Wild boars are distributed in the north and south of China, and most of them live in groups. A 4- 10 group is common. Who has seen the largest group reach 3 10!
Wild boar's nose is very tough and powerful, which can be used to dig caves or push 40-50 kilograms of heavy objects, or as a weapon. Wild boar has a particularly keen sense of smell. They can tell the maturity of food with their noses, and even search for a walnut buried under 2 meters of snow. Males can also find females by smell. Wild boar has been running in the forest since childhood, and has developed a good physical strength. Chased by hounds, they can run continuously 15km ~ 20km. This extraordinary physical strength even makes marathon runners feel ashamed. Wild boar spends a lot of time eating and sleeping. Some wild boars are afraid of being discovered by natural enemies. They often gather by rivers, lakes and ponds, and often sleep on sandbars in the river, so that when they are in danger, they will cross the river immediately without leaving any smell, which can ensure safety.
Wild boar likes to bathe in muddy water. Males spend a lot of time rubbing their sides on stumps, rocks and hard river banks, thus grinding their skin into a hard protective layer to avoid being seriously injured in fighting in estrus. Wild boar's mane is as warm as a sweater. In summer, they take off part of their manes, which makes them look like they are wearing worn-out clothes.
Interestingly, in the first year of life, the weight of wild boar can increase by 100 times, which is very rare among vertebrates. As the little boar grew up, the father-in-law pig soon came to find the mother boar. When there is enough food, a female boar of the best age can give birth twice a year.
Wild boar's food is very miscellaneous, as long as it can be eaten. Wild boar likes to live in the oak forest on the sunny slope in winter, because the sunny slope is warm and there are a lot of acorns under the deciduous layer of the oak forest, so wild boar depends on it to spend the cold winter. Once acorns are not harvested, a large number of wild boars will starve to death in the next spring, which is also the law of natural elimination of wild boars. In summer, wild boars like to live near water sources, especially in subalpine meadows, where mountains are high and temperatures are low, and there are natural pools, so wild boars often feed here and bathe in muddy water. The birch forest, larch forest and spruce forest on the shady slope are also good places for wild boar to move frequently in summer. The food of wild boar is much richer. Worms in grass and soil are its prey, and sometimes it steals birds' eggs, especially those of grouse, pheasant and chicken. Although the bird's nest is generally well concealed, the wild boar has a good sense of smell and can smell the nest. Usually, the brooding female will fly out quickly, hoping to lure the wild boar out of the nest, but the wild boar will continue to look for the nest until it is found. Wild boar is not only good at preying on rabbits, mice and so on. , also on scorpions and snakes. Although scientists have not yet reached an agreement on whether wild boar is immune to toxins, it seems that wild boar has not suffered from eating these dangerous foods.
In the European Alps, it is found that wild boar can "qigong". In winter, in order to go down the mountain for food as soon as possible, they immediately "luck", make their bodies into barrels, and then roll down the mountain, no matter how steep the mountain is and how hard the stones are, they will not hurt their bones and muscles. In addition, some people have witnessed many wild boars living on the reefs in the central Pacific Ocean. Their fangs are particularly sharp. When they are short of traditional food, they can swim in shallow water and satisfy their hunger by fishing.
The natural enemies of wild boar are wolves, bears, leopards, lynx, raptors and other wild animals, so we must be alert to any sudden attack. Wild boar is smart and fierce, fast and alert. Its mane is not only a warm coat, but also an alarm to warn its companions. Once in danger, it will immediately raise its head, suddenly make a "buzzing" sound, and at the same time its mane will stand up. If the leopard meets a group of wild boar, it is afraid to attack rashly, because the wild boar's long fangs are difficult to deal with, so it has to roar and threaten from a distance. When wild boars flee in groups, they will hunt at close range, looking for individuals who fall behind in long-distance Mercedes-Benz cars. Only the "king of birds" jujube golden eagle is 2 meters long and its wings are 4 meters wide, which is famous for its fierceness. If you see a group of wild boar when you are foraging, you dare to flap your wings and hiss over their heads, scaring them to howl and run for their lives, then fly low to chase them and catch them with their sharp mouths and claws. However, most of the old, weak, sick and disabled wild boars are of course the first choice for wild animals to hunt, which is an indispensable part of natural adjustment of ecological balance and is in fact conducive to the optimization of wild boar population. However, human attacks are the most dangerous and terrible for wild boar. The fangs of the pig's mouth are sharp, and the bristles and skin are coated with solidified turpentine, so hunting bullets are not easy to shoot. Therefore, when catching wild boar, several troops will always be sent to hunt separately. Don't smoke or bathe when hunting, so as not to be found by wild boar. They used hunting dogs to locate the wild boar, drove it out of the jungle, and then killed it with a shotgun. In order to prevent humans from hunting, wild boars sometimes attack people, but they strictly abide by the principle of "people don't attack me, I don't commit crimes". When attacked by humans, the injured wild boar will attack humans crazily, and the scene is very scary.
