` Welcome to the Giant Forest Hog
ORDER FAMILY GENUS & SPECIES
Artiodactyla Suidae Hylochoerus meinertzhageni
  BEHAVIOR:  
 

   With the exception of lone males and courting pairs, hogs live in groups of up to 20 individuals. A mature female and up to three litters from previous years form the basic social unit, or sounder. They're led by a mature male who defends his sounder from predators and wards off rival males. The male rubs his pungent scent on trees and the entire sounder deposits dung in communal latrines to claim a territory.
   Neighboring sounders may meet at watering holes or rich feeding sites. If they've met before the males have most likely previously fought. In such cases, the weaker male knows his place and flees at once, often without his family. Fights may break out when a new young male stands up to an older male. The rivals snout wrestle and bump heads, but if they are evenly matched slashing and head butting may follow.

 
  LOCATION:  
 

   Giant forest hogs are found mainly in humid, forested areas of central Africa. Scattered populations stretch from Liberia in the west to Southwestern Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania in the east.
   They live in lush humid tropical Africa - swamp and riveredge (gallery) forests, bamboo groves, wooded savannah and even subalpine thickets on Mount Kenya.
   A dedicated grazer, the hog needs a ready supply of grass. As this grows best in sunny clearings, the hogs favor areas with a mosaic of forest and savannah as well as natural clearings in rainforests and abandoned, overgrown farm plots.
   The hog also needs dense cover in which to rest by day and shelter from poor weather. Sounders use regular bedding sites, scraping shallow pits in the ground among logs or tree roots. Each site is concealed by vegetation and surrounded by latrine spots.

 
  FOOD & FEEDING:  
 

   The giant forest hog has a highly selective diet compared to many wild pig species. They obtain the bulk of their food from grasses, sedges and other low growths. The hog grazes with a nodding action cropping grass against its upper lip. They tear up longer grasses with a firm twist of their heads.
   The soft snout isn't adapted for rooting. This task falls to the long lower incisors and enables the hog to expose salts and other mineral deposits in the soil. The foliage of shrubs, linas and bamboo shoots is also on the menu, and the hog occasionally nibbles at carcasses and snaps insect larvae.

 
  BREEDING:  
 

   Mating may take place at any time of the year. Breeding seems to peak towards the end of the rainy season. The hog's courtship rituals lack finesse. A male selects a female in breeding condition from his sounder. He follows her closely. He grunts and then showers her with fragrant urine and then head butts her hind quarters. Eventually she relents and lets him mount her.
   After a pregnancy of 18 weeks the female retreats to a dry thicket and bears a litter of up to 11 piglets. The newborns remain concealed for a week closely watched by the mother. When she leads them on their first foray the entire litter trots in a single line beneath her belly. They travel in this cautious manner for a week.
   As the piglets develop and their fur darkens their daring increases. They engage each other in mock fights practicing for adulthood. These are dangerous times when leopards and hyenas can easily take their pick of piglets distracted by play.

 
VITAL STATISTICS
  WEIGHT:
MALE:
FEMALE: 		   
319 - 605 lbs.
286 - 528 lbs. 		 
  LENGTH:
HEAD AND BODY:
TAIL: 		   
4 - 7 feet
1 - 1.5 feet 		 
  SHOULDER HEIGHT:   2.5 - 3.5 feet  
  SEXUAL MATURITY:   1 year; males don't mate until three years  
  MATING SEASON:   All year  
  GESTATION PERIOD:   125 days  
  NUMBER OF YOUNG:   2 to 11  
  BIRTH INTERVAL:   1 year or less  
  TYPICAL DIET:   Grass, foliage  
  LIFESPAN:   Unknown