Taxonomy and conservation status of the Suiformes - An overview

Abstract

The Suborder Suiformes consists of threeextant families: the Suidae, Dicotylidae andHippopotamidae. These are now thought tocomprise at least 19 living species, of which allbut three species- the collared peccary Tayassutajacu, the red river hog Potamochoerus porcusand the bush pig P. larvatus - are threatened tovarying degrees, either throughout their rangesor because they include one or more threatened subspecies. Even the widely distributed andoftenlocally abundant Eurasian wild pig (Susscrofa),common warthog (Phacochoerusafricanus)and white-lipped peccary (T.pecari) all havethreatened subspecies, which meritincreasedconservation attention. By comparison, the status of a few taxa, such as the pigmyhog (S. salvanius), the recently recognisedVisayan warty pig (S. cebifrons) and theNigerian race of pigmy hippo (Hexaprotodonivoriensis heslopi), are critical; whilst others, likethe enigmatic Vietnam warty pig (S. bucculentus),may already have followed the three speciesof Madagascar dwarf hippos (Hippopotamus laloumena,H. lemerlei and Hexaprotodon madagascariensis) and the Cape race of the “desert”warthog(P.a. aethiopicus) into extinction. Recentrevisions of the taxonomy of these animalsare summarized in table 1 and the presentknownconservation status of all currentlyrecognizedtaxa are summarized in table 2.