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

Leucistic

An East Sussex leucistic wild boar under anaesthetic after being ear-tagged for research purposes.These leucistic wild boar are found on the Kent/East Sussex border. They are not albino's as they don't have red eyes and posses some dark pigment (melanin) in their coats. The pale coats are a result of a mutation in their coat-colour genes. Because they are part of a relatively small population (i.e. small gene pool), the mutation is expressed more frequently than would be in a larger population. At feeding stations, I observed approximately one in four of the Kent/East Sussex population in one particular study area where 'leucistic'.

Coat colour comparison

Comparison of a normal coat colour and a leucistic coat (© Martin Goulding).

Leucistic piglets
Leucistic wild boar piglets (foreground) from East Sussex are noticably lighter than their wild-type siblings (background).

Spotted (Black spots on white coat)

Very rarely, 'spotty' wild boar occur. They are seen in the wild in continental Europe, but none have been reported free-living wild boar in the UK, to-date. They can be seen in UK wild boar farms, and if they are seen in the wild in the UK, it would probably be assumed they were an escaped domestic variety or domestic pig/wild boar hybrid. The spots are due to a genetic mutation, and are not an inpurity in the blood-line from domestic pig genes.

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

A tame spotted male boar, photographed in Germany, sporting a radio-collar (© unknown. If yours, please advise on legality of use).

Spotty piglet

A spotted wild boar piglet with 'normal' siblings and mum at a wild boar farm in Britain (© Martin Goulding).

Albino

3. All the Colours of the Rainbow

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.

Feral pigs in America

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