Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus, or bush­pig, ranges from So­ma­lia to east­ern and south­ern for­mer Zaire and south­wards to Cape Province and Natal in South Africa. They were prob­a­bly in­tro­duced onto Mada­gas­car, Co­moro and May­otte Is­lands. There are cur­rently three pro­vi­sional sub­species; P. l. has­sama, P. l. so­ma­lien­sis, and P. l. koiropota­mus. The prin­ci­ple sys­tem­atic di­vi­sion within the sub­species is be­tween the white-faced an­i­mals of east­ern Africa and the re­main­ing pop­u­la­tions of both south­ern Africa and Mada­gas­car. (King­don, 1997; Lloyd and Mil­lar, 1983; Smithers, 1983; Thomas and Kolbe, 1942; Ver­cam­men, et al., 1993)

The range of this species has changed, and there is in­suf­fi­cient data on its for­mer dis­tri­b­u­tion. Re­cently, ex­pan­sion of the Sahel zone has led to a re­duc­tion in cover and the avail­abil­ity of open water in north­east­ern Africa, re­sult­ing in a con­trac­tion in the range of P. lar­va­tus in that re­gion. Nonethe­less, P. lar­va­tus seems to have main­tained its pres­ence over the ma­jor­ity of its for­mer range, and re­cent, lo­cal­ized ex­pan­sion in its range has been re­ported in some areas. (King­don, 1997; Lloyd and Mil­lar, 1983; Smithers, 1983; Thomas and Kolbe, 1942; Ver­cam­men, et al., 1993)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • introduced
  • native

Habi­tat

Bush­pigs in­habit a wide range of habi­tats from sea-level to mon­tane for­est (up to 4,000 m on Mt. Kil­i­man­jaro), to gallery for­est, flooded for­est, swamp­land, wood­land, and mixed scrub and cul­ti­vated areas. Bush­pigs can adapt to human in­flu­enced habi­tats as well be­cause they eat agri­cul­tural food crops. (King­don, 1997; Smithers, 1983; Thomas and Kolbe, 1942)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• scrub forest
• mountains

• Wetlands
• swamp

• Other Habitat Features
• agricultural
• riparian

• Range elevation

  0 to 4000 m

  0.00 to 13123.36 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The coat of the Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus is shaggy and varies from light red­dish brown to gray-brown to al­most black in color. Bush­pigs, how­ever, are usu­ally black with the head re­gion usu­ally a dif­fer­ent shade than the rest of the body. The long, erec­tile bristly hairs along the spine form a mane that starts be­tween the ears and ex­tends to the rear. The ears have mod­er­ate tas­sels at their tips though not nearly as long as in their close rel­a­tive, red river hogs (Pota­mo­choerus por­cus). Body color is vari­able be­tween ages, in­di­vid­u­als, sexes and pop­u­la­tions. The young are born with tem­po­rary brown and yel­low stripes, which fade away over sev­eral months. The tail is long and has a tuft of coarse hair at the tip. The an­i­mals ap­pear stout be­cause the body is round and the legs are rel­a­tively short. Males have a bony ridge and warts on the snout. The tusks or ca­nines are di­rected up­ward and out­ward. Upper tusks are small and barely vis­i­ble. Lower tusks are promi­nent and quite sharp, grow­ing up to 7 cm long. These an­i­mals can weigh 54 to 115 kilo­grams. They are usu­ally be­tween 100 and 150 cen­time­ters long. (King­don, 1997; Maberly, 1967; Nowak, 1991; Smithers, 1983)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes shaped differently
• ornamentation

• Range mass

  54 to 115 kg

  118.94 to 253.30 lb

• Range length

  100 to 150 cm

  39.37 to 59.06 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus have a polyg­y­nous mat­ing sys­tem wherein male bush­pigs exlude other males from ac­cess to a group of fe­males. Males com­pete for ac­cess to fe­males by butting heads and hav­ing fore­head shov­ing matches. Males play an ac­tive role in the rear­ing and de­fense of the young. (Ver­cam­men, et al., 1993)

