The wild pig can smell underground vegetation.
The wild pig possess a body that ranges from 3.6 to 4.9 feet in height and hair that can be brown or black. It is shaped similarly to a domestic pig and can weigh up to 400 pounds. Wild pigs are also called feral hogs and have been in America since 1539 when European settlers brought them to Florida.
Tubers
The wild pig doesn't have good vision, but it possesses a keen sense of smell. This fine-tuned sense of smell allows it to find tubers underground. It will push the dirt around with its large nose and dig in the ground for anything edible. The wild pig is not a picky eater and will devour anything that is edible, including any tubers that it finds. Tubers are the bulb part of some plants that grow underground, such as potatoes, water chestnuts or yams.
Roots and Forbs
The wild pig will eat the underground roots of vegetation. It will eat flowers and dig up the roots and eat those also. It will dig up any plant that is growing above ground and eat the roots. A forb is a plant with a broad leaf that grows with an underground system of roots that connects the various plants together.
Bulbs
Bulbs of perennial flowers and plants can provide a source of nutrition for wild pigs. Bulbs are the live part of the plant that sprouts again when the temperature rises. When the plant dies off in the fall, the bulb stays dormant underground and sprouts again in the spring.
Underground Insects
As an omnivore, the wild pig eats both vegetation and other animals. It will eat the carcasses it finds of other animals that have recently died. It will dig up earthworms, beetles, ants or any other underground insects with its nose. The wild pig's flat, broad nose is an effective digging tool.
Tags: other animals, plant that, sense smell, sprouts again