These pigs can warn each other of danger with a shrill whistle. These animals probably also use a variety of visual cues, and have some tactile communication, especially between mates, and mothers and their offpsring.
Communication Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
Javan warty pigs are island endemic animals, with inherently restricted populations. They are threatened, as are many animals in the region, by shrinking habitat due to human encroachment. There are only a few Javan warty pigs in captivity. These pigs are put in breeding colonies, all of which are zoos in Eastern Java.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: endangered
Piglets are very small when born and have faint stripes. Males grow up to two times the size of the female. A gonion wart forms late in life for males. This wart appears where a long tuft of hair has been growing on the gonion. (Day, 1985)
avan warty pigs are a pest for human agriculture.
Negative Impacts: crop pest
This species is hunted for its meat. It may also be an important resource for scientific research because they are similar to humans with an omnivorous diet, little body hair and a relatively high degree of intelligence.
Positive Impacts: food ; research and education
These animals ar probably important in affecting the plants and animals upon which they feed. Because they are large, they are probably important in the diets of their predators, also.
Sus verrucosus is omnivorous. They are known to feed on vegetables, small mammals and human crops.
Animal Foods: mammals
Plant Foods: leaves; roots and tubers; wood, bark, or stems; seeds, grains, and nuts
Primary Diet: omnivore
Javan warty pigs are distributed on the Indonesian Islands of Java, Bawean, and Madura, and is endemic to these islands.
Biogeographic Regions: oriental (Native )
Other Geographic Terms: island endemic
Sus verrucosus is found in secondary forest at elevation levels below 800 m. The distribution of these animals is fragmented, because human civilization and agricultural crops have taken over much of their natural habitat.
Range elevation: 800 (high) m.
Habitat Regions: tropical
Terrestrial Biomes: forest
The avaerage life span of these animals is eight years, with few reaching fourteen year old.
Range lifespan
Status: wild: 14 (high) years.
Typical lifespan
Status: wild: 14 (high) years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 8 years.
Javan warty pigs range in weight from 44 to 108 kg, and are 90 to 190 cm in length.
The most distinguishing characteristic of Sus verrucosus is the growth of three pairs of warts on its face. One pair is the preorbital, and the other two are the infraorbital and the larger mandibular warts.
All the members of this species have a long-haired mane that runs down the nape of the neck, along the spine and all the way to the rump. The mane becomes thinner as it extends posteriorly.
The hair of this species is usually a reddish color, with the underside sharply marked as the hair turns to a yellowish color.
These pigs have slender legs and a long tail. The tail has a small tuft of hair on it. The head is large, heavy and appears slightly convex when viewing it in profile. The face is long, and the ears are large. The dental formula is 1/3,3/1,1/2,3/3.
Range mass: 44 to 108 kg.
Range length: 90 to 190 cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger; ornamentation
Anitpredator adaptations have not been reported in this species. However, they are good runners, and tend to stick to areas where there is cover. One of their biggest predators, historically, has probably been humans, although tigers and leopards also prey on them.
Known Predators:
The mating system of this species has not been reported. However, other members of the genus Sus are polygynous. Males compete aggressively for sexual access to females.
Javan warty pigs have a gestation period of approximately four months. They give birth to three-nine young once a year during the rainy season between January and March.
Within the genus Sus, neonates weigh between 500 and 1500 g. The young are born in a nest, where they stay for some time. Weaning occurs around 3 or 4 months of age.
The timing of reporoductive maturation has not been reported for this species. However, withing the genus, females may reach sexual maturity as early as 8 months of age. However, they usually do not breed until they are 1.5 years old. Males do not breed until they reach full size and are capable of competing for females-- around the age of 5 years.
Breeding interval: These pigs typically produce one litter per year.
Breeding season: Breeding in this species occurs between September and November, with births following in the rainy season.
Range number of offspring: 3 to 9.
Average gestation period: 4 months.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization ; viviparous
Average birth mass: 1000 g.
