Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries

Part II: Species Accounts

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Taxonomy

The taxonomy of Phacochoerus africanus is very uncertain and

in need of revision (Lönnberg 1909; Hollister 1924; Bigourdan

1948; Haltenorth 1963; Ansell 1972; Grubb 1993, 2005; Groves

& Grubb 2011). Current taxonomy is based almost entirely on

skull size and proportions, of which much geographic varia-

tion exists. It may be a monotypic species. Geographic variation

appears clinal. Until further study, four subspecies are provision-

ally recognized (Grubb 1993, 2005): africanus, aeliani, massai-

cus, and sundevallii. This taxonomy was adopted by Vercammen

and Mason (1993), Skinner and Chimimba (2005), Meijaard et

al. (2011), and Cumming (2013).

Muwanika et al. (2003) found three well-defined mitochon-

drial haplotype clades within P. a f r i c a n u s: western, eastern, and

southern Africa. That more clades might be present is suggested

as this study did not sample within the range of P. a. aeliani, and

very large areas in the north-west, north, north-east, and south-

east of the range of P. a f r i c a n u s were not sampled.

Early taxonomy was much confused with that of desert

warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus. See Grubb (1993), Grubb

and d’Huart (2010), d’Huart et al. (2013), and Chapter 10

of this book for historic overviews of the taxonomy of

Phacochoerus.

Synonyms: aeliani, aelianii, barbatus, barkeri, bufo, cen-

tralis, fossor, haroia, incisivus, massaicus, sclateri, shortridgei,

sundevallii.

Subspecies and Distribution

Historic Geographic Distribution

Phacochoerus africanus is endemic to the savannas and open

woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa (outside forest) from the

Atlantic Ocean in West Africa (Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia,

Guinea-Bissau, Guinea) eastwards to the Red Sea (Eritrea,

Djibouti, Somalia), and southwards through eastern Africa

to the Indian Ocean. This species occurs over much of south-

central and southern Africa from south and east Democratic

Republic of Congo, Malawi, and Mozambique southward to

central Namibia, south Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, and

north-east South Africa (Figure 9.1; Ansell 1972; Kingdon 1979;

d’Huart & Grubb 2001; Grubb 2005; Skinner & Chimimba

Figure 9.1 Current geographic distribution of the common warthog Phacochoerus africanus (source: De Jong et al. 2016b, in preparation). (A simplified black and

white version of this figure will appear in some formats. For the colour version, please refer to the plate section.)

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