Wild boar is polygamous. In estrus, there will be a battle between males and beasts, and the winner will naturally dominate. Women usually start looking for a suitable place to be a "delivery room" a few days before giving birth. The location of the "delivery room" is generally selected in a hidden place. It brings branches and soft grass to pave a soft and comfortable "maternity bed" to shelter the newborn "children" A cub is born with four tusks and will bite two weeks later. The female leads the way, and the cubs follow closely, looking for food in the ditch dug by the female. When the cubs are very young, the females take care of the piglets alone. At this time, the female beast is so aggressive that even the male beast is afraid of it. A few weeks later, the cubs grew up and the female's temper changed. Females cherish their "sons and daughters" very much, take care of them very carefully, always take care of their cubs carefully, carefully prepare sleeping places for them to avoid wind and rain, and more importantly, let them avoid predators.
The reproductive rate of wild boar and the survival rate of young are very high. The mother beast is really a "heroic mother". Its pregnancy is only 4 months, and one child can give birth to 4- 12 cubs. Moreover, during the vigorous breeding period, females can have two babies a year, usually one in April-May and the other in autumn.
After the baby is born, the body color will change with age. From birth to 6 months, I had khaki stripes on my body to better disguise myself, and then the stripes began to fade. It is red from 2 months to 1 year-old, and it turns black after 1 year-old, commonly known as "black pig".
Interestingly, domestic pigs and wild boars are often "combined into one". In the deep forest, the sow raised by the villagers is in estrus, and sometimes it is difficult to find a spouse, so they "elope" to the forest and "freely fall in love" with the wild boar for life. After the "honeymoon", the boar sent the "bride" out of the forest. When they parted, they stopped at the edge of the forest for a long time, holding their heads high and reluctant to go. Four months later, the crystallization of love was born. Piglets are also colorful, with yellow stripes, some yellow and white, some yellow and black, which are different from pure wild boar cubs and domestic pigs. Piglets grow fast and strong, with thin meat and high nutritional value, which undoubtedly brings people the idea of developing wild boar.
Recently, animal behaviorists found that wild boar is smarter and braver than domestic pigs. For example, in the wild boar village in Izu, Japan, some wild boars can walk steadily on small wooden stakes, similar to the "plum blossom heap" of samurai knights! Wild boar can also be called "romantic connoisseur" and has the ability to recognize colors. Experiments show that among the six color cards of red, blue, purple, yellow, gold and green, wild boar likes romantic purple best, followed by yellow. These are luxurious and gorgeous colors. But it doesn't like red. If city zoo wears a red vest, it will definitely make him angry.
Although wild boar also has natural enemies and faces more and more threats from all sides, as long as the awareness of ecological balance is deeply rooted in people's hearts, wild boar can also occupy a place in this vibrant world.
Behavioral characteristics of pigs:
Behavior is an animal's response to a certain stimulus and its adaptation to the external environment. Different animals have different behavioral responses to external stimuli, and different individuals of the same animal also have different behavioral responses. This behavioral response can make it survive, grow and reproduce in adversity. Animal behavior habits depend partly on innate factors and partly on acquired training, exercise and other external factors. These behavioral responses are the result of the interaction of these factors.
