Are Boars and Dogs Best Friends? Should They Be?

Dogs may be man’s best friend, but who is a dog’s best friend? The answer may not be as straightforward as you thought. Even though most dogs love humans (we give the best tummy rubs and treats, after all!), some dogs may enjoy playing with a different species from the animal kingdom: boars!

In a video shared on YouTube, a hunting dog leaves its owners to play and wrestle with a wild boar on a forest trail. The dog wags its tail happily as it scuffles with the boar. When one boar runs to the top of a small hill, another wild boar appears. The dog seems to be having the time of its life, chasing after first one boar, then the other.

At one point in the clip, four boars approach the dog at once. The dog acts like it’s going to chase after the wild animals, so the boars back up, seemingly wary of the dog. The wild boars all run around chasing each other, almost running into the nearby humans before slipping back into the wooded area near the trail.

It seems like they are having a wonderful time, which is surprising. Typically, hunting dogs don’t befriend the game they are hunting, but this video appears to be an exception.

Supervised Friends

While the video is an adorable example of animal friends playing together, this isn’t necessarily the way all wild boars act around dogs. According to The Open Sanctuary Project, it’s not ideal for pigs (of which wild boars are related) and dogs to live together. Dogs are natural predators, and they could injure or kill a pig, cause stress, or create other dangerous situations. They recommend only allowing pigs and dogs to interact while supervised, and the same caution should be applied to boars and dogs.

The American Mini Pig Association says that a pig’s natural behaviors of running, charging, biting, squealing, and more can trigger predator instincts in dogs, even if the dogs are typically friendly. They could instinctively attack or hurt the boar if you weren’t there to intervene.

In the video comments, people expressed similar concerns about wild boars and dogs playing together, suggesting that the animals in the video knew each other previously. Not to mention, there were also humans present in case anything got out of hand while the animals were playing together.

“100% those boars are raised in captivity and known to those people and that dog,” one person speculated. “Had that been a male boar, friend or foe, that dog would have been seriously injured when he fell during one of those chases.”

Someone else commented that they believe the wild boars and dog were raised together. “I have raised these wild boar before, and I can tell these hogs have been [fed] by the people who were there,” they added.

Social Animals

Female wild boars, called sounders, along with their young and sometimes subadult males, typically form groups that can range in size from 6-30 boars, depending on habitat and resources. Adult males are mostly solitary except during the breeding season, when they compete with each other to mate with a female. However, younger males may remain with the group or form small bachelor groups.

Wild Boars Are (Mostly) Omnivores

Although they may appear aggressive toward other animals, wild boars are mostly omnivores. About 90% of their diet consists of leaves, berries, grasses, fruit, roots, and bulbs. However, they will also eat eggs, mice, lizards, and snakes. Wild boars don’t typically hunt other animals, but they will eat an abandoned animal carcass if they come across one.

Protective Instinct

Sounders give birth to 4 to 6 piglets at a time in a nest inside a thicket. Afterward, the mother stays with her piglets for about two weeks to protect them from predators. If a dog came to play with the sounder or her piglets during that time, the mother boar would likely not take kindly to it! At around 7 months old, piglets become independent.

Dog Friends

In addition to other dogs and sometimes wild boars and pigs, dogs can also be friends with cats. These two species are natural enemies; dogs will often chase cats, while cats may hiss or swipe at dogs. However, if they are adopted at the same time, raised in the same house, and given the proper socialization and training, dogs and cats can get along, making them one of the friendliest pets around.