https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11038840

Cape Warthog - an overlooked pig

The Cape Warthog used to occur in the EC and adj. KZN. It is unsure how far west it extended, perhaps over much of the old Cape s of the Orange River.
It probably went extinct in the 1870s in the EC.
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Rediscovery of the Cape warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus: a review.
P Grubb & J-P d’Huart 2010
Journal of East African Natural History: 99:

Abstract

Warthogs without incisors were described from the Cape of Good Hope as Phacochoerus aethiopicus and warthogs possessing incisors were first found in Senegal and later named Phacochoerus africanus. During the second half of the 18th century and the whole of the 19th century, the majority of workers recognised these two taxa as distinct. Twentieth century palaeontologists working in Africa also recognised the two species of warthogs in the Pleistocene and Holocene fossil records and were aware of the differences between the two Recent species. But in the same period, most zoologists considered all warthogs to belong to a single polytypic species. Re-examination of the literature and inspection of recent material confirm distinctive differences corresponding with geographic distribution of two species of warthogs: the widespread Common Warthog Phacochoerus africanus and the Cape Warthog P. aethiopicus. Whereas the Cape Warthog, P. aethiopicus aethiopicus, became extinct in South Africa in the 1870s, a geographically isolated subspecies, P. aethiopicus delamerei, survives in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. This discontinuous distribution has been noted in the literature, as are the criteria which distinguish P. aethiopicus from P. africanus.
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Keywords: Phacochoerus aethiopicus, warthog systematics, geographical isolation, morphology.

(http://www.ajol.info/index.php/jeanh/article/view/66018)
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More reading:
https://sites.google.com/site/wildpigspecialistgroup/home/Phacochoerus-aethiopicus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_warthog
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/naturalhistories/Order.html
http://www.africahunting.com/threads/the-common-warthog-and-the-desert-warthog.15224/

Posted on 21 May, 2021 12:19 by ludwig_muller ludwig_muller

Comments

@ludwig_muller Hi Ludwig, Many thanks for these interesting notes, with regards from Antoni

Posted by milewski about 2 years ago

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