Like other animals, pigs respond to living environment, climatic conditions and feeding management conditions, and have their own special behaviors and certain regularity. With the reform and development of pig production, people pay more and more attention to the study of pig behavior and its mechanism, as well as training methods, which are widely used in pig production, especially in the case of increasingly intensive, full-house feeding, high-density, mechanized, specialized and efficient production of animal husbandry, which hinders the normal behavior and habits of pigs to varying degrees and constantly produces stress reactions. This contradiction between man-made environment and pig behavior can only be started from the adaptive response of pigs, strengthening training, giving full play to the aftereffect behavior potential of pigs, and making their acquired behavior meet the requirements of modern production. If we master the behavioral characteristics of pigs, make scientific use of these behavioral habits, formulate reasonable feeding techniques according to the behavioral characteristics of pigs, design new pig houses and equipment, and reform traditional feeding techniques and methods. Maximize the creation of environmental conditions suitable for pig habits, improve pig productivity, and obtain the best economic benefits.
According to the research results of pig behavior in recent 20 years, pig behavior can be divided into the following types:
First, feeding behavior.
The eating behavior of pigs includes eating and drinking, and has various age characteristics.
Pigs are born with the genetic characteristics of arching soil, and arching soil for food is a remarkable feature of pig feeding behavior. The pig's nose is a highly developed organ, and the sense of smell plays a decisive role in digging the soil to find food. Although pigs have a well-balanced diet in modern pig houses, they also show the characteristics of arching for food. Every time they feed, they try to occupy a favorable position in the trough, sometimes stepping on food with their forelimbs. If the trough is easy to get close to, some pigs will even get into the trough and stand in a corner of the trough, just like a wild boar arching for food, and move along the trough with a kiss, stirring up the food and throwing it all over the floor.
Pigs are selective in their intake of food, and especially like sweets. The study found that non-breastfed newborn piglets like sweets. Compared with powder, pigs like to eat granular substances; Compared with wet feed, pigs like to eat wet feed and spend less time.
The feed intake of pigs is competitive, and pigs fed in groups eat more, eat faster and gain more weight than pigs fed alone. Pigs eat 6-8 times during the day, 1-3 times more than at night. The duration of each feeding is 10-20 minutes, and it is less than 10 minutes when feeding is restricted. They eat casually, not only for a long time, but also show the hobbies and personality of every pig. The sucking times of piglets vary with age, ranging from 15 times to 25 times, accounting for 10% ~ 20% of the total day and night time. The feed intake and frequency of big pigs increase with the increase of body weight.
In most cases, drinking water and feeding are done at the same time. The water consumption of pigs is quite large. Piglets need to drink water after birth, mainly from the water in breast milk. When piglets eat feed, the water consumption is about twice that of dry feed, that is, the ratio of water to feed is 3: 1. In addition to feed ingredients, the water consumption of adult pigs depends largely on the environmental temperature. Pigs who eat mixed feed drink 9 ~ 10 times every day and night, and eat wet feed 2 ~ 3 times on average. Pigs who eat dry feed need to drink water immediately after each feeding. Pigs who eat freely usually alternate between eating and drinking until they are satisfied, while pigs who restrict eating drink water after eating feed. Piglets can learn to drink water from automatic drinking fountains six months ago.
Second, excretion behavior.
Pigs don't defecate where they eat and sleep, which is the nature left by their ancestors, because wild boars don't shit and pee near their nests to avoid being discovered by enemy animals.
Under good management conditions, pigs are the cleanest animals among domestic animals. Pigs can keep their nests clean and excrete feces and urine in a fixed place far away from the nests. Pigs excrete feces and urine for a certain time and area. Generally, when they lie down after drinking or eating, they will choose dark, wet or dirty corners to excrete feces and urine, which is influenced by neighboring pigs. It is observed that growing pigs do not defecate during the feeding process, and begin to defecate 1 ~ 2 times about 5 minutes after satiety. Most of them defecate first and then urinate, and some of them excrete first and then feed, but most of them urinate first and then defecate. During the feeding interval, pigs usually defecate 2 ~ 3 times at night, with the largest amount of excretion in the morning, and the nighttime excretion time of pigs accounts for the total number of days and nights.
Third, social behavior.
The herd behavior of pigs refers to various interactions between individuals in the herd. Pairing is a prominent social activity. Pigs show more physical contact and keep listening to one side's information transmission.
