Warthog - Phacoecerus
aethiopicus
Warthogs live in families of related
females with their offspring (the family unit is called a sounder)
while the males live alone or in bachelor groups.
Even an unborn warthog has callouses
on its elbows to prepare itself for a lifetime of eating grass and
roots on its knees. They act as nature's gardeners and till large
areas of soil through their digging exploits. Apart from aerating
the soils and softening it to allow the rain to sink in, they also
bury and thus protect seeds from fire damage and at the same time
they expose certain bulbs to which birds such as fancolins are partial.
Warthogs sleep in burrows, usually
old aardvark holes, which they often share with nocturnal animals,
including hyaena, who use it by day while the warthogs feed. If
the burrow is not large enough to turn around in the hole, the warthog
family will disappear down it backwards to enable them to exit face
first to be ready for danger.
Warthogs lack a protective hair covering
and store very little fat under the skin. They therefore have to
cool themselves by wallowing in mud or warm themselves by baking
in the sun.
When fleeing possible danger they hold
their tails upright as a sign for others in the sounder to follow.
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