Chapter 1: Evolutionary relationships and taxonomy of Suidae and Tayassuidae11
Sus verrucosus Müller, 1840. Javan warty pig (Figure 1.9).
Very large, with long legs and big ears and an enormous, heavy
head. Sexual dimorphism is extreme; males are twice the weight
of females. Skull length averages 409 mm in males, 337 mm in
females. Facial skeleton enormously elongated. Male has very
large canines, but in females they are very small and nearly verti-
cally implanted. The male has three pairs of facial warts: preor-
bital (the largest), gonial (marked, before its full development,
by a prominent tuft of hairs), and rostral. Pelage is reddish, the
hairs agouti-banded. Java and Madura (extinct on the latter);
Endangered.
Sus blouchi Groves, 1981. Bawean warty pig. Overall simi-
lar to S. verrucosus but much smaller; skull length averaging
354 mm (male), 295 mm in a single female, lower-crowned; pel-
age yellowish not reddish. Bawean, northeast of Java. This has
been previously placed as a subspecies of Sus verrucosus, but the
characters of the admittedly small sample fall well outside the
range of variation of the very large available sample of the Javan
warty pig. Critically Endangered.
Sus celebensis Müller, 1840. Sulawesi warty pig. Very small
in size, with short legs and short ears. The male has three pairs
of warts, of which the preorbital pair is largest until old age,
when the gonial pair becomes enormously enlarged. Pelage has
intermixed black and reddish or yellowish hairs in varying pro-
portions, so that the overall colour can be black or maroon or
yellowish, the light tones more predominant on the trunk and
on the shoulders, haunches or limbs; the underside is dark in
youngsters, becoming contrastingly white with maturity. In
light-coloured individuals, a dorsal stripe is usually present.
There is a yellow snout band. The young adult male has a ‘tou-
pee’, which abrades with age. Sulawesi and offshore islands
(Saleyer, Butung Peleng, Lembeh); also Halmaheira, Timor,
Flores, Nias and Simaleue, where it has evidently been intro-
duced by human agency, and at least on Timor and Roti some
individuals are domestic. South Sulawesi pigs are considerably
larger (skull length averaging 319 mm in the mainland of South
Sulawesi, 331 mm in Saleyer) than those from northern, central
and south-eastern Sulawesi and Butung (skull length averaging
294 mm), and those from Latimojong, in South Sulawesi at an
altitude of 1600–2300 m a.s.l., are smaller still (247–262 mm).
Female skull length averages 274 mm in South Sulawesi,
261 mm in the north and in Butung. Genetic data seem to indi-
cate that northern and southern wild pigs in Sulawesi belong to
different clades (Larson et al. 2007a), and the whole question of
the taxonomy of Sulawesi pigs needs reinvestigation.
Sus barbatus Müller, 1838. Bearded pig (Figure 1.10). Very
large like S. verrucosus but less sexually dimorphic, and skull
low-crowned with even more elongated facial skeleton. Skull
length averaging 463 mm in males, 410 mm in females. The male
has only two pairs of warts, preorbital and rostral, and these are
relatively small. Long dorsal mane. Limbs very long, ears large,
tail with a large two-pronged tuft. A bushy beard on cheeks and
snout, very marked in males. Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Bangka
and Borneo; they are known to undergo massive migrations in
search of food, corresponding with ‘mast’ periods. Those from
South Sumatra and Bangka are slightly smaller than those from
other regions, and may not be migratory. External differences
described by Groves (1981) as differentiating those from Borneo
from those from Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula – whether the
beard is better developed on the snout or on the cheeks – seem,
on more recent evidence (inspection of many living individuals
and photos by CPG), to be a matter of individual variation.
Sus ahoenobarbus Huet, 1888. Palawan wild pig. Most simi-
lar to S. barbatus with its long face, bristly beard and two warts,
but much smaller, skull 363–384 mm (male), 335–348.5 mm
(female), and darker in colour, black with rufous hair-tips and
an ochery snout-band. Palawan, Balabac and the Calamianes
Islands. The characters of this species fall well outside the range
of variation of other island pig species.
Sus cebifrons Heude, 1888. Visayan wild pig. Large warts but
no beard; a long mane, extending back to the rump (Figure 1.11).
Skull is short, 295–356 mm (male), 249 mm (female), but long-
faced, and very high-crowned. Cebu (extinct), Negros and
Panay. The Negros and Panay pigs differ in colour, but the col-
our of the extinct Cebu pig is unknown. Critically Endangered.
Sus philippensis Nehring, 1886. Philippine wild pig. Small,
relatively short-legged. Skull length 287–385 mm (male),
282–288 mm (female), less narrow and elongate than S. barbatusFigure 1.9 Javan warty pig (Sus verrucosus), Taman Safari in Bogor Indonesia.
Photo by Roland Wirth.
Figure 1.10 Sunda bearded pig (Sus barbatus). Photo by Graham Usher..00312:27:47