Fun Red River Hog Facts For Kids

Have you ever imagined there could be a species of pig, which is wild yet vegetarian, intelligent and playful, can swim in waters, and colorful with a head like a facial mask? Then you are about to explore the world of an exciting animal, the Red River hog.

The Potamochoerus porcus is a remarkably colorful African pig. They are called Red River hogs due to the reddish fur coat that covers their body and their nature of lying near rivers and streams. These belong to the class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla.

The family Suidae members are reddish-brown short, laterally flat bodies. The Red River hogs are endemic to Central and Western Africa and live in groups. The boars (male) are larger than the sows (female). The males have conical humps or bumps on either side of the snout.

They also possess sharp and small tusks. The young have a less detailed dark brown body. The females have six teats for feeding milk to young piglets.

Read on to find out more, and if this article interests you, we have engaging content on the wild boar and pot belly pig.

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Red River Hog Interesting Facts

What type of animal is a red river hog?

The Red River Hog is a wild member of the pig family in Africa.

What class of animal does a red river hog belong to?

This Potamochoerus porcus belongs to the class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla.

How many red river hogs are there in the world?

This species of the wild pig is moderately concentrated in its captivity zones as it is listed as the Least concern. But there are no exact figures established related to the gross population. Their strength is increasing due to the trapping of leopards that are their primary predators and an increase in agricultural activities.

Where does a red river hog live?

The Red River hogs are based primarily in Western and Central Africa. It is distributed across the Congo basin and Gambia to the Eastern Congo. They are also spread southwards along the Kasai river and Congo river. They adapt to the tropical rainforests, wetlands,  savanna, thickets, forests, and swamp habitat.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

What is a red river hog's habitat?

The Red River hogs prefer a habitat rich in vegetation. As highly adaptive, they are found in swamp margins of rainforests, forests near banks of a river, dry forests, savanna woods. They benefit from the reformation of logged-over local forests with distinct food sources.

Who do red river hogs live with?

The Red River hogs are social animals. These red bush pigs live in groups. Their stack usually consists of 20-30 individuals, usually a group of females and their piglets under the protection of a dominant adult male. These male Red River hogs are territorial and defend their female confronting their predators.

How long does a red river hog live?

The average lifespan of these species of Red River hogs is 15 years in the wild, while the maximum recorded is 20 years.

How do they reproduce?

The breeding season of these monogamous mammals occurs between September to April, with high peaks from November to February. In general, they reproduce sexually, the coupling activity in pigs could possibly happen two to three times in the period of two days.

After mating, the gestation period lasts from 120-130 days. The females arrange a nest from dead leaves before giving birth to the piglets. Post incubation, the mother delivers four to six piglets.

These juveniles are 23-32 oz weight at birth. The young are guarded by both the parents until four months after they are weaned off. At six months, these piglets develop the plain reddish adult coat.

At the age of two, the dark facial marks are completely formed. These become mature adults at three and live for 20 years.

What is their conservation status?

The Red River hogs are listed as a Least Concern status species by International Union for Conservation of Nature. Their populations are on rising since the predation of their primary hunters, the leopards. They also benefitt from agriculture. But as per the studies, their species could be threatened by bushmeat trade for commercial purposes and habitat loss.

Red River Hog Fun Facts

What do red river hogs look like?

Red River hogs are colorful small pigs of Africa. Their body is covered with striking orange to reddish-brown fur or hair.

Their legs are black, and a puffed-like tufted white line runs across the spine. The adults of this species have significant white marking highlighting the eyes, jaws, and cheeks, which overall look like a white mask. The muzzle and rest of the face are black.

These Red River hogs have longer fur noticeably on their flanks and jaw than the rest of their bodies. The males possess outstanding facial whiskers. The Red River hogs are the only African pigs whose entire body is shielded with hair.

They have thin tails that are pounded with black hair at the end. The ears of Red River hogs are puffed with white or black hair.

How cute are they?

The Red River hogs are alluring to the human eye. The unusual facial features, their striking red body, the social behavior, their adjustability to a wide range of habitats make them an interesting species.

How do they communicate?

These wild red bush pigs adopt mainly vocal and chemical approaches for communication. The Red River hog sounds, grunt, and squeal repetitively in a repertory to indicate an alarming situation or discomfort or a static contact.

They mark their territory by scraping the tree trunks with their tusks and emit chemicals or scent from their foot, neck, and preorbital glands. These bushpig species fight by butting heads during a tiff, bumping their snout, thrashing with tails. They explore thick forests with their long snout.

How big is a red river hog?

The red river bush pigs are comparatively small animals of wild pig species. They can be twice as small in height and weight when compared to the regular family of bushpigs.

How fast can a red river hog run?

Due to their widespread habitat, the red bush pigs frequently migrate. Though the exact parameters of their speed are unknown, they can travel up to two and a half miles.

On average, it is observed that they cover an average of 1.9-3.8 mi on a given day. This depends on the number of females and young traveling, as a single master male safeguards them as they live in groups. Apart from running long distances, they are also good swimmers.

How much does a red river hog weigh?

These are relatively smaller bush pigs, and their weight is in the range of 99-254 lb.

What are their male and female names of the species?

The males and females of red river bush pigs are called boar and sow.

What would you call a baby red river hog?

Red River hog babies are called Red River hog piglet or shoat.

What do they eat?

Red River hog hunts at night as they are active at night. They are omnivorous. Their food primarily consists of plant roots and tubers. Grass and herbs, eggs, insects, and lizards are also part of their food.

They chase chimpanzees to grab their dropped food, and they also consume elephant dung for undigested seeds. They use their long snout to invade the ground and touch and smell the food as they are gifted with an excellent sense of smell. They are usually foraging at night.

Are they dangerous?

There are no known instances of them being dangerous to humans rather. They serve as a rich source of food. As they forage, they can damage the agricultural farms. They are potential carriers of African Swine fever that affects farm animals.

Would they make a good pet?

The white-headed species of the pig can be owned as pets or kept at the zoo, with proper knowledge of their diet, and the owner needs to train the boar from a young age to not get aggressive.

Did you know...

The favorite activity of these social Red River hogs is to hang around in small streams and mud ponds. Interestingly they are good swimmers and run fast.

They mark their territory on trees with their tusks similar to that of wild boars. Their eyes, feet, and the upper jaw of tusks have scent glands.

Due to the long, white whiskers and tufts enhancing the ears, these species of the wild pig are also labeled as ‘tufted pigs.’

When wounded, they are extremely dangerous as they become aggressive.

The Denver Zoo of Primate Panorama has five Red River hogs: all siblings.

How do red river hog piglets differ in appearance from adults?

The young differ from adults as they have dark brown skin with yellow stripes.

Where can you buy a red river hog?

These can be purchased from an authorized seller like Exotic Animals for Sale.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other mammals including kudu, or Arabian oryx.

You can even occupy yourself at home by drawing one on our red river hog coloring pages.