In the absence of pigsty, pigs can live in their own fixed places, showing the habit of settling down and roaming. Pigs live in groups, but they also have competitive habits, such as bullying the weak, bullying the weak and bullying classmates. The bigger the herd, the more obvious this phenomenon is.
A stable pig herd forms a hierarchical community structure according to the principle of dominance sequence, and individuals keep familiar with each other and live in harmony. When the stable community structure changes during reorganization, fierce fighting will break out until a new community structure is formed.
Pigs have obvious grades and are formed shortly after birth. In the first few hours after birth, piglets will compete for the sow's front nipples, and often the first-born or heavier piglets get the best nipple position. Piglets in the same litter live in groups. When they parted, they were not far from each other. If they are accidentally frightened, they will immediately gather in a pile or run away in groups. When piglets are separated from sows or piglets in the same litter for less than a few minutes, they will be extremely active, scream loudly and excrete feces and urine frequently. Older pigs have similar behaviors when they are separated from their partners.
When the grade of pigs was just formed, aggressive behavior was the most common, and the establishment of grade order was influenced by the breeds that constituted this group. Weight, gender, age, temperament and other factors. Generally speaking, pigs with large weight and strong temperament are dominant, older pigs are dominant over younger pigs, and males are dominant over females and castrated pigs. Piglets and piglets newly added to the original group often rank second. The determination of group dominance sequence among littermates often depends on the weaning weight. Piglets in different nests will start to fight fiercely when they are fed in parallel, and lie in small groups according to different sources. In about 24 ~ 48 hours, an obvious ruling hierarchy can be formed, which is generally a simple linear pattern. This hierarchical relationship is more obvious in older pigs, especially in the case of restricted feeding. The dominant sequence is vertical, with parallel and triangular relations in the middle. Winners are in the forefront, and eating often occupies a favorable feeding position or gives priority to feeding. In the pig group with similar overall structure, the pigs with large weight are often in the front row, and the group composed of different breeds is not the individuals with large weight, but the competitive varieties or strains are dominant. After the establishment of the leading sequence, the normal life in the land of peace began. The sharp and loud snorting of the dominant pig and the intimidation formed by the feint of the nose and mouth can replace the fight, and the inferior pig will retreat without a fight.
Fourth, fighting behavior.
Combat behavior includes offensive and defensive, evasive and defensive activities.
Fighting behaviors that can be seen in production practice are generally caused by fighting for feed and turf. In addition to competing for feed and turf, the internal confrontation of the newly merged pigs also played a role in adjusting the social structure of the pigs. When a strange pig enters a group, it becomes the target of the whole group of pigs. This kind of attack is usually serious, ranging from skin injury to death. If two mature and unfamiliar boars are put together, there will be a fierce fight between them. They revolve around each other and smell each other. Sometimes, their forelimbs lie prone on the ground, making a low roar and suddenly biting with their mouths. This struggle may last for an hour. Surrender pigs often turn around and howl and flee from the scene of the fight. Although fighting between two pigs rarely causes casualties, one or both sides will cause huge losses. In the hot summer, the fight between two boars often leads to the death of one or both of them due to extreme heat collapse. The fighting behavior of pigs is mostly influenced by the feeding density. When the density of pigs is too high and the space occupied by each pig is reduced, the number and intensity of fights in the group will increase, which will lead to the increase of feeding aggression of pigs. Reduce feed intake and gain weight. This form of fighting is biting each other's heads, and in a herd of pigs, it is biting each other's tails. The newly gregarious pigs mainly compete for the second place, not for feed. Only when the social elements are formed will there be more struggles for food and territory.
Verb (short for verb) sexual behavior
Sexual behavior includes estrus, courtship and mating behavior. Sows can see certain courtship behaviors during estrus, and both males and sows will show some behaviors before mating.
The sow in estrus is mainly characterized by restlessness, high and low appetite, soft and rhythmic humming, crawling over other sows, or waiting for other sows to crawl over, and frequent urination, especially when boars are present. In the middle of estrus and sexual desire, when the boar approaches, adjust the buttocks to be close to the boar, smell the head, anus and penis foreskin of the boar, cling to the boar, even climb over the boar, and finally stand still. Climb over there with a wild boar. When managers press the back of sows, they immediately produce standing reflex, which is a key behavior of estrus sows.
