Wild Boar (Wild Life by Schleich)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

The pugnacious wild boar (Sus scrofa) is the most widespread and numerous of the wild pigs, with a natural range spanning most of Europe and Asia. It’s also a destructive invasive species in the Americas and Australia, unfortunately. And just as the grey wolf gave rise to the domestic dog, the wild boar gave rise to the domestic pig, thus making it one of the more significant beasts in human history.

This 2016 Schleich figure clearly represents a male boar by way of its large tusks and visible genitalia. His main colour is muddy brown with a faint medium brown wash. The eyes and the tip of the nose are black and the tusks and hooves are beige with dark brown wash. Hardly an attractive or exciting colour scheme, but certainly an accurate one.

The boar is sculpted with his huge head looking to the right, his ears perked, and his right front hoof forward. This makes him nearly 7.5 cm long and 4.5 cm tall (scale roughly 1:17). He boasts beautifully sculpted fur, hooves, and tusks, and is hands down the most realistic-looking boar figure I’ve laid eyes on. This chap also scores highly in terms of accuracy, with an enormous head that takes up almost a third of his length, a beefy upper body, and smaller hindquarters. The long, bulgy snout serves as an effective shovel for digging up the bulbs, roots, and tubers that make up much of a boar’s diet. It also consumes other plant material and small vertebrates and invertebrates.

The sturdy head also serves as an potentially lethal defense weapon, even more so combined with the razor sharp tusks. For wild boars have plenty of formidable predators to defend themselves against. Their main adversary in Europe is the grey wolf, while in Asia, they have to worry about the leopard, the lion, the tiger, and the Komodo dragon. They’ve also long been very popular meals for us humans. I still fondly remember the first time I ate wild boar pizza!

The real wild boar will never win any beauty contests, but this toy certainly is a solid winner for Schleich. A must-have for either your European or Asian menagerie.