Giant forest hog
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| Hylochoerus meinertzhageni Thomas, 1904 |
The Giant Forest Hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni) is the largest wild member of the pig family Suidae. It is the only member of the genus Hylochoerus. Males can reach as much as two metres in length and 110 centimetres high at the shoulder and have been known to weigh as much as 1100 pounds. Unlike most species of wild suid, the giant forest hog has extensive hairs on its body, though these tend to become less pronounced as the animal ages. It is mostly black in colour on the surface, though hairs nearest the skin of the animal are a deep orange colour. Its ears are large and pointy, and its tusks are much smaller than those of the warthog or bushpig.
Giant forest hogs occurs in the tropical rainforests of West and Central Africa, extending also into the mountain forests of the Rwenzori Mountains and as far east as Mount Kenya and the Ethiopian Highlands. More truly herbivourous than any other wild suid or tayassuid, the giant forest hog feed chiefly on grass and other plant material and does not dig for food with its snout like other wild pigs do.
Giant forest hogs are nocturnal, being mainly active for about four to eight hours a day between dawn and dusk. They live in large herds (sounders) of up to twenty animals. However, breeding pairs leave a sounder completely and do not tolerate other individuals. This means that giant forest hogs cannot be domesticated, since this requirement for large breeding territories precludes them being kept in enclosures. They are, though, much more docile than other African suids.
Though known to native peoples of tropical African forests for many millennia and subject in many of these cultures to various taboos and superstitions, giant forest hogs were not known to science until 1904.
[edit] Sources
[edit] References
- Pigs & Peccaries Specialist Group (1996). Hylochoerus meinertzhageni. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
