Rescued baby warthogs get bottle-fed

5 years ago
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These adorable piglets lost their mother and had to be rescued and hand-reared at a wildlife sanctuary. All baby mammals need to nurse, and warthogs are no exception, so these little piglets need to get bottle-fed in order to grow up healthy, but they are still getting the hang of it, and end up with formula all over their faces! Adorable!
The Common Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) belongs to the Suidae family, along with other wild and domestic pigs. The family comprises six extant genera (Sus, Porcula, Hylochoerus, Potamochoerus, Phacochoerus, and Babyrousa), and 39 extinct. Of the six remaining ones, 17 species are currently recognized and can still be found. The Common Warthog shares the Phacochoerus genus with the Desert Warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus); both are native to the African continent, and overlap in north Somalia, and central, east, and southeast Kenya.
Four subspecies of Common Warthog are recognized: the Nolan Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus africanus); the Eritrean Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus aeliani); the Central African Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus massaicus); and the Southern Warthog (Phacochoerus africanus sundevallii).
The Common Warthog is widely distributed over sub-Saharan Africa and its geographic range is expanding in South Africa. They inhabit savanna grasslands, open bushlands, and woodlands, and can occupy forested areas in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya.
They are mostly diurnal but have been observed being active at night, most likely to avoid the hottest hours of the day, as well as humans and other diurnal predator, or even competition.
The mating season begins four to five months after the rainy season ends, so the females give birth during the dry season, to usually no more than four piglets. The babies stay inside the den during the first six to seven weeks, and then start joining their mother, foraging for food, although they are only weaned at 21 weeks of age.

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