Ok, I can see how domesticated animals might escape and turn feral, but what is the story on these Eurasian or Russian variants? Somebody has had to deliberately add them to the mix somewhere.
Our "Piny Woods Rooters" in the Southeast began with escaped swine brought along by Hernando DeSoto on his 16th century trek from what's now Florida through Georgia and out to the Mississippi River. Five centuries of free range stock raising down here have added to and combined with the feral Spanish hogs and resulted in our present stock.
In historic times truly wild European (Russian)Boar have been stocked in various places including the Smokey Mountains and elsewhere. Since they're all pretty much the same animals crosses have taken place.
I'm not sure what GLS was addressing with his post about Eurasian stock. The are lots of different native members of the swine family throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and India/Southeast Asia I believe. A close encounter with a wild hog can be a dangerous situation to be in...Geo