Average gestation period: 120 days.
Average number of offspring: 6.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 274 days.
As in most mammals, the care of the young seems to be largely the concern of females of the species. Females build a nest for the young, which are born pretty helpless, and nurses them for approximately 3 to 4 months.
Females care for the young in groups with other females and their young, while males remain solitary.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-independence (Protecting: Female)
The Javan warty pig (Sus verrucosus), also called Javan wild pig, is an even-toed ungulate in the family Suidae. It is endemic to the Indonesian islands Java and Bawean, and is considered extinct on Madura. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996.[1]
The Javan warty pig is black, with some rufous parts on the head and the belly. It has three pairs of facial warts; the largest pair is below the ears, the second under each eye, and the smallest pair above the upper canines. It has a nuchal and dorsal crest that gradually becomes shorter towards the tail. Its tail does not have a terminal tuft. Young are uniformly coloured.[2] Facial warts vary in size and grow with age. Males reach a weight of about 108.2 kg (239 lb), whereas females weigh only about 44 kg (97 lb).[3]
The Javan warty pig occurs in Leuweung Sancang Nature Reserve and Meru Betiri National Park in southern Java, Nusakambangan Nature Reserve on the Nusa Kambangan island and in a protected area on the Bawean island. It lives at elevations below 800 m (2,600 ft) in grassland and secondary forest.[3]
The Javan warty pig is mainly a solitary creature, but groups of three or four individuals have been sighted. It is nocturnal and crepuscular. When the warty pig is startled, its mane stands erect. If the animal is fleeing from a predator, its tail is erect and curved towards its body. When a group of individuals is frightened, the recorded alarm call sounds like a shrill whistle.[3]
September to December is thought to be the mating season of the Javan warty pig. Gestation lasts four months. The piglets are born in a nest and nursed for the following three to four months. On average, the species lives to be eight years of age, with a few captive individuals living to 14 years of age.[4]
The specific mating structure of the Javan warty pig has not been observed in the wild. A historic source from the 1940s indicated a litter size of three to nine piglets born between January and March.[3] Between 2003 and 2005, captive Javan warty pig in Surabaya Zoo had litters of two to four piglets, born between March and August.[5]
According to the IUCN Red List, S. verrucosus was first declared vulnerable in 1988 and listed as endangered in 1996. A drastic 53% drop in the population occurred from 1982 through 2006. The species is believed to be still declining.[1] A recent study estimated a population of 172–377 individuals, making the Javan warty pig one of the rarest pig species.[6] The main threat to this species is habitat encroachment by humans. Agriculture is a large influence in the decline of the Javan warty pig. These pigs are also killed by farmers who spot the pigs raiding their crops at night. Since this is a large animal, sports hunters also consider killing the animal a challenge and see it as a trophy. An interesting threat to this species is actually occurring naturally. The closest relative to Sus verrucosus is the banded pig (Sus scrofa vittatus). This species shares similar habitat ranges as the Javan pig. This species threatens the Javan pig not only through resource competition, but also by cross-mating and creating hybrids of S. verrucosus and S. scrofa.[7]
The most recent conservation project, through the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, aims to capture healthy Javan warty pigs and breed them in captivity. The offspring of this program are then supposed to be released into protected habitats.[7] This method of reintroduction of the offspring will ensure the long-term survival of the species. One of the problems with this project is finding true S. verrucosus, not hybrids, which brings up another goal of the program, molecular mapping. Scientists will extract DNA from the wild pigs and record their genetic code to separate hybrids from true S. verrucosus. Along with this project are plans to educate the locals about the importance and endangerment of this species. The locals sometimes comment that they cannot distinguish the banded pig from the Javan pig, and with education, this confusion can be reduced.[8]
The Javan warty pig (Sus verrucosus), also called Javan wild pig, is an even-toed ungulate in the family Suidae. It is endemic to the Indonesian islands Java and Bawean, and is considered extinct on Madura. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1996.
