Pigs

Pigs belong to the order Artidactyla, hoofed and even-toed animals, and the family Suidae, which is subdivided into five genera, nine species, and many subspecies. Pigs are not native to America. They arrived as immigrants who had accompanied human travelers from the Old World. Only one species is widespread on the American mainland, the European Sus scrofa or Sus domesticus, the domesticated pig. The peccary, an animal resembling the pig and occupying similar ecological niches, is indigenous to the Americas. Its distribution is mainly South American, but the collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu) or javelina has a range extending into the southwestern states.