# Wild boar (*Sus scrofa*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/wild-boar  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) is a mammal of the family Suidae in the order Artiodactyla, also called pig, boar, wild pig, boar-hog or wild hog. It is a large, terrestrial, nocturnal animal with an adult body mass of 96.12 kg, and our sources report values from 81.65 kg to 172 kg. Its diet category is herbivore, and its main foods include root, tuber, bulb, nut, seed, berry, insect, lumbricus terrestris, rodent, bird egg and carrion. The wild boar is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category, and checklists record it in Australia.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 81.7 kg – 172 kg |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Lifespan | 21 years |
| Diet | Herbivore |
| Longest recorded lifespan | 27 years |
| Main food | anura, bark, berry, bird egg, bulb, carrion and 14 more |
| Habitat | Not recorded |
| Gestation | 112 days – 130 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 5.57 |
| Age at maturity | 11 months – 2.1 years |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1.5 |
| Active | At night (nocturnal) |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | 1 country |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Mammalia
- order: Artiodactyla
- family: Suidae
- genus: Sus
- species: *Sus scrofa* Linnaeus, 1758

Synonyms: *Sus andamanensis*, *Sus aruensis*, *Sus attila*, *Sus babi*, *Sus baeticus*, *Sus bucculentus*, *Sus castilianus*, *Sus celtica*, *Sus ceramensis*, *Sus chirodontus*, *Sus continentalis*, *Sus enganus*, *Sus europaeus*, *Sus floresianus*, *Sus gigas*, *Sus goramensis*, *Sus leucomystax continentalis*, *Sus leucomystax coreanus*, *Sus leucomystax var. continentalis*, *Sus natunensis*, *Sus nicobaricus*, *Sus niger*, *Sus papuensis*, *Sus sardous*, *Sus scrofa continentalis*, *Sus scrofa coreanus*, *Sus scrofa ussuricus*, *Sus setosus*, *Sus taininensis*, *Sus ternatensis*, *Sus tuancus*

## Countries on record

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

Australia

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is a wild boar?

The wild boar is a mammal in the family Suidae and the order Artiodactyla. It belongs to the genus Sus.

### How heavy is a wild boar?

An adult wild boar has a body mass of 96.12 kg. Our sources report adult body mass from 81.65 kg to 172 kg.

### What does a wild boar eat?

Its diet category is herbivore. Its main foods are anura, bark, berry, bird egg, bulb, carrion, fish, insect, leaf, lumbricus terrestris, mollusca, nut, rhizome, rodent, root, seed, shoot, tuber, twig and waste.

### Is the wild boar endangered?

No. The wild boar is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.

### How long does a wild boar live?

The wild boar has a lifespan of 21 years. The highest value reported by our sources is 27 years.

### How many young does a wild boar have?

A wild boar has 5.6 young per litter, with 1.5 litters per year. The gestation period is 115.2 days.

### Which countries is the wild boar recorded in?

Checklists record the wild boar in Australia.

### Who named the wild boar?

The scientific name Sus scrofa is attributed to Linnaeus, 1758.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1), CC0 1.0, 1.0. Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Wild boar (Sus scrofa). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/wild-boar