The "Rooshians" Of East Tennessee - Society - Nature

Tellico Game Management Area in the rugged mountains of east Tennessee embraces eighty-seven thousand acres of wild-forested area, much of it just as the Indians left it. Prowling this primitive range is a herd of about seven hundred of the wildest wild animals to he found in North America today. They are Russian wild boars. In 1912, a group of wealthy British sportsmen owned a private hunting preserve in the mountains of western North Carolina. They fenced in a large portion of the preserve with a high, boar-proof fence, and imported twenty-three genuine European wild boars from the Ural and Harz Mountain regions of Europe. The "Rooshians"-as the native mountaineers of the area call them-multiplied to some extent while they were fenced in.

Then came the first World War, and the subsequent failure of the hunting preserve venture. The fence, weakened by forest fires and neglect, failed to hold the animals. They escaped and made their way into the mountains of east Tennessee. Since then they have thrived and increased until some seven hundred inhabit the Tellico Area alone. There are claims that the Europeans have crossbred with native wild "razorback" hogs, but mountaineers and experienced mountain guides discount this claim.

From available evidence it appears, in fact, that the wild immigrants soon drive out razorbacks that have gone wild and take over an area. After several years on their own, the domestic hogs acquire habits similar to those of the "Rooshians." The razorbacks develop tusks, coarser and thicker hair, slimmer and more heavily-muscled bodies. Their tusks are straighter than those of the imported boars, but not as long and not as sharp. Also, the tusks of the razorbacks appear only in individuals from four to six years old, while the "Rooshian" will start sprouting tusks during its first year of life.

The true Russian wild boar has large, buffalo-like fore shoulders. These are covered with a layer of skin much thicker and tougher than the skin covering the rest of their bodies. They have comparatively small hind parts, and long bushy tails. The bodies of the razorbacks, however, arc the same size, proportionately, in both front and hind parts; their skin is about the same thickness over all parts of their bodies; their tails are short. The European boars have longer snouts; small, beady eyes; coarse and long hair; an undercoat of fine, kinky, tan-colored hair. The outer coat of hair of the "Rooshians" is dark brown, and may appear almost black in the sunlight.

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