White Foot

• Name: White Foot
• Species: Feral Hog
• Age: 3 years old
• Weight: 300 lbs
• Sex: Male
• Special Needs: Suffering from advanced stages of Brucellosis. Severe weight loss, lethargy and migraines.
• Personality: Easy disposition.  Learned from Godfather Pig that a tolerant personality is best for a beloved leader. Gentle  actions to piglets. Gentle actions towards researchers.  Special bond with Keith.  Protective of little ones and even his humans.  Brings gifts to his humans and teaches the piglets the old ways. 
• Favorite Food: White bread slices when hand fed from Mr. Keith. Peanuts, and dog bone treats
• Family: Original piglet group. Big Mama – deceased (Mother), Godfather Pig – assumed deceased (father). Big Red – deceased (brother), CoCo (sister). Served as #1 Boar for one year until Brucellosis weakened him and he lost to Raven. Still a favorite of the piglets.
• Likes: White bread.  Playing “wake the mean boar” with the piglets.  Playing with his soccer ball. Learning new things from his humans.
• Dislikes: All Dogs. All Humans (except my Humans).
• Needs: Brucellosis cure. Pain relief. Fenced land to keep hunters away.

White Foot is one of the original piglets along with his deceased brother Big Red and CoCo. Even though he was the runt of the litter, he was always more aggressive and wanted to play-fight with every pig, including the big boars and his father the giant boar Godfather Pig. This earned him a place as the future leader of the pack. Whitefoot and Miss Piglet would also follow the researcher humans, especially Mr. Keith, to see what they were doing. He developed a special trust with Keith that is described  as “I know I can kill you at any moment and you can kill me, so let’s be allies”.  This resulted in a long standing pig-human friendship that resulted in unique adventures and encounters. White Foot always took the effort in helping the younger pigs to appreciate the tenuous relationship between feral hogs and certain humans, while still fearing any other humans encountered. 

As a piglet, and later even as an adult, White Foot loved to play with a soccer ball.  He would bat it around the compound, going as fast as he could, driving it in specific directions.  This, we surmise, was good fighting practice for him that he used later as an adult.  Learning how to place a snout hit, and how to turn and move quickly, helped him to grow from Runt to top boar.

White Foot was one of the first pigs to be heard using the special grunts that we learned served as the pig family’s “names” for Jane and Keith. These grunts were specific to each of us and only used when we were in the area of the pig groups.  When we were seen, instead of issuing the typical “alert” grunt, our “names” were used which signaled to the pigs that there was not a threat.  When we tested this theory by introducing other humans to the pigs, they would use our “names” when we were noticed, but as soon as the other humans were noticed, the “alert” grunt was signaled, and the pigs departed the area. 

White Foot was also a key player in a National Geographic Moment late one night.  After the 2024 hurricanes, there was a lot of downed trees and brush debris.  During a nighttime rain storm, Keith started burning this mountain of debris.  As the fire died down late in the night, the pigs came to visit Keith at the river and Pig Pond.  Whitefoot, being the #2 Boar, was the first to approach Keith’s location near the fire.  As is typical, he stopped, nodded his head up and down (usually a signal to throw him some bread) and grunted Keith’s name.  Keith responded with a greeting to White Foot.  As the two stood there near each other, White Foot looked over at the fire and then turned to Keith and grunted the “What’s That?” grunt you hear daily from little piglets as they question everything like human toddlers just learning to talk.  Without thinking, Keith responded back “FIRE”.  White Foot then grunted a new grunt not heard prior.  It seems that these pigs had never seen fire in the wild before, so had no context what it was.  As the rest of the pig herd funneled past, they noticed the fire and also grunted the “What’s That?” grunt as they looked to White Foot.  To each pig, White Foot responded with the new grunt, which Keith realized was a new word the pigs now had for “fire”.  This was proven as other pigs arrived at the fire area and were told the new name by the other pigs already there.  On other nights, the pigs were noted using the same grunt for “fire” as they recognized a fire being burned in the fire pit by the pond. This included new litters of piglets that were being taught their lessons by their other herd pigs and mothers.

White Foot finally beat out Mr. Whiskers to become the #1 Boar and first in breeding position last summer.  Going from the Runt to #1 is not an easy feat for feral hogs and is a testament to his tenacity and internal strength.  For feral hogs, it is not winning a bloody battle every fight, but a psychological game.  Once you lose, you back down from fights until you can build up enough courage to take on your champion once again.  This keeps the boars from causing a lot of damage to each other with their razor-sharp tusks and impressive strength.  Unfortunately, White Foot started suffering from the effects of Brucellosis and in his weakened state, lost out his #1 position to Raven the giant young upstart that had been relegated to the outskirts of the pack by White Foot’s Lieutenant Macon. Now White Foot is comfortable in semi-retirement as he no longer has to fight for position but still commands great respect by the other boars.  If they challenge him, he knocks them hard to remind them that if he wanted to, he could destroy them. White Foot suffers daily from migraines and painful joints.  At times he would stand or lay near his human Mr. Keith as if doing so makes the pain go away. White Foot is the gift bearer.  When the feeders run out of food, he will cut and bring a palm frond and lay it under the feeder as a gift to his humans.  Without fail, this reminds us to fill up the feeder.  We will often cut a palm frond and leave it for White Foot as a reminder that we understand the role gifts play in their society.