Hi Troy, Please do not take offense as you normally do. This subject is exactly why we do not agree. You without question come from a prejudiced angle, your experience with captive animals. And you did a great job, that's wonderfully put together and follows a line of logic. Congrats on that.

The problem is context, very plain and very simple context. These animals are not adapted for captivity. Captivity in this case is a restricted range of conditions that support reproduction growth and longevity. Conditions that are more about ease of application, then the animals actual needs. And Please, that does not mean you or anyone is bad. It means, we are human.

The problem is, assumptions, you made many assumptions that you base your theory on. The first problem is, you must have some idea of evolution of the species. And understand evolution(to a point) All hogs were suppose to have a common ancestor.(a scientific assumption) The animal that spread across much of the U.S. What was that? That hogs did spread means that there was suitable habitat, in whole or in a wave. At least enough to allow the animal to extend its range. Most likely that animal was not like anything we have now. As that occurred many thousands of years ago and the climate and habitat was different. With that in mind and only in mind. Hogs are now divided into several groups, species, semi species, etc. Which means something changed that forced them to adapt differently.

All this leads to prey type, with habitat changes, there is always prey changes, and within that, there are waves of prey type abundance. That is, during dry times, toads as an example are scarce, and lizards are abundant. During other types, toads and lizards are scarce and something else like rodents are abundant. birds and turtles and their eggs are also included. The key to understanding is, in order to survive, hogs must include a range of prey items, as they do change from year to year and local to local.

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