Potamochoerus porcus
red river hog

West and Central Sub-Saharan Africa to Northern South Africa and Madagascar.

The habitats occupied by this species vary greatly. They inhabit primary and secondary forests, thickets in savannahs, swamps, and steppes. They also congregate around human villages.

With thirteen recognized sub-species (which are subdivided into two separate species in some texts), Potamochoerus porcus varies in physical characteristics across its range, especially with regard to coloration. West-African bush pigs are predominantly reddish with a white dorsal stripe, while in the eastern and southern parts of their range, bush pigs can vary from red to shades of brown or black. In some eastern and southern regions, they become darker with age. White facial masks are present on many bush pigs. The head and body length is approximately 1-1.5 meters while the tail is between 0.3 and 0.4 meters. Adults stand about 0.5-0.9 meters tall at the shoulder. Newborns weigh less than 1 kg. Other prominent features include ventrally-pointing upper tusks (76mm) which occlude with dorsally-pointing lower tusks (165-190mm). Tusks occur on both sexes. Males are distinctive from females in that they posess warts above their eyes. Bush pigs have also been referred to as "tufted pigs" due to their long, white whiskers and ear tufts.

Potamochoerus porcus are social animals. While adults of both sexes have been known to be solitary, most live in small groups of up to eleven individuals. Large agregations of over 100 animals have been recorded. The typical group contains three to six individuals. in most cases, one dominant, adult male boar is present in these small family groups. Bush pigs mark their paths by scraping tree trunks with their canines (tusks) as well as using foot glands, neck glands, and preorbital glands. Threat displays involve displays of their facial masks and the production of loud noises. Bush pigs fight by pressing their foreheads together, butting heads, jabbing with their snouts and whipping each other with their tails. Bush pigs are most active at night and spends the day in burrows amond dense vegatation.

Potamochoerus porcus is omnivorous, and is quite a generalist in terms of food preference. Food items include roots, fruit, seeds, water plants, nuts, grasses, crops, fungi, insects, bird eggs, snails, reptiles, carrion, and domestic animals such as piglets, goats, and sheep. They dig in soil using their canines for roots, bulbs and insects, but can also swim and forage for water plants. Bush pigs have been known to follow chimpanzees in search of fallen fruit. They especially enjoy the seeds of the tree Balanites wilsoniana, which they find undigested in the feces of elephants.

With the reduction in populations of leopards, the bush pig's main predator, populations of the pig have been on the rise. This is detrimental in many ways to human populations because large groups of bush pigs can wreak considerable havoc on crops. They also eat livestock and can be carriers of diseases, such as African Swine Fever, which affect domestic livestock. African Swine fever is carried by ticks, and while it does not harm Potomachoerus porcus, they can transmit the disease to domestic pigs, in which the disease is fatal.

Potamochoerus porcus is a potential food source for humans. It has been suggested that it is possible to domesticate the bush pig.

Numbers of Potamochoerus porcus are on the rise due to hunting of leopards and the increase in agriculture. Due to their availability as food sources for humans, and especially in light of their negative economic impacts on humans, bush pigs are hunted in Africa.

An interesting note is that Potamochoerus porcus occurs on both mainland Africa as well as Madagascar. Two explanations for the radiation of this species to Madagascar from the mainland have been proposed. The first is that humans introduced the species. The second is that bush pigs first arrived on Madagascar as a result of floating on papyrus beds, which sometimes detach and float out to sea.