Boar cutters

[FForF]

I have a question. All the feral hogs taken at my friends place in Texas do not have long cutters. Is it a genetics thing, or age thing or both. The largest pig taken by myself and friends went around 150 which I understand isn't that old of a pig.

Why no long cutters?

 

[Nic Barca]

There are several facors involved but number one is genetics. Tusks will grow as long as the top tusks will allow them to, meaning, they will eventually be filed off completely, depending on how interact with the top tusks. I have seen thick tusks, nearly one inch thick that only go 2 3/4 inch out of the gum before being filed off. That is typical and most mature boar tusks will go to between 2 and 3 inch. Longer tusks will in general, be a disadvantage against predators because if the tusk curls back too far, the will have a harder time cutting, so natural selection would make it not as common to see. If the tusks grows a bit off from the top tusks and is not filed off completely, a longer blade will develope, the tip of which is either filed off eventually or is periodically chipped when it gets thin. For long tusks to develope, part of the bottom tusks must miss the top tusk, and that's usually because of genetics bu sometimes occurs if a top tusks is deformed or chipped.

The age factor is not so important but age can lead to thick tusks. Sometimes age does not lead to thick tusks either because, I'm guessing the pig didn't have the nutrition and/or didn't have the genetics. Mature pigs average about 5 years but we were catching some pigs a couple years back that were I guessing around 8 years old with one that might have been in the teens. That oldest pig only had gums left in the back of his mouth with little bits of teath sticking up out of them. Only a couple of the half dozen or so old boars had tusks over 3 inches.

The best tusks I've seen was 4 inches long and 1 inch in diameter. They looked like walrus tusks. Unfortunately the other tusk was snapped off at 2 inches.

To me, tusks are judged by a combination of length and thickness. Which would you rather have? 4 inch pencil tusks or 2 1/2 inch thick tusks?

The weight of the pig has little to do with age and more to do with genetics. Many domestic breeds can grow to 250 pounds in a very short time as compared to wild boar which take a bit longer to reach full maturity, perhaps five years. And because there is such high genetic diversity in feral pigs, age cannot be accurately deturmined from weight.

 

[hogwild757]

Here's some tusk.

 

[bayedsolid]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

I have a question. All the feral hogs taken at my friends place in Texas do not have long cutters. Is it a genetics thing, or age thing or both. The largest pig taken by myself and friends went around 150 which I understand isn't that old of a pig.
Why no long cutters?[/b]

Sounds like younger hogs. Mature boars are solitary unless they are breeding a sow. I know the Texas landscape is quite a bit different than California, but here you usually find that there are canyons that predominately hold sows, young boars and babies and there are canyons that hold mostly big boars. I would bet Texas is the same. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the neighboring properties to your buddies place harvests mostly big boars. Genetics does have a big part in it too. Domestic hogs don't grow the teeth that look like what a true Russian boar has. I know the hogs in Texas don't, for the most part, look as "wild" as most of the hogs do here in California. It seems like we get much better quality hogs in that respect, especially in the tooth department. Now this is not some all encompassing, blanket statement, before someone has to prove me wrong, but for the most part it is true. California hogs have bigger teeth than they grow in most parts of Hawaii too. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

I have seen thick tusks, nearly one inch thick that only go 2 3/4 inch out of the gum before being filed off. That is typical and most mature boar tusks will go to between 2 and 3 inch.[/b]

Here they generally go 3" to 3-1/2" and the older they are the thicker they get. We catch hogs every year with 4 inches. They are not common, but they are out there.