Mystery pig » San Diego Zoo

Mystery pig
12-09-2008

Sorry to dredge this up again, but my curiosity is still peaked. Has there been any new developments in the determining the identity of the "western forest hog" in San Diego? Last I heard DNA tests were underway, and it wasn't looking to be a forest hog, anybody know what has been concluded?

12-09-2008

Would you know where they got the animal from or know if it was imported?

12-09-2008

It was imported from somewhere in West Africa. It was a family pet that ended up in a zoo somewhere over there I believe.

12-09-2008

If it was a family pet then i could possibly be a hybrid of a wild pig with a domestic pig but i'm sure researchers would have thought of that before they started DNA testing and what-not.

12-09-2008

Apparently the 'western forest hog' was born in Guinea in West Africa (~2000).
I had emailed the head of the genetics department at CRES a few years ago to see if there were any more details available, but never got a response. She certainly looks more Potamochoerus than Hylochoerus, and most of the suppositions I heard was that she was either a new species or black colour morph of red river hog. Perhaps the results were not too favourable (e.g. hybrid red river hog x domestic) considering the expenses the zoo must have gone through ... "western forest hog" sounds much cooler.

Here's a link to a blurb on their website from several years ago:
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/kids/animal_pigs.html

12-09-2008

That's what I've really wondered all along is if she is a domestic x red river hog hybrid. I hear that domestic pigs and bush pigs have been successfully hybridized.