Potamochoerus porcus

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	MAMMALIA	CETARTIODACTYLA	SUIDAE

Scientific Name:

Potamochoerus porcus

Species Authority:

(Linnaeus, 1758)

Common Name/s:

English	–	Red River Hog
French	–	Potamochère D' Afrique

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:

Least Concern ver 3.1

Year Assessed:

2008

Assessor/s

Querouil, S. & Leus, K.

Evaluator/s:

Leus, K. ( Pig, Peccary & Hippo Red List Authority) & Hoffmann, M. (Global Mammal Assessment Team)

Justification:
Listed as Least Concern as the species is relatively widespread, common, and there are no major threats believed to be resulting in a significant population decline. However, hunting has led to localized declines in some parts of its range, so populations should be monitored carefully.

History:

1996

–

Lower Risk/least concern

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	The Red River Hog is widely, but patchily, distributed through the West and Central African rainforest belt, from Senegal in the west, throughout the Guinea-Congo forest to at least west of the Albertine Rift. Further east and south-east, replaced by the Bushpig, although the precise borders between the ranges of the two species remain unclear. There are no confirmed records from Sudan or Chad, though they may occur in extreme south-western Sudan (Leus and Vercammen in press). There are also as yet no reliable records from The Gambia, which is just outside their natural range (Grubb et al. 1998). There is no confirmation of their presence on Bioko Island.
Countries:	Native: Benin; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Côte d'Ivoire; Equatorial Guinea; Gabon; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Liberia; Mali; Nigeria; Senegal; Togo; Uganda Presence uncertain: Sudan
Range Map:	(click map to view full version)

Population [top]

Population:	Recorded densities for Red River Hogs vary greatly but typically range between 1-6 individuals / km² (Leus and Vercammen in press), although a density of 18.4/km² was recorded from galleries and bosquets in the savanna ecotone of Lopé Reserve, Gabon (Tutin et al. 1997). Periodic aggregations on ephemeral resources (such as masting fruit trees) might explain these higher estimates.
Population Trend:	Decreasing

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	Typically associated with rainforest and gallery forest, but also found in dry forest, savanna woodland and cultivated areas, although usually in close proximity to the rainforest (Leus and Vercammen in press). Like the Bushpig, Red River Hogs are highly adaptable and may even benefit from the opening up of former forested areas by the creation of secondary habitats, the provision of cultivated foods, and reductions in the numbers of their natural predators (Vercammen et al. 1993).
Systems:	Terrestrial

Habitat and Ecology:

Typically associated with rainforest and gallery forest, but also found in dry forest, savanna woodland and cultivated areas, although usually in close proximity to the rainforest (Leus and Vercammen in press). Like the Bushpig, Red River Hogs are highly adaptable and may even benefit from the opening up of former forested areas by the creation of secondary habitats, the provision of cultivated foods, and reductions in the numbers of their natural predators (Vercammen et al. 1993).

Systems:

Terrestrial

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	The main threat to this species is hunting for subsistence purposes, as an agricultural pest, or because it is a vector of livestock diseases, and for the commercial bushmeat trade (Vercammen et al. 1993). Together with the duikers, it is one of the most hunted species in the Congo Basin (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999). A significant effect of hunting on Red River Hog densities was observed in southern Gabon (Laurance et al. 2006).

Major Threat(s):

The main threat to this species is hunting for subsistence purposes, as an agricultural pest, or because it is a vector of livestock diseases, and for the commercial bushmeat trade (Vercammen et al. 1993). Together with the duikers, it is one of the most hunted species in the Congo Basin (Wilkie and Carpenter 1999). A significant effect of hunting on Red River Hog densities was observed in southern Gabon (Laurance et al. 2006).

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	Red River hogs are present in many protected areas across their range.

Conservation Actions:

Red River hogs are present in many protected areas across their range.

Citation:	Querouil, S. & Leus, K. 2008. Potamochoerus porcus. In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 09 February 2010.
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