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A European wild boar piglet, painted by Hans Hoffman in 1578. Note the stripes, a characteristic feature of piglets. Adult size and weight is largely determined by environmental factors; boars living in arid areas with little productivity tend to attain smaller sizes than their counterparts inhabiting areas with abundant food and water.
The boar and pig were held in particularly high esteem by the Celts, who considered them to be their most important sacred animal. Some Celtic deities linked to boars include Moccus and Veteris. It has been suggested that some early myths surrounding the Welsh hero Culhwch involved the character being the son of a boar god. [6]
The pig has a large head, with a long snout strengthened by a special prenasal bone and a disk of cartilage at the tip. [2] The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is an acute sense organ. The dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.3 3.1.4.3, giving a total of 44 teeth. The rear teeth are adapted for crushing.
The Maremman boar (Sus scrofa majori) is a subspecies of wild boar native to Maremma in Central Italy. It is much smaller than the Central European boar and the two subspecies have been interbred on farms. Genetic studies (Larson et al. 2005) have confirmed that this taxon is a separate lineage from all other European wild boars. [2]
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Adults can measure from 1.3 to 2.1 m (4 ft 3 in to 6 ft 11 in) in head-and-body length, with an additional tail length of 25 to 45 cm (9.8 to 17.7 in). Adults stand 0.75 to 1.1 m (2 ft 6 in to 3 ft 7 in) in height at the shoulder, and can weigh from 100 to 275 kg (220 to 606 lb).
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It is slightly taller and more sparsely haired than the European form, though its back bristles are much more developed. [2] The tail is also more tufted, and the cheeks hairier. [4] Adults measure from 84 to 91 cm (33 to 36 in) in shoulder height (with one specimen in West Bengal having reached 97 cm (38 in)) and 152 cm (5 ft) in body length ...