Potamochoerus porcus
Afrikaans: Bosvark
Zulu: Inglubi, Ingulube
German: Buschschwein
French: Potamochère
The bushpig is more pig-like than warthogs. The body is well covered with long bristle-like hair and, although variable, usually reddish-brown to grey-brown. A mane of longer and paler hair extends from the back of the neck to the shoulders. The head is long and ears are pointed with tuft of longish hair at tip.
They are seldom seen, but easily identified by their ominous, harsh grunt and pig like appearance. Aggressive and courageous, bushpigs are positively dangerous to pursuing dogs, as the boars often turn on them and slash at them with their razor-sharp tusks. They avoid human and predatory interest by sheltering in dense, almost inaccessible undergrowth. Soon after dusk, they leave their hides, traveling along well-worth paths through the bush in search of food. They root with the upper hard edge of the shout in a similar way to warthogs, and often follow vervet monkeys and baboons around so they can eat the fruit they dislodge. Like warthogs, they enjoy a good mud-wallow, as a defense against insect bites and as a temperature control method.
They are gregarious, forming sounders of 6 to 12 animals, with a dominant boar, a sow and piglets. The dominant boar will guard and lead the piglets to feeding areas, and will challenge and aggressively drive other boars off their feeding grounds. They are aggressive and dangerous and will, rather than retreat, move forward and are more than able to inflict serious wounds with their sharp tusks. Offspring remain with the group for a year or more, and some females may never leave. Males are eventually driven out by their fathers, at least some sub adults associate in bachelor groups.
Gender differences:
The boar (Shoulder height: 65-75cm /weight: 80kg) is slightly larger than sow (Shoulder height:60-70cm weight: 65kg)
Habitat:
Bushpigs live in all kinds of wooded habitat and also thrive in swamp and marshes. Proximity to water is essential.
Present distribution: From Guinea to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, southern Somalia, northern and western Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, the Cape Province and KwaZulu/ Natal in South Africa, and Madagascar.
Diet:
It is an omnivore, eating mostly roots, bulbs, but also excrement and small birds and mammals, as well as a variety of insects, eggs, reptiles and carrion.
Reproduction:
The mating season is the rainy season. After a gestation of 125 days, the sow burrows into carefully constructed heaps of grass to deliver three or four young. For the first two months the piglets lie very still while their mother is foraging. They are weaned between 2-4 months and reach sexual maturity at 18-21 months. The littermates are inseparable until well grown. Although staunchly defensive of their offspring, the boar and sow become intolerant of them after about six months, and drive the young males out.
Life span: 10-15 years
Other:
Their main predators are lions, leopards and hyenas.
They are one of Africa’s most serious agricultural pests, requiring stockade fences to protect crops, with great attendant destruction of trees.
The spoor is nearly the same as the warthog, but more circular.
Little known, by virtue of their secretive and nocturnal habits, they only venture into the open at night.
Differences between bushpigs and warthogs :
The bushpig is about the same size, but lighter than the warthog.
The tusks are much smaller in bushpig.
A warthog’s wrinkled grey skin is sparsely covered by coarse bristles: the bushpig has a coat of coarse hair.
The warthog's eyes are set higher, and the ears have rounded tips: pointed tips with tassels of long hair in bushpig.
The warthog has characteristic facial 'warts', and is often associated with vleis and open grassland, while the bushpig lack these warts and are found in denser woodlands and forests.
The warthog runs with its tail up, the bushpig with its tail down.
Warthogs root in both hard and soft ground, bushpigs only in soft ground.
Bushpigs are active at night, warthogs by day.
Young bushpigs are hardier than young warthogs and do not require burrows to shelter in, as they are better able to control their body temperature.
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