I think, it is a black red river hog, it looks like exactly a red river hog, we have a lot them here in germany. It's not a bushpig, they have them also at the San Diego Zoo and they look totally diffrent to this pig.
Just had a quick check in Walker's Mammals of the World and think that you are right......clearly the river hog exists in a number of different colours, just that the red one is most popular in zoos.
Its funny because I had always been aware of these colur variations but always thought that the grey forms of river hog were known as African bush pigs (I think they are in some places).
The 'other' bushpig held by San Diego is indeed quite a different looking animal which is not mentioned in Walker's Mammals (1991) at all.
I was actually reading somewhere that DNA tests on the specimen in those photo came to the conclusion that it was a melanistic Red river hog, I actually kind of had a sneaking suspicion that this was the case all along, I based my theory off of looking at the morphology of this animal
About Potamochoerus porcus at one time having recognized subspecies, now that I think about it I remember reading that somewhere, it didnt ring a bell until you clarified that with me, thanks threeple61
One thing for sure is that Bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus) is a polytypic species, as far as I know, there are 6 recognized subspecies, those being
Potamochoerus larvatus edwardsi
White faced bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus hassama)
But Potamochoerus larvatus and Potamochoerus porcus are not the only recognized species in the genus Potamochoerus, there is one other species and that is Potamochoerus magnus, they were described by science in 2008, but they lived during the Late Pliocene until the Early Pleistocene in Europe (2.6 - 1.5 million years ago)
