Tooth wear in wild boar (Sus scrofa).

In order to study the limitations and possibilities of age estimation based on tooth wear of skeletal remains from wild boar, 315 mandibles from five different populations of wild boar from Poland, Germany and Sweden were analysed. Asymmetric tooth wear between the right and left mandibles was found to be rare and no systematic difference in tooth wear between males and females (less than 36 months) could be proven. The rate of tooth wear seems to vary between different populations of wild boar. The largest difference was found between wild boar kept in enclosures and four populations of free-ranging animals that showed relatively small difference in tooth wear of individuals younger than 36 months. The analysis reveals a strong correlation between age and mandible wear stages (MWS)/tooth wear stages (TWS) and indicates that tooth wear can be useful in age estimation of mandibles or loose teeth of wild boar. However, the individual variation of tooth wear is relatively large and increases with age, which implies that long lasting TWS and MWS can only be restricted to broad age groups.