"Are wild boars native to that area? I think of them as more northern animals."
It's my understanding that the original pigs that were domesticated were from somewhere in Siberia. However, that was thousands of years ago, and domesticated swine have been carried by man literally all over the world. And wherever you have domesticated swine, you'll have this critter: my guess is that these animals are actually feral swine, some farm animal (apparently Christian -grin) that broke loose and then 'went native'. It only takes a generation or two for a domesticated swine to look 100% wild.
Feral swine have great advantages in the wild: they're secretive, tend to be nocturnal, eat anything, and reproduce like rabbits. They're all over the countryside in the South. The downside is that their rooting habit can really churn-up soil, whether in the woods or when intruding onto a farm.
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