Giant Forest Hog in America

kbaker116

kbaker116

Well-Known Member
Hello,

Question, Why aren't there Giant Forest Hogs in America or other country's zoos, there is one female at the San Diego Zoo but no males are they impossible to breed or keep in captivity or what?

Thanks for the answers.
 
From the zoo's website...

back in 2001, when the Zoo received a young, black-colored pig from Guinea, Africa. She had an amazing history! An African family raised her as a pet. She even grew up eating people food. When the family’s village was raided by soldiers, the family, along with the pig, went into the forest for safety. They had to live in hiding in the forest for quite some time. When the fighting ended, the owner took the pig to the zoo in Conakry, Guinea. Eventually the pig arrived at our Zoo and settled down on Horn & Hoof Mesa. At first we thought she was a giant forest hog. But after doing some genetics tests we think she may possibly be a new type of bush pig! She is currently the only western forest hog in North America!
Click to expand...
 
There goes your answer, @kbaker116: the "Giant Forest Hog" in SDZ is probably a melanistic river hog...

So why are there no Giant Forest Hogs in Western collections?

1. They're not the easiest pig species to keep, requiring ample heating, space and a high-quality diet. The ones kept in Frankfurt and Antwerpen in the past thus didn't last long...
2. Similar to other African pig species, exporting them from Africa is very difficult, due to the fear ofspreading epidemic diseases such as African and European Swine Fever to domestic pigs in Europe and America.
3. To be honest: Wild pig species aren't the most popular species in zoos. As the time of collecting rare species for zoos just for the sake of displaying them is pretty much over in the Western zoos, hardly any zoo is interested in obtaining a species only die-hard zoo and wildlife fans are interested in.
Besides, there are other, highly endangered species such as Chaco peccaries (not really a pig, but I still count them in), or Negros and maybe soon Javan warty pigs that should rather be kept.
 
Red river hogs seem to growing in zoo collections, they have nice markings and colour
 
Sun Wukong said:
There goes your answer, @kbaker116: the "Giant Forest Hog" in SDZ is probably a melanistic river hog...

So why are there no Giant Forest Hogs in Western collections?

1. They're not the easiest pig species to keep, requiring ample heating, space and a high-quality diet. The ones kept in Frankfurt and Antwerpen in the past thus didn't last long...
2. Similar to other African pig species, exporting them from Africa is very difficult, due to the fear ofspreading epidemic diseases such as African and European Swine Fever to domestic pigs in Europe and America.
3. To be honest: Wild pig species aren't the most popular species in zoos. As the time of collecting rare species for zoos just for the sake of displaying them is pretty much over in the Western zoos, hardly any zoo is interested in obtaining a species only die-hard zoo and wildlife fans are interested in.
Besides, there are other, highly endangered species such as Chaco peccaries (not really a pig, but I still count them in), or Negros and maybe soon Javan warty pigs that should rather be kept.
Click to expand...

Interesting about the Javan warty pigs. Do you have any details about what sort of program may go on there and or interested zoos?
 
@Ituri: The ZGAP is currently working on establishing a local breeding group of this pig (and Black-winged starlings) on Java. As far as I heard, some American and European zoos might be interested to participate later on.

@MARK: Problem with RRHs is that the founding zoo population is rather small. Some reoccuring health problems (f.e. fatal kidney failure) might be related to that.
 
From Sun Wukong "The ZGAP is currently working on establishing a local breeding group of this pig (and Black-winged starlings) on Java. As far as I heard, some American and European zoos might be interested to participate later on."

Do you know which American zoos might be interested in acquiring Javan Warty Pigs?
 
The Los Angeles Zoo has supported the creation of a captive population of Javan Warty Pigs at the Cikananga Wild Animal Rescue Center in West Java.
 
Two zoos in the United States have kept Giant forest hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni) in the past, those zoos were the Smithsonian National Zoo and the Bronx Zoo

With Javan warty pigs (Sus verrucosus), the San Diego Zoo kept them in the 1940s

I must say that it is amazing how relatively recently Red river hogs, Negros warty pigs, and Chacoan peccaries were some of the most rare or uncommon Suidae and Tayassuidae but now they are the most common especially in US Zoos

Sorry to bump this thread, but were Visayan warty pigs and Javan warty pigs the only Warty pig species ever imported into North America ? Or have there also been others such as Sulawesi warty pigs ?
 
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