Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries

Chapter 37: Ex-situ conservation of wild pigs and peccaries

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Visayan Warty Pig (Sus cebifrons)

The Visayan warty pig (Sus cebifrons) is currently listed as
Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species (Oliver 2008a). The species previously occurred on
the six main islands of the West Visayas in the Philippines
(Cebu, Negros, Guimaras, Panay, Masbate, and Ticao), but is
now extinct from 98 per cent of its former range and the one
extant subspecies (S. c. negrinus) now only remains on Negros
and Panay (Oliver 2008a; Meijaard et al. 2011). Its main threats
include loss of its forest habitat (primary and secondary lowland
forests and mossy forests up to 1600 m) through former wide-
spread commercial logging, continued low-level illegal logging
and agricultural expansion, hunting for food and in retalia-
tion for crop raiding, hybridization with feral or free-ranging
domestic pigs (hybridization occurrence confirmed in most and
perhaps all of the remaining populations), and vulnerability of
the very small and fragmented remaining populations to genetic
(genetic drift and inbreeding) and demographic (environmen-
tal variation, random variation and catastrophes) stochastic
events (Oliver 2008a; Meijaard et al. 2011).
Because other endemic taxa had similarly bleak outlooks,
William L. R. Oliver, the then Chairman of the IUCN SSC Pigs
and Peccaries Specialist Group, was from 1990 onwards instru-
mental in the development, together with the Philippine govern-
ment, of the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Programme.
This gradually increased the number of species under its focus as
well as the partners involved to eventually result in what is now
the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation (http://
pbcfi.org.ph/), committed to the long-term conservation of the
Philippines’ native and endemic wildlife and natural habitats.
Specifically for the Visayan warty pig, the specialist group and
conservation partners, including the Zoological Society of San

Diego and subsequently Rotterdam Zoo, started the Visayan

Warty Pig Conservation Project in 1992 under a Memorandum

of Agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural

Resources (DENR) of the Philippine government (Meijaard et al.

2011; Chapter 14 of this volume). This involved a number of in-

situ activities but also the start of an official ex-situ programme

with the role of establishing a taxonomically pure insurance

population for the species that could be used as a source for rein-

troduction if and when this becomes possible. In addition, the

ex-situ centres present important opportunities to learn about

the biology of the species, as almost nothing is known about

the habits of the taxon in the wild. Three scientifically man-

aged wildlife rescue and breeding centres for threatened local

species were established on Negros (the Centre for Tropical

Conservation (CenTrop), Silliman University, Damaguete City

and the Negros Forest and Ecological Foundation (NFEFI),

Bakulot, West Negros) and Panay (Mari-it Conservation Park;

run by the College of Agriculture and Forestry, West Visayas

State University (WVSU/CAF), Lambunau, Iluilo) that could

accommodate founders arriving through rescues, confiscations

or donations (Oliver 2008b; Meijaard et  al. 2011; Przybylska

2014). In order to limit the risk of including hybridized indi-

viduals, the geographic origin and genetic purity of received

Visayan warty pigs was investigated as much as possible.

Individuals from Negros and Panay were also kept separate

awaiting genetic studies to investigate the degree of separation

between these two populations as suggested by phenotypic dif-

ferences (Oliver 2008b). By 2001 a total of 10 founders had been

brought into captivity and there was a captive population of 16

males and 12 females on Panay and six males and seven females

on Negros (Oliver 2008b) (Table 37.1). In 2002 descendants

from Panay-origin individuals were exported to San Diego Zoo

Figure 37.1 Chacoan peccary

(Catagonus wagneri) population at

Proyecto Tagua – Chaqueño Center for

Conservation and Research, Paraguay

(photo by Christian Kern).

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