Three boars warring

Question
I have three boars,all about one year old. They lived happily for three months and then one was being bitten and would hide obviously frightened. He was getting bitten so we removed him on advise from the vet. The remaining two were fine for six months and then a role reversal of dominance happened. The normally docile submissive pig was biting the leader and he ws terrified
I have a huge hutch and run so they had the space,lots of boxes two water and food bowls. Followed all the advise. Have tried bathing them and putting them back but only managed temporary reunions, after that one is bitten and they scream round in circles till I feel I must separate them. They are now all separate but see each other through the bars. Any advise?  Nik

Answer
This is something I hear over and over again. It seems most prevalent when there are more than two boars together although it does happen even with just one pair. What is going on is a hormonal rage that has finally emerged and will not go away. It's instinct that is telling them to do this

Herding animals (and that includes cavies) typically have only one male as the head of household. He maintains the breeding rights and will fight to the death to protect them. When young males are born into the herd they're allowed to remain as long as they don't challenge the king. This included any and all species: horses, wolves, lions, cattle, zebras, hippos, elephants, gorillas, monkeys and any other animal you can name that lives as a group.

When a youngster starts reaching sexual maturity his hormones begin to rage. He will challenge the leader and a battle to the death will start. If the older male wins the younger male is banished forever from the pack. If the older male cannot defeat the youngster he will leave and ultimately die.

This behavior is hard wired into their genes. The injured pig will get an infection from the bites and wounds. This is what is happening in your 'pack'.  The only answer is to separate all of them and keep them that way.

I use my senior boars as nannies to the baby boars that are first weaned. They will live happily until the youngster realizes he is developing the urge to breed.  The exception is if the old boar is past breeding age and has become docile enough to be no threat to the younger pig.

There are exceptions of course, but typically those male hormones just won't keep quiet and the result is an ongoing major war.  My best advice is not to tempt fate. Keep them apart from now on. You've already done what you could to see if you could keep them from hurting one another.  Now it's time to take only step left and that's to allow them to live alone without the threat of injury.