Warthog [Phacochoerus africanus]
The Warthog is a rather ugly looking animals but one that is iconic with the Kruger Park and loved world wide. The Warthog has a bulky body with short skinny legs. It has a long face with bony protrusions under its eyes and behind its mouth. They have incisors that grow out and upwards and lower tusks that grow outwards sharply. Their tails are rather unique as they always point upwards.
Warthogs, like most wild boars , have a diet that consists mainly of eating fruits, roots, shoots and sometimes when things get dire they will consume grass.
Warthogs are day animals that spend most of their day looking for food and are normally seen in family groups. They shelter in burrows during the night, entering tail first. Warthogs have an interesting habit of kneeling on their front knees while feeding and foraging. Boars play no part in rearing the piglets and only interact with sows during mating season. The groups you see travelling around are matriarchal groups that consist of adult sows and their young.
Warthogs can tolerate a wide variety of habitats though they seem to prefer woodland savannah areas.
Warthogs are rather common and widely distributed and not threatened in South Africa. They can occur naturally on farms and are slowly being reintroduced into areas where they were once extinct. They can be found near watering holes and marshy areas of the Kruger National Park.
