Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries

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Chapter 17: Palawan bearded pig Sus ahoenobarbus (Huet, 1888)

Figure 17.2 Newly confiscated piglet

in a batch with hill mynas, blue-naped

parrots and Philippine cockatoos

(photo by P. Widmann).

Figure 17.3 Subadult Palawan

bearded pig in Calauit Wildlife

Sanctuary Palawan (photo by

P. Widmann). (A black and white version

of this figure will appear in some formats.

For the colour version, please refer to the

plate section.)

Widmann 1999; Oliver 2008; Cruz et al. 2009; Meijaard et al. 2011).
A traditional hunting method still in practice in more remote loca-
tions involves the use of snares made of heavy palm shafts and
bamboo tips set at pig shoulder height, which serves to secure
meat, but in the past also to deter human intruders (Hoogstraal
1951). Dogs are commonly used to corner pigs, which then are
shot with low-powered rifles or speared with short bamboo shafts
with detachable iron tips. ‘Pig bombs’ often consisting of a carved-
out sweet potato and filled with explosives, glass, porcelain, or
metal splinters as well as a trigger, are used both to deter wild pigs

from raiding fields, and to secure meat. Once the pigs chew on

the bait, the explosive goes off, causing horrendous injuries to the

jaws which almost always, but usually not immediately, are fatal

(Lacerna & Widmann 1999; Meijaard et al. 2011).

Although most of the hunting serves subsistence purposes,

there also exists a considerable bushmeat trade in Palawan.

Formerly meat was often bartered for goods, but increasingly

middlemen and collectors buy wildlife products at regular inter-

vals, including the meat of wild pigs. Restaurants in rural areas,

and also in the provincial capital of Puerto Princesa City, were

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