The Visayan warty pig is one of the
world’s most endangered animals.
A Visayan warty pig is a small
species of wild pig native to the Visayan
Islands of the Philippines. It’s called a
warty pig because the male, or boar, has
three pairs of warty bumps on its face.
Scientists believe these warts might act
as protection from opposing male tusks
when they fight over mates.
At one time, warty pigs lived on six
Visayan Islands. Warty pigs require dense forested areas in order to thrive. Now, however,
most of the pigs’ forest habitat is gone. What has replaced it? Farms. In fact, farms have
replaced about 95 percent of the warty pigs' former habitats. This loss of habitat has
made the pigs extinct on four of the islands. They are very endangered on the other two.
Warty pigs are omnivores. An omnivore is an animal that eats both plants and other
animals. They eat fruit, insects, and earthworms and use their long snouts for finding
underground roots and tubers. They also eat seeds and play a critical role in dispersing
the seeds of some plant species. With farms replacing their wild habitat, they often pig
out on farmers' crops. Of course, farmers don’t like this. So people hunt the pigs, which
endangers them even more.
Some people call Visayan warty pigs “punk rock pigs”. No, it’s not because they
like loud rock music! Instead, it’s because the boars grow stiff spiky manes during mating
season.