined would seem to be 0.65-1.2 meters (2'2"-3'10") in height at the shoulder.
Average Weight
Again varies noticeably and quite widely through the various species and biomes, however a broad rough range would be 45-270kgs (99-600lbs). This range is very broad and naturally most specimens regardless of species will fall within a middling area between those extremes.
Average Length
This range, regardless of species seems to be much smaller in variance, ranging from 1.4-1.6 meters (4'8"-5'3")
Geographic Distribution
You should put a picture of frying bacon by the Use, Products and Exploitation section
I do love bacon this is not a bad idea....I may need to do this.