All hogs are excellent swimmers, but we hardly ever see them swimming like this.
We'd caught this one and turned him loose, so he took the shortest escape route.
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| Wild
boar, just like their domestic counterparts, adore the water. Hogs
don't sweat, so it's an important way for them to cool themselves, as well
as to protect themselves from insects.
Often after wallowing, a hog will follow it up with a vigorous rub
against a tree, or anything else it can find.
They can get so engrossed in their scratching that you can walk up on them
and startle them, and a startled hog is a loose cannon you don't want to be around.
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| His snout is under water, so he must be getting something from the bottom of the pond...animal or vegetable.
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It can be dangerous if you startle a wild boar and it can be easy to do when he's sleepily napping in his water or mud hole.
This boar's not easy to spot.
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This hog's grabbing something from the bottom, and is burying his face in the water for a long stretch.
Hogs share an unpleasant behavior with most hoofed animals--they
urinate and defecate in their wallow holes and water holes.
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He's been alerted to my approach, popped his head up and promptly ended his wallow to burst off in the other direction.
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