This Little Piggy Went to Market Quiz

Answer: North America

"On the boats and on the planes
They're coming to America
Never looking back again
They're coming to America"
(Neil Diamond, "America")

Well, not by plane, but definitely by ship. While domestic pigs and their feral offspring were around since colonial days, centuries later some people thought it would be fun to have wild pigs around. It might have been for hunting, or for the touch of exotic wildlife. The first known for doing this was a certain Austin Corbin, railroad executive and robber baron by trade. He bought some wild boar in 1890 and fenced them in. As you might guess, it didn't take long until the first escaped. Other people with less intelligence than money made the same mistake in later years.

Answer: Build a solid fence

"Can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences
Don't fence me in"
Bing Crosby and many other artists, "Don't Fence Me In")

This is the opinion of the wild pigs. A really solid fence dug in deeply or bedded in concrete is needed. Some people try electric fences, too.
Wild pigs are really good diggers, with a cartilaginous disc on the end of the snout.

An illegally dropped pile of organic matter is like an invitation to the buffet. Ditto a not secured garbage bin. Some people like to feed the wild ones. In a documentary about wild pigs in Berlin, Germany they showed a sow begging for food at a bus stop near a busy road. Just like feeding a feral cat or dog, it may be fun to feed such a big animal, but it is forbidden. You attract the animals and most likely you will feed the wrong stuff. Even if pigs are omnivores and eat therefore nearly everything: a Mars bar or a cheese sandwich are not good for them.

When they live in woods they eat all sorts of fruit, berries, snails, other small animals and even some carrion. When they invade a garden, they will dig up the lawn and flower beds in search of bulbs and underground creatures. They will harvest your strawberries when they are fresh and juicy. In fact your lawn will look like a rugby match has been played on it.

Wutz is named after the talking sow in the "Urmel" children's books by German author Max Kruse. It is also another word for pig in some German regions. "Peppa Pig" is called "Peppa Wutz" on German TV.

Answer: Smell

"Stop and take the time to smell the roses,
stop and take the time to fill your noses,"
(Ringo Starr, "Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses")

A wild pig's sight is not that good, but it is better than ours in the twilight, which is useful as it is one of their favorite times.

Their sense of taste is bad enough to enable them to eat things like a dead rabbit or frogs, while the thought of such a meal turns me to a whiter shade of pale.

Their hearing is very good. The proverbial broken twig is heard very well, and certain measurements will be taken.

But their sense of smell is legendary. They easily smell everything delicious from a long distance. They can detect truffles and unearth them with no difficulty, or the tulip bulbs in your garden. But honestly I don't know if they take some time to smell the roses.

Answer: Sounder

"We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family"
(Sister Sledge, "We are Family")

And just like "Sister Sledge" the sounder will mostly contain sisters. There are different groupings: the most common is a mother sow with her youngsters until they are sexually mature. Then there are groups with a mother sow, like Wutz with her daughters of this year and of last year. These are most likely already mothers. This would be their last year in the sounder. Then they have to start a life of their own, either as a single mum or together with their sisters. The boys are kicked out the sounder as soon as they are grown up. They live in boy groups for at least one year. After this a solitary life for them.

No strangers are usually allowed in these sounders. After all: they are family!

And who might live in a pounce? The answer: cats.
What about the clowder? Cats again.
And a destruction? Cats. This time feral cats.

Answer: Boars have smaller tusks

"Just say that you want me
Don't tell me that you
Tusk
Real savage like
Ugh"
(Fleetwood Mac, "Tusk")

What a guy. A wild boar might reach up to 300 kg/660 lb. (but these are uncommon) and a height up to a meter/about 39 inches. The sow is mostly shorter and looks slimmer. You won't notice her tusks very much while the male's tusks are very prominent. They grow as he gets older. The eyetooth of the lower jaw permanently rubs on the one from the upper jaw, just like a knife on a grinding wheel and with the same effect.

You wouldn't want to get in close contact with him, although a wild sow might think differently about this.

