San Diego Zoo Mystery pig

Ituri

Ituri

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Sorry to dredge this up again, but my curiosity is still peaked. Has there been any new developments in the determining the identity of the "western forest hog" in San Diego? Last I heard DNA tests were underway, and it wasn't looking to be a forest hog, anybody know what has been concluded?
 
Ituri said:
Sorry to dredge this up again, but my curiosity is still peaked. Has there been any new developments in the determining the identity of the "western forest hog" in San Diego? Last I heard DNA tests were underway, and it wasn't looking to be a forest hog, anybody know what has been concluded?
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Would you know where they got the animal from or know if it was imported?
 
It was imported from somewhere in West Africa. It was a family pet that ended up in a zoo somewhere over there I believe.
 
If it was a family pet then i could possibly be a hybrid of a wild pig with a domestic pig but i'm sure researchers would have thought of that before they started DNA testing and what-not.
 
Apparently the 'western forest hog' was born in Guinea in West Africa (~2000).
I had emailed the head of the genetics department at CRES a few years ago to see if there were any more details available, but never got a response. She certainly looks more Potamochoerus than Hylochoerus, and most of the suppositions I heard was that she was either a new species or black colour morph of red river hog. Perhaps the results were not too favourable (e.g. hybrid red river hog x domestic) considering the expenses the zoo must have gone through ... "western forest hog" sounds much cooler.

Here's a link to a blurb on their website from several years ago:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/kids/animal_pigs.html

"The Girlfriends" story begins 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!
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That's what I've really wondered all along is if she is a domestic x red river hog hybrid. I hear that domestic pigs and bush pigs have been successfully hybridized.
 
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