Don’t think that the second brother is cute and adorable, he actually has extremely strong fighting power!

"The pestle's mouth was three feet long, with fangs like silver nails. Its round eyes shone like lightning, and its ears made a whirring sound when it fanned itself."

This passage from Journey to the West is not about describing the immortals that the four masters and apprentices met on their journey to the West, but about the appearance of Zhu Bajie, who has always been portrayed as a simple-minded pig. Obviously, the pigs that grow into this shape are definitely not the domestic pigs that we often see on the table today, but their wild relatives - wild boars .

"I am Marshal Tianpeng, who commands 80,000 naval forces in Tianhe." | Valentin Panzirsch / wikimedia commons

The second brother is really smart and cute

The domestic pigs we raise today are domesticated from wild boars, but apart from the long snout and large nostrils, the difference between domestic pigs and wild boars is quite obvious. Unlike domestic pigs, which have smooth and sparse hair, wild boars are covered with hard bristles, which are mostly brown-black in adults and black-brown stripes in juveniles.

Wasn't the second brother quite cute when he was a child? | Pixabay

Adult wild boars have a heavy and large head , which is almost one-third of their body length. In contrast, the head of a domestic pig is much smaller, and its snout is not as prominent as that of a wild boar.

"I repeat! A big head is a symbol of intelligence! Intelligence! | Pixabay

Another defining feature of wild boars is their long tusks, which are their lower canine teeth that extend beyond their lips. The tusks of male wild boars, like those of other "wild pigs," continue to grow throughout their lives.

"Look at my teeth, aren't they handsome?" | Pixabay

However, compared with the exaggerated curved tusks of warthogs, wild boars' tusks are more practical. They can be used as "shovels" to dig out food such as plant roots or insect larvae buried underground with their extremely keen sense of smell; when they need to fight, they can be used as "chisels" and are so sharp that they can even pierce the skin of a car.

A car that was pushed by a pig丨worldofbuzz

Wild boars pass through the area, leaving no grass behind

The wild boar camp is a loose family-style life, mostly couples with three to five cubs . Male wild boars in the breeding season and female wild boars in the raising season are like aggressive little tanks. Male wild boars in the breeding season will actively attack creatures that enter their recognized territory, and female wild boars in the raising season will also actively drive away "invaders" to protect their cubs.

Wild Boar Family丨Roland Seitre / Minden Pictures

Although female wild boars don't have tusks as long as male wild boars, the damage caused by their charge is still quite severe. And after hitting the target, female wild boars will often bite it to finish off the target - believe me, being bitten by a pig is not a fun thing.

In some places, wild boars have even become a "hidden danger"丨CNN

Unlike many animals that have fixed territories, wild boars have a rather vague definition of "territory" and do not have a fixed range. So most of the time they will just drive away those things that happen to appear in their sight, look unpleasant, and move around. It is not uncommon to hear news of wild boars chasing humans for no reason and running away from the mountains into the city. Moreover, wild boars do not care much about intersecting with human life, and often run to farmland to eat "buffets".

Be careful, there are pigs here! What are you looking at? I'm talking to you! | Pixabay

The damage to farmland attacked by wild boars can be quite serious, because not only will they chew up the surface of the crops, they will also turn over the roots and eat them as well, giving the impression that "no grass grows when wild boars pass through."

What should I do if I can attack and defend?

Wild boars not only have high attack power, but also have amazing defense power. Because they use straight-line collision to hit the enemy, the density of the huge skull of the wild boar is quite high, and the hardness of the frontal bone can even withstand small-caliber bullets. Many years ago, I saw a news report from Hong Kong. A male wild boar in estrus that was causing trouble in a farmland was only slightly scratched by a police officer's small revolver. In the end, a large-caliber rifle was used to kill it.

Classic scene: Wild boar pushing a cart丨youtube

What if one day you are so unlucky that you run into a wild boar while eating hot pot and singing on the street? Actually, it is not that difficult: although the head-on collision of wild boars is fast and has high damage, its turning is very inflexible! So when you face an attacking wild boar, you just need to calmly watch its route, and then take a gorgeous step - get out of the way. So from a certain perspective, setting a trap to catch the wild boar and releasing it back into the forest may be easier than killing it directly...

See if my flash is accurate?

Because wild boars have such a "brave" character, their image has also occupied a very important position in human civilization. In the past, there was the Calydonian boar in Greek mythology, and Zhu Ganglie in the Four Great Classics "Journey to the West"; in the recent past, there was the wild boar king in "Monster Hunter", various wild boars in "World of Warcraft" that can knock down half of your health with a charge, the demon pig in "FATE/GRAND ORDER" that can make the whole team lose health with a mouthful, and the boar-headed beautiful boy in "Demon Slayer"... In short, no matter what kind of work the wild boar image appears in, "high attack and high health are standard, and straight-line collision is a skill" seems to be unchanged.

It’s not surprising that Zhu Bajie in “Black Myth: Wukong” looks like this｜“Black Myth: Wukong”

It didn’t take long to tame the wild boar.

Interestingly, it may not take as long as we think for humans to domesticate wild boars from wild boars to be relatively docile. The "pigs" in pottery pig pens unearthed in the Eastern Han Dynasty in my country mostly retain the appearance of wild boars, such as long tusks, long bristles, and big heads (and also reflect the historical fact that toilets were built above the pig pens at that time); in the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" depicting the style of the Northern Song Dynasty, we find that the image of the "domestic pigs" walking through it has become similar to modern domestic pigs, except that the bristles are more obvious; and in the works of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the pigs that appear are the domestic pigs we are familiar with today.

Photo work "You". 丨Ben Salter / wikimedia commons

Through the changes in the image of "pig" in these works of art over time, we can see how our ancestors step by step selected those individuals with smaller tusks, better tempers, small heads and more fat from the wild boar herds and kept them in captivity. Over thousands of years, they domesticated them bit by bit into modern domestic pigs.

At first glance, you might think it's a big cat chasing a horse, but it's actually chasing a wild boar丨Pixabay

However, to this day, there is no reproductive isolation between wild boars and domestic pigs. Therefore, in places where the activity areas of humans and wild boars overlap, news such as "wild boars pursue pleasure and stay in domestic pig pens to marry and have children" or "domestic pigs pursue freedom and elope to the moon with wild boar boys" will occasionally appear.

No matter how difficult life is, we still have to face it with a smile, even if the two-legged beast in front of you wants to eat you丨Pixabay

Finally, let me answer a question that everyone is concerned about: How can it be good? It can be eaten, because the fat content is not as high as that of domestic pigs, so the meat will be more woody and have a stronger "meaty" taste. It is delicious when stewed, roasted, or boiled. However, although wild boars were removed from the list of "three-have" protected animals last year, according to the "Wildlife Protection Law", eating terrestrial wild animals is an illegal act, so you can't eat them casually.

Author: Wing Wolf Elang