Conservation Concepts

Habitat: 

They live in open areas where they rely on natural or self-dug shelters to escape the heat of the day and cold of night.  They are mostly found in lightly wooded country with a variety of vegetation types.  (Kingdon, p. 335)

This is the only pig adapted for open savannah.  They avoid forests and dense undergrowth. (Estes, p. 218)

Home Range:

Clan areas average about 4 sq. km. (Kingdon, p.335)

During a normal foraging day they will cover about 7 km. (Estes, p. 219)

Food/Water:

Grass, roots, bulbs and tubers.  Eats by resting on its front knees.  Requires water daily. (Walker, p. 138)

Prefer short grasses, such as Sporobolus, Cyndon, Panicum and Brachiaria.  Also strip the seedheads from grasses.  In the dry season they eat leaf bases and rhizomes where nutrients are stored, which they dig out with their nose disc (hard and sharp).  They also eat fallen fruit, feces and soil.  Somewhat water-dependent they usually stay near water but can satisfy much of their water need through consuming succulent plants. (Kingdon, p. 335)

Breeding: 

Gestation is about 5-6 months, and as many as 8 young may be born per litter.  They begin grazing by 3 weeks, weaned between 2 and 6 months. (Kingdon, p. 336)

Mating begins near the end of the rainy season or beginning of the dry season, and young are born near the beginning of the next rainy season.  In QENP, there is no distinct breeding season, as rain falls at any time of year. (Estes, p. 220)

Puberty is reached at 1.5 years, but males are not yet ready to compete.  Estrus females urinate frequently and discharge a fluid from the vulva that discolors the rear end.  Estrus lasts up to 3 days. (Estes, p. 220)

Social Organization: 

Mother-daughter bond is enduring, and matrilinial “clans” are likely close family groupings.  A clan area may have as many as 100 burrows, and any family within the clan can use any of the burrows.  They do not share, however, and will avoid occupied burrows. (Kingdon, p. 336)

Males are gradually driven off, and are generally solitary by 4 years, although they possibly remain in the same clan area.  Fights between males are probably for mating rights rather than turf.  When a male finds a female in estrus, the follows her, champing, salivating and mumbling “in an engine-like chug, chug, chug.” (Kingdon, p. 336)

Fights between males tend to be pushing matches, interrupted by thumping at each other’s faces.  The warts are likely an adaptation resulting from this fighting style, but fractures and deaths are still frequent during these duels. (Kingdon, p. 336)

Males leave the family when “secondary characteristics” appear (cheek pads and glands). (Estes, p. 218)

Subadult males often form bachelor groups until they become solitary at 4 years.  (Estes, p. 219)

Communication:

After a separation, group members greet with explosive grunts and nose-to-nose contact and occasionally engage in social grooming. (Estes, p. 219)

Both males and females scent-mark objects and each other – males more frequently.  Males also urinate in their wallows, which sows do not do (many warthog behaviors seem to have parallels in humans). (Estes, p. 219)

Dominance strut, lateral presentation, grunting, growling, woooomph warning, head jerk, mock attack, chasing are all threat displays. (Estes, p. 219)

Activity Patterns: 

Almost strictly diurnal.  Females and young enter burrow before dark, males often stay out an hour or two later.  Morning wake-up depends on the weather.  On cold, wet days, they get up later.  On hot days, they enter shady areas sooner and wallow more.  Peak feeding is early morning and late afternoon, but also feed sporadically during the day. (Estes, p. 219)

Sign: 

Feces are round, greenish-brown.  Similar to zebra feces, but zebra are more elongated and crack across the middle. (Walker, p. 138)

Length of track is similar to bushpig, but narrower and more pointed in the front. Look for knee-marks when examining a feeding spot. (Walker, p. 139)

Look for tracks leading out of large holes in the sides of termite mounds. (Personal observation)

Predators:

Hyenas are the main predators, although leopards, wild dogs and other carnivores will also occasionally hunt them.  Lions will occasionally wait at the entrances to occupied burrows and wait for them to emerge in the morning. (Estes, p. 218)

References:

Estes, R. (1991). The Behavior Guide to African Mammals. Berkeley, CA:  The University of California Press.

Kingdon, J. (1997). The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals. Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press.

Walker, C. (1996). Signs of the Wild: A Field Guide to the Spoor & Signs of the Mammals of Southern Africa. (5^th Edition). Cape Town, South Africa:  Struik Publishers Ltd.