Warthog

This article is about the animal. For other uses, see Warthog (disambiguation).

Phacochoerus is a genus in the family Suidae, commonly known as warthogs (pronounced wart-hog). They are pigs who live in open and semi-open habitats, even in quite arid regions, in sub-Saharan Africa. The two species were formerly considered conspecific under the scientific name Phacochoerus aethiopicus, but today this is limited to the desert warthog, while the best-known and most widespread species, the common warthog (or simply warthog), is Phacochoerus africanus.^[2]

Warthog
Male common warthog Phacochoerus africanus Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, South Africa
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Suidae
Tribe:	Phacochoerini
Genus:	Phacochoerus F. Cuvier, 1826
Type species
Aper aethiopicus[1] Pallas, 1766
Species
Phacochoerus aethiopicus Phacochoerus africanus
Synonyms
Aper Pallas, 1766 Dinochoerus Gloger, 1841 Eureodon G. Fischer von Waldheim, 1817 Macrocephalus Frisch, 1775 Macrocephalus Palmer, 1904 Phacellochaerus Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1832 Phacellochoerus Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1832 Phacochaeres Gray, 1821 Phacocherus Fleming, 1822 Phacochoerus G. Cuvier, 1816 Phascochaeres Cretzschmar, 1828 Phascochaerus Desmarest, 1822 Phascochoeres Ranzani, 1821 Phascochoerus Ranzani, 1821

Description

Skull

Although covered in bristly hairs, a warthog's body and head appear largely bare, from a distance, with only a crest of hair along the back and the tufts on the face and tail being obvious. The English name "wart"-hog refers to their facial wattles, which are particularly distinct in males. The males also have very prominent tusks, which reach a length of 10 to 25 inches (25 to 64 centimetres); females' tusks are always smaller.^[3] They are largely herbivorous, but, like most suids, opportunistically eat invertebrates or small animals, even scavenging on carrion.^[4] While both species remain fairly common and widespread, and considered to be of Least Concern by the IUCN, the nominate subspecies of desert warthog, commonly known as the Cape warthog (P. a. aethiopicus) was extinct by around 1865.^[5]

Species in taxonomic order

The genus Phacochoerus contains two species. The two species emerged from ecological barriers.^[6] P. africanus were found with a lack of upper incisors, while P. aethiopicus were found with a full set.^[6]

Genus Phacochoerus – F. Cuvier, 1826 – two species

Common name	Scientific name and subspecies	Range	Size and ecology	IUCN status and estimated population
Common warthog	Phacochoerus africanus (Gmelin, 1788) Four subspecies Nolan (northern) warthog (P. a. africanus) Gmelin, 1788 Eritrean warthog (P. a. aeliani) Cretzschmar, 1828 Central African warthog (P. a. massaicus) Lönnberg, 1908 Southern warthog (P. a. sundevallii) Lönnberg, 1908	Widespread in the savannah of Sub-Saharan Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia down to South Africa, absent from heavily forested or desert areas.	Size: A head-and-body length ranging from 0.9 to 1.5 m (2 ft 11 in to 4 ft 11 in), and shoulder height from 63.5 to 85 cm (25.0 to 33.5 in). Females, at 45 to 75 kg (99 to 165 lb), are smaller and lighter than males, at 60 to 150 kg (130 to 330 lb).[7] Habitat: Diet:	LC
Desert warthog	Phacochoerus aethiopicus (Pallas, 1766) Two subspecies[8] †P. a. aethiopicus (Pallas, 1766) P. a. delamerei Lönnberg, 1909	Northern Kenya and Somalia, and possibly Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.	Size: Average length of 125 centimetres (49 in) and weight of 75 kilograms (165 lb) with males being larger than females.[9] Habitat: Diet:	LC