WHAT IS A WART HOG?

A wart hog is an African pig with large curved tusks protruding from its large flattened head. These tusks may be as much as two feet long.

Between the tusks and the eyes of the animal are three pairs of large "warts" from which the hog gets its name.

A large boar may weigh over 200 pounds and it may be about 30 inches high.

The wart hog is called the pig of the plains. It lives in dry, sandy country from southern Africa to Ethiopia and prefers open forest with plenty of thickets for protection. The animal travels in small family groups. Old boars, however, usually prefer to live by themselves.

The sow, as the female is called, may produce as many as six to eight young at a time. Ordinarily, only half that number is bozo at one time.

Wart hogs eat almost everything: roots, plants, binds' eggs and even small mammals.