Once the boar touches the sow, it will chase it, sniff its lateral ribs and vulva, put its mouth between the sow's legs, suddenly arch the sow's ass upward, foaming at the mouth, and often make a continuous, soft and rhythmic throat hum. Some people call this unique cry "courtship song", and boars will urinate rhythmically when they are sexually excited.
Some sows show obvious mate selection psychology and strong aversion to individual boars, and some sows show excessive sexual behavior due to hormonal imbalance, or are not in estrus, and estrus is not obvious.
Because of the relationship between nutrition and exercise, boars often have low sexual desire, or they commit adultery. Keeping boars in groups often leads to stable same-sex behavior, and boars with low social status are often attached to other boars.
Sixth, maternal behavior.
Maternal behavior includes a series of behaviors of sows before and after delivery, such as nesting, breastfeeding and other activities of raising piglets.
When a sow is near delivery, it usually appears in the form of holding grass and nesting in a pig bed. If there is no grass in the fence, it will have to be represented by hoofing the ground. 24 hours before delivery, sows fidget, urinate frequently, grind their teeth, wag their tails, arch the ground, lie down and constantly change their postures. When giving birth, you usually lie on your side. Choose the quietest time to give birth, usually after 4 pm, especially at night. When the first piglet is born, sometimes the sow screams. When the piglet sucks the sow, the sow's limbs will straighten out and open its nipples, so that the newborn piglet can nurse. During the whole delivery process, the sow is in the state of releasing milk from beginning to end, purring constantly, and the nipple of breast milk is also full, even the milk flowing out is easy for the piglets to suck. After the sow gives birth, she lies down in a posture that fully exposes her breasts, forming a heat source and inducing the piglets to lie down next to the sow's breasts. When breastfeeding, sows often take the posture of lying left or right, and do not turn around during breastfeeding. Both mother and offspring can actively cause breastfeeding behavior, and the hum rhythm of sows is low. When a piglet is breastfeeding, sometimes the piglet starts breastfeeding by its sound and constant touching of the sow's breast. When sows are breastfeeding, the cries of sow cubs often cause other mothers in the same room to breastfeed. The suckling process of piglets can be divided into four stages: at the beginning, piglets gather at the breast, each occupying a certain position, rubbing the breast chamber with their noses and sucking, and the piglets lean back, their tails are tightly rolled, and their forelimbs are straight forward. At this time, the sow's snoring reached its peak. Finally, after milking, the pig massaged the breast again and stopped breastfeeding.
Mothers and offspring recognize and communicate with each other through smell, hearing and vision, and the cry of pigs is a kind of contact information. For example, the sounds of nursing sows and piglets can be divided into three types according to the different vocal parts (throat or nasal sounds) and sounds, namely, uh-huh sounds (when the mother is intimate with the baby), screams (when the baby is frightened) and mixed nasal and laryngeal sounds (when the mother is nursing the baby). According to these different sounds, mothers and babies can send messages to each other.
Sows pay great attention to protecting their piglets, and they are very careful when they walk and lie down, so as not to step on or crush the piglets. When the sow is lying down, she chooses a lying position with a triangular mouth beside the fence to continuously discharge the piglets, and slowly lies down beside the fence to prevent the piglets from being crushed to death. Once the pig is crushed, as long as it hears the pig's cry, it immediately stands up and repeats the back pressure action until it is not crushed.
When a sow with a young invades the outside world, it will first give an alarm roar. When the pig hears the sound, it will run away or stay on the ground. Sows will open their mouths and threaten or even attack intruders. Sows that have just given birth will show strong aggressive behavior even if they catch piglets from the breeder. These maternal behaviors are particularly obvious in local pig breeds. The maternal behavior of modern breeds, especially the highly selected lean pig breeds, has weakened.
Seven. Activity and sleep
The behavior of pigs has obvious circadian rhythm, and most of them are active during the day, warm season and summer. There are also activities and eating in the evening, and the time for activities in cold weather is shortened. The day and night activities of pigs vary with age and production characteristics. The average rest time of piglets, breeding pigs, sows and fat pigs is 60% ~ 70%, 70% ~ 85% and 70% ~ 85% respectively. The rest peak is in the middle of the night, and the rest is the least around 8 am.
