A-BOAR-able: Orphaned Wild Boar Piglets Make Animal Friends

Adorable photographs show the little piggies napping on a pillow, strutting in a blue pullover and cuddling with their human parents - as well as playing with their animal friends, including a cat, a dog, a horse and chickens. 

Young boars Wilma and Elsa were lost in the wild and facing death from hypothermia before being adopted by Werner and Angelika Schmäing, from Oberscheld, Germany.

Werner, 51, works as a housekeeper in a local school and has raised many helpless animal orphans in his house and garden.

The family’s bengal cat Leopold and collie dog Ziva have become best friends with both piglets - who also play with the couple’s two Frisian horses.

 Werner said: “The interaction of animals is very much like siblings in a family.

“They are mostly peaceful, often playful and sometimes tired - sleeping together in one place.

“Our collie acts as a foster mum for the little ones.”

Both boars had a lucky escape - Wilma was found in the forest motherless and alone and Elsa had rolled down a hill away from her family.

“Young piglets cannot regulate body temperature on their own, they have to be kept warm by mother and siblings in order to survive,” Werner said.