Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries

Part II: Species Accounts

152

This species is small with a marked sexual dimorphism in

size. Males are much larger than females (Rabor 1977). Females

have three pairs of mammary glands, while native and domestic

pigs in Philippines as well as hybrids between these species and

S. cebifrons have at least four pairs. This is an important key to

identify pure-bred Visayan warty pigs (Lastica 2003). Both sexes

have a large mane extending from the head to the hind legs.

During the breeding season (November–March), males develop

a very distinctive longer mane with tufts that drop down over

the face (Figure 14.2). Females have a distinctive white band

on the snout which is whitish-yellow in males (Figure 14.3).

Visayan warty pigs have much smaller facial warts than other

species and, despite the name, these warts are not a diagnostic

characteristic. Juveniles have four stripes ranging from black to

brown, running from the shoulders to the back. At the age of

7–9 months the juveniles lose the stripes and they get the adult

coat after one year (Rabor 1977; Lastica 2003). There are some

differences in coat and mane from populations on different

islands. Individuals from Panay seem to have more black flank

hairs and longer manes than those from Negros and Masbate.

There are also differences between Negros and Panay popu-

lations in the tuft on the head, with Negros animals having a

black–brown tuft on the crown of the head, while in Panay indi-

viduals this tuft is extended into the long mane. Although there

are very small samples of skulls examined, it seems that indi-

viduals from Negros have a skull profile straighter and a more

rounded crown than those from Panay.

Habitat

This species is thought to have been extirpated over at least 98

per cent percent of its presumed former range, including at

least three of the six main islands in the West Visayan group

(Pedregosa 2005).

Figure 14.3 Visayan warty pig facial white band pattern (Edinburgh; photo

by R. Wirth). (A black and white version of this figure will appear in some formats.

For the colour version, please refer to the plate section.)

Figure 14.2 Visayan warty pig adult

male from Panay (photo by R. Wirth).

(A 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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