The sleep time of lactating sows gradually decreases with the increase of lactation days, and the number of walks is from less to more, and the time is from short to long, which is the unique behavior of lactating sows.
There are two kinds of lying-down rest for nursing sows, one is lying down and the other is sleeping. The supine rest posture is mostly lateral, so it is not easy to lie down, and the breathing is light and even. Although the eyes are closed, it is easy to wake up. Sleeping is sleeping on your side, breathing deeply and long, snoring, and often shaking your fur, which makes it difficult to wake up.
Within three days after birth, the piglets almost slept except for sucking and excreting. With the growth of age and physical strength, activities gradually increase and sleep decreases accordingly. However, after eating a lot of supplements at the age of 40, the sleep time has increased again, and generally I sleep quietly after eating enough. Piglets generally imitate sows in their activities and sleep. After birth 10 days, piglets in the same litter began to move in groups, with little individual activity. The main performance of sleep rest is collective sleep.
Eight, inquiry behavior
Inquiry behavior includes exploration activity and experience behavior. Most of the general activities of pigs come from exploration behavior, and most of them are aimed at objects on the ground. Through seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, gnawing, arching and other senses, they show a well-developed exploratory physical strength, which refers to the exploration and investigation of the environment and the interaction with the environment. Pigs are very curious, and they have approached many familiar things in their recent exploration. Piglets are "curious" about everything in the small environment, and they are also very close to their friends in the same nest. The pig's inquiry behavior is obvious. Piglets can stand about 2 minutes after birth and start looking for sows' nipples. Digging with the nose is the main method of inquiry. Another obvious feature of the pig's inquiry behavior is that it bites all new things in the surrounding environment with its nose arch and mouth. It is the main aspect of pig's exploration behavior to fiddle with the surrounding objects with the nasal process, which lasts longer than group play.
When looking for food, pigs dig, smell, arch, lick and chew first, and then open their mouths to eat when the bait meets the taste. This feeding process is also an inquiry. Similarly, the order in which piglets suck sows' nipples and the accurate identification between mother and child are also established through the exploration of sense of smell and taste.
Pigs can clearly distinguish different areas of sleeping, feeding and excreting in pigsty, which is also formed by distinguishing different smells with their noses.
Nine, abnormal behavior
Abnormal behavior refers to the behavior beyond the normal range, and vice refers to the abnormal behavior that causes harm or economic loss to people and animals, and its production is mostly related to harmful stimuli in the living environment of animals. For example, sows kept in cages for a long time will persistently and stubbornly gnaw at the iron nipples of automatic drinking fountains. Sows live in boring fences or cages and often munch on the posts in front of the cages. Generally, with the increase of the range of restricted activities, the frequency and intensity of column biting will increase, and aggressive behavior will also increase. Pigs with hyperactive tongues tend to roll up the tip of their tongues and keep stretching in their mouths, and some will also have arch addiction and empty chewing addiction.
Cannibalism is another harmful habit, such as the phenomenon that neurotic sows eat their young after giving birth. Abnormal behavior of biting tail often occurs in crowded captivity or in nutrient-deficient or boring environment, which brings great harm to production.
X. after-effect behavior
Some behaviors of pigs are innate, such as foraging, sow breastfeeding and sexual behavior, while others are acquired, such as learning to recognize certain things and obey people's orders. Acquired behavior is called conditioned reflex behavior or aftereffect behavior. Aftereffect behavior is gradually established by the familiarity of pigs with new things after birth. Pigs have a strong memory of eating and drinking, and are most likely to establish conditioned reflex on feeding tools, food trough, drinking trough and their orientation. For example, when piglets are artificially breastfeeding, they are fed regularly every day. As long as they train a few times, they can listen to the signal and go to the designated place to eat. This shows that pigs have aftereffect behavior. Through any training, pigs can establish the reaction of aftereffect behavior, obey people's instructions and achieve the purpose of improving production efficiency.
The above ten behavioral characteristics of pigs provide scientific basis for pig farmers to raise and manage pigs. In the whole process of pig production, we should make full use of these behavioral characteristics, carefully arrange the living environment of various pigs, make pigs in the best growth state, give full play to their production potential, achieve high fertility, produce more meat and consume less, and obtain the best economic benefits. . . I hope LZ adopts it!