Domestic Pigs were developed from the European Wild Boar. The Wild Boar is a gregarious animal with a strong need for close body contact. In the wild, they often rest and sleep in contact with one or more other Wild Boars. These traits made the Wild Boar a good candidate for domestication.

Early domesticated pigs lived in a half-tamed state, roaming the forests in search of food and returning to human settlements in the evening. As civilization advanced, pigs were kept in pastures or tended by swine herdsman as they searched for their own food in forests of oak, beech, and chestnut trees.

When human settlements had increased to the point where open pasture and forestland became scarce, farmers began keeping pigs in enclosed areas, or sties. Farmers were then required to bring food, usually garden produce and table scraps to the pigs.

Until recently, pigs were raised for both meat and lard. Modern breeds of pig are selected almost exclusively for superior meat production.

Pigs are almost never raised as pets. They were developed through selection from natural ancestors for the sole purpose of providing products useful to people. The natural habitat of the Domestic Pig is the farm. The natural life cycle terminates at the meat processing plant.

Modern Domestic Pigs can likely no longer survive on their own if released into the wild. They are considered dependent upon humans for their survival.

In our area, early settlers allowed their pigs to forage on nuts and acorns in the untamed forests surrounding their farms. A common forest tree of our area, the Pignut Hickory, was named for the fruit ignored by settlers but eagerly sought by their foraging pigs.

The European Wild Boar, ancestor of modern Domestic Pigs, was stocked at several hunting preserves in the Carolina mountains, including one at Hooper's Bald in Graham County in 1912. Escaped and released individuals from these preserves have established a rapidly expanding population of Wild Boar in remote mountain areas, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.