Warthog

Description:  

Adult boars stand about 0,7m at the shoulder and have a mass of up to 100kg  Females are 0,6m and have a mass of up to 70kg. The Body is covered very sparsely with coarse bristles. The warthog males have two pairs of warts, a very large pair, rising some 120mm from the skin just the eyes on the side of the face and a second and much smaller pair on the cheeks. The Warthog females have a pair just below the eyes.  But these are much smaller, barely rising to 30 mm. The warthog have  massive neck muscles which support the weight of the head. 

Habits of Warthog:  

The Warthogs are diurnal, lying up during the night in holes in the ground; usually disused ant bear holes which they adjust to their own requirements. They use their forefeet for digging, moving the loosened soil by shoveling it out of the holes with their snouts. These holes are very important in the lives of warthogs, offering  them protection  against adverse climatic condition and predators. They are also reported to use them as protection from the sun.

Food:  

Warthogs spend the greater part of the daylight hours in search of food. In general they are vegetarians, living on annual and perennial grasses which grow in lawn-like swards, and are partial to freshly sprouting grasses after a burn and also to rooting ton the underground rhizomes of grasses.  The Warthog prefer to graze on short grass, but will also eat sedges, herbs , shrubs and wild fruits.

Reproduction:  

The Warthog Males turn to sexual maturity at the age of17 to 18 months.  

The gestation period is between  5,5 and  5,8 month, after that they usually have 1 to 8 piglets.  

Their life expectancy is between 7 to 10 years.

Source: J D Skinner and R H N Smithers: The Mammals oft he Southern African Subregion; Hunting School-Seminar Study Guide Namibia

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