Ecology, Conservation and Management of Wild Pigs and Peccaries

Chapter 1: Evolutionary relationships and taxonomy of Suidae and Tayassuidae

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should not be treated as natural groups; probably some of the
verrucose species are closer phylogenetically to the scrofic
group. The morphological affinities within and between these
groups are depicted in the cladogram of Figure 1.6.
Scrofic group. As well as the canine character, these are relatively
short-snouted and the preorbital fossa in the skull is (usually, not
always) rather shallow. The canines of females have at least some
lateral splay. Groves (1981) regarded all these pigs as conspecific,
as they replace each other geographically across Eurasia and south
into North Africa, South Asia and South East Asia southeast at
least to Java (Figure 1.7), but differences among some of them
are gross, and a provisional arrangement by Groves and Grubb
(2011) has recognized several well-defined species based on
morphology while raising queries about other potential species.
In contrast to the Groves and Grubb (2011) classification of wild
boar into 11 species as described below, Genov (1999) proposes
only four forms of wild boar using a different approach to group
them. However, we argue that the Groves and Grubb (2011)
classification, based on the species concept described above,
better reflects the diversity of Sus. Although it has been shown that
wild boar from different regions retain a strong phylogeographic
signal (Larson et  al. 2005; Wu et  al. 2007), correlation between
DNA and/or genomic studies and this classification for wild boar
(Groves & Grubb 2011) is yet to be tested.
Species in this group according to the Groves and Grubb
(2011) classification include the following.
Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758. European wild boar. Skull length
of males averaging 363 mm in south-western Europe, 406 mm
in north Germany, 450 mm in eastern Europe and Iraq. Sexual
dimorphism not great: skull lengths averaging 300 mm in
females in south-western Europe, 359 mm in north Germany,
416 mm in Ukraine. Colour dark or pale brown or olive grey

Sus verrucosus

Sus blouchi

Sus barbatus

Sus ahoenobarbus

Sus philippensis

Sus oliveri

Sus cebifrons

Sus celebensis

Sus scrofa

Sus nigripes

Sus ussuricus

Sus moupinensis

Sus chirodontus

Sus leucomystax

Sus riukiuanus

Sus taevanus

Sus davidi

Sus cristatus

Sus vittatus

Figure 1.6 Cladogram showing the morphological affinities between

species of the genus Sus. Polytomies indicate unresolved relationships or data

not available. Drawn by Jaime Gongora.

Figure 1.7 World map showing the distribution of the scrofic group and feral pig populations. This is based on data extracted from various sources including the
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species homepage (www.iucnredlist.org/). Designed by Daniele Baisero of the Global Mammals Assessment, University ‘La Sapienza’,
Rome (source: IUCN).

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