Wild Boar Coat Colours

Wild boar camouflaged

A wild boar at the duck pond. The boar's coat colour provides excellent camouflage against the autumnal landscape.

Wild boar coats can be described as brindled and bristly with a thick underlying brown pelage. However, coat colours can vary considerably and this page illustrates typical wild boar coat colours as well as a few anomalies.

1. Typical Wild Boar Coat Colours

Stripey (piglet/boarlet)

Wild boar piglet
Piglets are born with characteristic brown and yellow stripes.
The stripes are lost when the piglet is 3-4 months old, or 12-15 kg in weight, and a reddish coloured coat is acquired.

Red (juvenile)

Wild boar red coat
Piglets lose their stripes at typically 3-4 months old, and take on this red colouration. This is the typical colouration of a young boar.
The red coat is lost at the first moult, when the adult coat is first gained.

Black (adult)

Wild boar dark coats
These wild boar were photographed in Devon. Note that they have very dark, almost black, coloured coats.
Boar with coats this dark are usually of eastern european origin.

Brown (adult)

Wild boar brown coats
This wild boar was photographed in East Sussex.
The coat colour is lighter and more brown, which is typical of boar from western europe.

2. Atypical Coat Colours

a.) Leucistic

An East Sussex leucistic wild boar These leucistic wild boar are not albinos as they don't have red eyes and posses some dark pigment (melanin) in their coats. The pale coats are probably a result of a mutation in their coat-colour genes. At feeding stations, approximately one in four of the Kent/East Sussex population in one particular study area where observed to be leucistic.

b.) Spotted (Black spots on white coat)

A spotted sow, photographed in Poland, amusing the local cyclists (© unknown. If yours, please advise on legality of use).

Spotted wild boar occasionally occur in the wild in continental Europe - the spots are due to a genetic mutation, and are not an inpurity in the blood-line from domestic pig genes.

Spotted boar in UK A spotted wild boar reportedly seen in Devon. (awaiting credit details)

If genuine, this is the first spotted wild boar to be free-living in the UK that we are aware of. There is a strong likelihood that if they are seen in the wild in the UK, they would be mistaken for an escaped domestic variety or domestic pig/wild boar hybrid. (awaiting credit details)

c.) Albino

3. All the Colours of the Rainbow

Feral pigs in America

Coat colour in hybrid wild boar x domestic pigs, and feral pigs, varies enormously depending on the breed of domestic pig that initially escaped. Coats may be entirely of one colour: black, brown or white are common, or with coloured spots, patches, stripes, saddles and shoulder belts. Feral pigs that are all black or brown in colouration can be distinghuished from wild boar by body shape.Escaped domestic pigs which have bred in the wild for several generations begin to lose their domestic appearance and develop thick bristly coats, and larger head, neck and shoulders. Piglets usually do not possess the characteristic brown and yellow longitudinal stripes of pure wild boar piglets, though there are rare exceptions to this rule. In Britain there are no populations of feral pigs.

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