And why did I name him Eberhard? Eber is the German word for a boar.
This old Germanic name can be translated with "the courage (strength) of a wild boar". The name is a bit out of fashion, but I'm sure he doesn't mind.

Answer: Bring her presents, like food

"And I was born to fight
I ain't been knocked down yet
I was born to fight
I'm the surest bet"
(Tracy Chapman, "Born to Fight")

The guys may be alone most of the time, but they will come from far away as soon as a certain smell released by one or more of the lady pigs is in the air. Look, Eberhard is approaching, throwing his head around to get a good amount of his saliva distributed in the neighborhood. Everybody will smell now that he is there. But wait, there is another boar. They eye each other and paw with their hooves. Loud snorts from both sides. And as nobody gives in, a clash of bodies and the use of permanently sharp tusks settles everything.

The winner contacts the ladies. No presents for her, after all: he fought enough for her. That will have to do. A bit of sniffing here, a bit of licking there. And now we will leave them alone. After this, he moves on. Maybe one of the other ladies might need him. Boars mate with five to ten sows until the end of the rut.

The usual time for all this action is winter, but because of warmer winters, hotter summers and quite a lot of food it is reported to happen at other times of the year.

Answer: shoat or farrow

"Have you seen the little piggies
Crawling in the dirt?"
(Beatles, "Piggies")

It is spring and Peppa, one of the younger sows, is at the end of her four months of pregnancy. She separates herself from the sounder and prepares a nest from leaves, twigs and grass. She lies down and farrows five little shoats. Quite within the average of 4-6 piglets, even if there have been litters known of 10-12 ones.

The shoats weigh about 700 to 1.100 gram, dressed in fashionable camouflage stripes, with eyes open and ready to run. And they might have to do it: owls and other carnivores love to eat them, if they get them. But the predators have to deal with the mama: she is fierce and may also attack humans, if they get too close. Another enemy is a sudden cold spell. If they survive, mama pig will return with them to the sounder when they can keep up with it. If something happens to the sow, the sounder will take care of her little orphans. Nice, isn't it?

If you want to look at a young puggle, try to find a newborn echidna.
For example, a young aardvark is a calf or cub, and a tiny groundhog a pup or kit. But other youngsters are named that, too.

Answer: As a bad habit

"Mud, mud, glorious mud
Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood
So follow me, follow
Down to the hollow
And there let us wallow in glorious mud"
(Flanders & Swann "The Hippopotamus Song")

Every pig loves, enjoys and takes pleasure in mud. But it isn't a bad habit, just the opposite. After the mud has dried, a rub on a tree will remove parasites enclosed in it. Dry mud is also a protective armor against brambles or in fights boar against boar. Another fact is, that pigs belong to the animals with few sweat glands, a mud packet helps to cool down when it is hot.

Last, but not least: if you've ever seen a pig wallowing, you will see pleasure. Just like us in a nice warm bath in a spa.

Answer: false

"I'm a neanderthal man
You're a neanderthal girl
Let's make neanderthal love
In this neanderthal world"
(Hot legs "Neanderthal Man")

The first pig fossils were from the Miocene, about 6 million years ago. The Neanderthal man appeared between 450,000 and 430,000 years ago. As recent studies tell us, these first humans could light a fire. So they surely had a nice pig roast now and then, but without an apple put in its snout. Apples weren't around in Germany until Roman times.

Answer: Least concern

"Well, I won't back down
No I won't back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down"
(Tom Petty, "I won't back down")

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, their numbers were low. After WW 2 strict hunting laws, especially in Western Germany, and extensive maize fields in Eastern Germany's cooperatives with lots of food and cover, helped the population to recover.

That man had reduced their natural enemies like wolves and bears helped, too. Man might hunt them, but he can't catch up.

Adding their ability to adapt, their huge numbers of birth, and the fact that they are omnivores leads to a status of "least concern" for our wild pig heroes of the quiz, Wutz and Eberhard.

So the wild pig might go to the market, looking for the leftovers. But it doesn't wear its skin there for giving it up!