• Mating System
• polygynous

Most births occur be­fore the onset of the rainy sea­son be­tween Sep­tem­ber and No­vem­ber. Most often the fe­male bush­pig re­tires to a shel­tered nest or hol­low just be­fore giv­ing birth. Fe­males have a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of 120 to 127 days. Fe­males have 1 to 4 young but can have up to 6. After birth, the fe­male nurses the young for 2 to 4 months. Par­ents usu­ally drive out young bush­pigs at about 6 months of age. A young Bush­pig reaches sex­ual ma­tu­rity at 18 to 21 months. (King­don, 1997)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Bushpigs breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Mating takes place in May and June.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 4

• Range gestation period

  120 to 127 days

• Range weaning age

  2 to 4 months

• Average time to independence

  6 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  18 to 21 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  18 to 21 months

Boars (males) pro­vides parental care and de­fense in ad­di­tion to fe­males. The dom­i­nant boar guards and leads the young to feed­ing areas. Boars also ag­gres­sively drive other boars off their feed­ing grounds. (Ver­cam­men, et al., 1993)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

On av­er­age, bush­pigs live about 20 years in the wild. (King­don, 1997)

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  20 years

Be­hav­ior

Bush­pigs are seden­tary an­i­mals and pro­tect their ter­ri­to­ries vig­or­ously. They are pre­dom­i­nantly noc­tur­nal. This be­hav­ior is thought to be re­lated to the am­bi­ent tem­per­a­ture, as di­ur­nal ac­tiv­ity oc­curs more often in the cooler months. Bush­pigs shel­ter in dense veg­e­ta­tion, and nests may be built dur­ing rains or pe­ri­ods of cold. In ad­di­tion, wal­low­ing is a fa­vorite ac­tiv­ity. In­ter­est­ingly, bush­pigs are often found fol­low­ing fru­giv­o­rous mon­keys, feed­ing on un­eaten fruit that falls to the ground. They are no­to­ri­ous for feed­ing on crops. Daily move­ments vary from 0.5-5 kilo­me­ters / 0.3-3 miles.

Bush­pigs are so­cial an­i­mals and are found in sounders (groups) of up to 12 mem­bers. A typ­i­cal group con­sists of a dom­i­nant male and a dom­i­nant fe­male, with other fe­males and ju­ve­niles ac­count­ing for the rest. (Maberly, 1967; Simoons, 1953; Smithers, 1983; Sowls and Phelps, 1968)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• diurnal
• nocturnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• sedentary
• territorial
• social
• dominance hierarchies

• Range territory size

  10 (high) km^2

Home Range

A sounder in­hab­its a mostly ex­clu­sive home range of up to 10 square kilo­me­ters. Pop­u­la­tion den­si­ties range from 0.3-10.1 an­i­mals per square kilo­me­ter. (Maberly, 1967; Simoons, 1953; Smithers, 1983; Sowls and Phelps, 1968)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus com­monly com­mu­ni­cate by grunt­ing, with in­fre­quent squeals and roars. They make a long, res­o­nant growl as an alarm call. They also have ex­cep­tional hear­ing and sense of smell, but poor eye­sight. (King­don, 1997)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Bush­pigs feed on plant roots, rhi­zomes, bulbs, tu­bers, fruits, and in­sect lar­vae which are rooted from the sub­sur­face soil. They also con­sume a va­ri­ety of in­ver­te­brates, smaller ver­te­brates, and car­rion. Their stealth and taste for agri­cul­tural food crops en­ables them to thrive on pota­toes, maize, toma­toes, sugar cane, and other veg­eta­bles. (Maberly, 1967; Smithers, 1983)

• Primary Diet
• omnivore

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• eggs
• carrion
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• mollusks

• Plant Foods
• roots and tubers
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

