Bornean bearded Pigs (Sus barbatus barbatus) in Captivity

German Zoo World

German Zoo World

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
The bornean bearded Pig is a very interesting suid Species. Unfortunatly in Europe there is only one left at Berlin Zoo. Are there any more bornean bearded Pigs in captivity.
Are there some in North American Zoos? Does Singapore Zoo Stil has some?
What do you think could the bornean bearded Pig at some point like the chacoan Peccari be Importet to more european and North American Zoos.
I want to know have you Seen bornean bearded Pigs and If so at which Zoo have you Seen them.


Thank you for your Help

Your German Zoo World
 
Where the Bornean bearded pigs in Europe not no pure-breds.

BTW: I have seen worrying photographic evidence on line of large numbers of dead wild pigs in these parts of Indonesia/Malaysia. Whereas the species remains numerous, I would not hold my breath over zoonotic diseases and other manmade impacts on their wild populations.
 
I would certainly hope that more importance could be given to holding this species in European collections in the future and given the anthropogenic pressures impacting wild populations I think it would be a wise idea.

I know that EAZA issued a call a couple of years ago for more zoos to keep more endangered suids / peccaries within their collections.

Personally I saw the last Bornean bearded pigs at ZSL London zoo in 2019 apparently shortly before these elderly animals were euthanized.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I would certainly hope that more importance could be given to holding this species in European collections in the future and given the anthropogenic pressures impacting wild populations I think it would be a wise idea.

I know that EAZA issued a call a couple of years ago for more zoos to keep more endangered suids / peccaries within their collections.

Personally I saw the last Bornean bearded pigs at ZSL London zoo in 2019 apparently shortly before these elderly animals were euthanized.
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That are some sad News why they had to Put them down?
 
German Zoo World said:
That are some sad News why they had to Put them down?
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Unfortunately I can't remember why they were put down but it was mentioned somewhere here in the forum.

There was a pair of them and they were evidently pretty elderly animals so it could have been something health related and declining quality of life in their twilight years.

I was quite sad to hear that they were gone as I enjoyed watching them in London and was hoping to see them again there in the future.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Where the Bornean bearded pigs in Europe not no pure-breds.

BTW: I have seen worrying photographic evidence on line of large numbers of dead wild pigs in these parts of Indonesia/Malaysia. Whereas the species remains numerous, I would not hold my breath over zoonotic diseases and other manmade impacts on their wild populations.
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I think the greatest pressure on populations at the moment seems to be overexploitation for bushmeat as the meat of these animals seems to be very popular and of course deforestation through the logging of the forests.

That said, I do share your concern about the threat of zoonosis as their populations have been devastated historically by rinderpest and there is the threat of the spread of this new African swine fever.
 
German Zoo World said:
@Onychorhynchus coronatus i would love to See some bearded Pigs in an Mixed Species Habitat together with Banteng and malayan tapir.
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Yes, I think that could work and would also be quite nice to see.

I think that there was a European zoo which kept warty pigs with Indian rhino and the Madrid zoo kept a Malayan tapir with babirusa so these kind of mixed species exhibits can work.
 
German Zoo World said:
That are some sad News why they had to Put them down?
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They were very elderly and of mixed subspecies, so they would not have been bred from even if they were younger. The herd had diminished significantly in the final few years, from I think around 8 in 2014 to the final two in November 2019. The final pair may have both been male if I remember right.
 
German Zoo World said:
@Onychorhynchus coronatus i would love to See some bearded Pigs in an Mixed Species Habitat together with Banteng and malayan tapir.
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In general, the problem with pigs is their habit of rooting through the substrate: they ought to be able to do it, so I don't like to see them kept on a hard surface, but they can make a real mess on a soft one. Banteng appreciate a pool and Malayan tapirs absolutely need one, but I suspect bearded pigs would rapidly create a muddy mess.
 
gentle lemur said:
In general, the problem with pigs is their habit of rooting through the substrate: they ought to be able to do it, so I don't like to see them kept on a hard surface, but they can make a real mess on a soft one. Banteng appreciate a pool and Malayan tapirs absolutely need one, but I suspect bearded pigs would rapidly create a muddy mess.
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Yes, good point, I do think with tapir it would be more likely to work though.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
that more importance could be given to holding this species in European collections in the future
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Given that the few positions for neotropical suids in European zoos are already filled in by babirusa, Visayan warty pigs, RRHs and warthogs, I wouldn't hold my breath on that.
African swine fever (ASF) isn't "new"; what is new is its increased spread all over the world in the last few years.
The spread of diseases within wild populations can be just as dreadful even it is not a zoonotic disease. ASF, for example, only affects suids.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet: bearded pigs can be rather vicious. That doesn't mean that other wild suids are sweet harmless pets, but the pig keepers at Zoo Berlin oddly underlined that when talking about them.
 
Batto said:
Given that the few positions for neotropical suids in European zoos are already filled in by babirusa, Visayan warty pigs, RRHs and warthogs, I wouldn't hold my breath on that.
African swine fever (ASF) isn't "new"; what is new is its increased spread all over the world in the last few years.
The spread of diseases within wild populations can be just as dreadful even it is not a zoonotic disease. ASF, for example, only affects suids.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet: bearded pigs can be rather vicious. That doesn't mean that other wild suids are sweet harmless pets, but the pig keepers at Zoo Berlin oddly underlined that when talking about them.
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Well when it comes to red river hogs and warthogs I would guess that part of the appeal and ubiquity of these species is because of how easy these are kept (not 100% sure on that though) which I think is quite a shame given that neither are of any conservation significance.

With the Asian suids like the babirusa and Visayan warty pigs these are obviously much more important to maintain in zoos for ex-situ conservation so I do think it is a really positive development that more zoos are keeping them.

Yes, definitely agree, I didn't mean that it was a novel disease but rather that its spread as an emerging infectious disease is novel and sadly it seems that it has recently arrived in South-East Asia and will in all probability severely impact wild suid populations:

African swine fever rips through parts of southern Indonesia
 
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