Warthog

About the warthog

The common warthog is a wild member of the pig family found in grassland, savanna, and woodland across sub-Saharan Africa. It was historically treated as a subspecies of Phacochoerus aethiopicus, a scientific name now reserved for the separate desert warthog of northern Kenya, Somalia, and eastern Ethiopia.

It is a medium-sized species, with a head-and-body length of 0.9 to 1.5 m (2 ft 11 in to 4 ft 11 in) and a shoulder height of 63.5 to 85 cm (25.0 to 33.5 in). Females are smaller and lighter, at 45 to 75 kg (99 to 165 lb), than males, which range from 60 to 150 kg (130 to 330 lb). The warthog's most recognizable feature is its two pairs of tusks, which curve upward from the mouth. The lower pair is much shorter than the upper pair but stays razor-sharp from rubbing against the upper tusks every time the mouth opens and closes. The upper canines can grow to 25.5 cm (10.0 in) long, with a wide elliptical cross-section about 4.5 cm (1.8 in) deep and 2.5 cm (0.98 in) wide, curving 90 degrees or more from the root so that a removed tusk will not sit flat on a table. The tusks are not used for digging; instead, warthogs use them in combat with other warthogs and in defense against predators, and the shorter lower set can inflict severe wounds. Warthog ivory is taken from these constantly growing canines and is carved mainly for the tourist trade in eastern and southern Africa.

The head is large, with a mane running down the spine to the middle of the back, and the rest of the body is only sparsely haired, usually black or brown, ending in a long tail with a tufted tip. Because warthogs lack subcutaneous fat and carry so little hair, they are unusually sensitive to temperature extremes.

Behavior and diet

The warthog is the only pig species adapted to grazing on open grassland and savanna. Its diet is omnivorous and shifts with the seasons: during the wet season it grazes on short perennial grasses, and during the dry season it switches to bulbs, rhizomes, and nutritious roots, along with berries, other fruits, bark, fungi, dung, insects, eggs, and carrion.

Warthogs are powerful diggers, using both snout and feet, and often shuffle around on their front wrists while feeding — a habit supported by calloused pads that form on the wrists before birth. They can dig their own burrows but frequently move into ones abandoned by aardvarks and other animals, and they typically back into a burrow so they can burst out tusks-first if threatened. They wallow in mud to manage heat and huddle together against the cold. Despite being capable fighters — males spar with each other during the mating season — a warthog's main defense is simply to run, and it can reach speeds up to 48 km/h (30 mph) with its tail held straight up. Its main predators are humans, lions, leopards, cheetahs, crocodiles, wild dogs, and hyenas, with jackals and large owls and eagles sometimes taking piglets; females defend their young aggressively and have even been seen charging larger predators.

Warthogs live in groups called sounders, made up of females and their young along with other females; females tend to stay in their birth group, while males disperse but remain in the wider home range, associating in bachelor groups as subadults before living alone as adults and rejoining sounders only to find mates. Rutting begins in the late rainy or early dry season, and litters — typically two to four piglets, though up to eight are possible — are born near the start of the following rainy season after a five- to six-month gestation. Sows temporarily leave the group to give birth in a separate burrow and will sometimes nurse foster piglets that are not their own, a behavior called allosucking. Piglets begin grazing at two to three weeks old and are weaned by six months. In the wild, common warthogs live an average of 7 to 11 years, but captive individuals can live an average of 21 years.

Range and habitat

The common warthog is found across sub-Saharan Africa in grassland, savanna, and woodland habitat, and it occupies numerous protected areas throughout that range. Population densities typically run between 1 and 10 per km² (0.39–3.86 per sq mi) in protected areas, though local densities as high as 77 per km² (30 per sq mi) have been recorded on short grass in Kenya's Nakuru National Park. In 2020, a population descended from escaped game-ranch animals was reported living free in southern Texas.

Conservation status

The common warthog is listed as Least Concern. As of 1999, its population in southern Africa was estimated at about 250,000 animals. The species is susceptible to drought and to hunting, particularly with dogs, which can cause localized extinctions in some areas, but its wide range and presence across many protected areas support its overall status.