This species is known to be preyed upon by hu­mans, leop­ards, lions, hyae­nas, and pythons. (King­don, 1997)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • humans (Homo sapiens)
  • leopards (Panthera pardus)
  • lions (Panthera leo)
  • spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta)
  • pythons (Python)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus may be im­por­tant dis­persers of seeds on the for­est floor and are im­por­tant prey an­i­mals for large car­ni­vores. (Ver­cam­men, et al., 1993)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus is hunted widely for sub­sis­tence pur­poses. The in­flu­ence of Islam, how­ever, has pre­sum­ably af­forded these an­i­mals a good deal of pro­tec­tion against hunt­ing in many African coun­tries and in some parts of Mada­gas­car be­cause of taboos on con­sump­tion of pork. (Simoons, 1953; Smithers, 1983)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

In the De­mo­c­ra­tic Re­pub­lic of Congo and Malawi bush­pigs are re­puted to cause more dam­age to agri­cul­ture than any other species. In ad­di­tion, mem­bers of the genus Pota­mo­choerus are re­garded as vec­tors of live­stock dis­eases and may be host to or vec­tors of tick-borne dis­eases, such as trichi­nosis, African swine fever and try­panosomes. Con­se­quently, they are widely per­se­cuted by farm­ers as well as tar­geted in wildlife con­trol pro­grammes. (King­don, 1997; Thomas and Kolbe, 1942)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • carries human disease
• crop pest
• causes or carries domestic animal disease

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus is not con­sid­ered threat­ened over the ma­jor­ity of its known range at the pre­sent time. In fact, based on re­search done by The World Con­ser­va­tion Union (IUCN), there is ev­i­dence that the con­ver­sion of for­mer for­est to sec­ondary scrub and agri­cul­ture has re­sulted in an in­crease in their num­bers in some areas. It turns out that at­tempts to con­trol or erad­i­cate Pota­mo­choerus lar­va­tus in these areas have usu­ally proved un­suc­cess­ful. (Ver­cam­men, et al., 1993)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Other Com­ments

It is un­known whether P. lar­va­tus was in­tro­duced to Mada­gas­car and Co­moro Is­lands or nat­u­rally mi­grated there. Re­gard­less of how they ar­rived to these is­lands, they are known to pose a sub­stan­tial and pri­mary threat to na­tive wildlife species on those is­lands. As an in­va­sive they are out­com­pet­ing a num­ber of the na­tive species and chang­ing species com­po­si­tion. (Ver­cam­men, et al., 1993)

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Neil Carter (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Breyten­bach, G. 1979. The enig­matic bush­pig. African Wildlife, 33(5): 48-49.

King­don, J. 1997. The King­don Field Guide to African Mam­mals. Lon­don: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

Lloyd, P., J. Mil­lar. 1983. A ques­tion­naire sur­vey (1969-1974) of some larger mam­mals of the Cape Province. Bon­te­bok, 3: 1-149.

Maberly, C. 1967. African bush­pigs. An­i­mals, 9(10): 556-561.

Nowak, R. 1991. Walker's Mam­mals of the Worls (Fifth Edi­tion). Bal­ti­more: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Simoons, F. 1953. Notes on the bush-pig (Pota­mo­choerus). Uganda Jour­nal, 17: 80-81.

Smithers, R. 1983. The Mam­mals of the South­ern African Sub­re­gion. Pre­to­ria: Uni­ver­sity of Pre­to­ria Press.

Sowls, L., R. Phelps. 1968. Ob­ser­va­tions on the African bush­pig, Pota­mo­choerus por­cus Linn. in Rhode­sia. Zo­o­log­ica, 53(3): 75-84.

Thomas, A., F. Kolbe. 1942. The wild pigs of South Africa: their dis­tri­b­u­tion and habits, and their sig­nif­i­cance as agri­cul­tural pests and car­ri­ers of dis­ease. J. South African Vet­eri­nary Med­ical Assoc., 13: 1-11.

Ver­cam­men, P., A. Sey­dack, W. Oliver. 1993. "The Bush­pigs" (On-line). Pigs, Pec­ca­ries and Hip­pos Sta­tus Sur­vey and Ac­tion Plan (1993). Ac­cessed April 17, 2006 at http://​www.​iucn.​org/​themes/​ssc/​sgs/​pphsg/​APchap4-4.​htm.