The enigma of the giant forest hog, hylochoerus meinertzhageni

Abstract

The giant forest hog, Hylochoerus meinertzhageni, is distributed across the West African forest belt and into eastern Africa. It is known from Uganda and is reasonably common in suitable habitat in Kenya. Evidence suggests that a taxon described from a photograph as Hylochoerus schulzi Zukowsky 1921 from the Mutjek Mountains in northern Tanzania along the western Rift Valley wall is in fact a bushpig, Potamochoerus larvatus. Previously published records of the giant forest hog in Tanzania are discussed and shown to be non-definitive; the need for a specimen or unambiguous photographic record of H. meinertzhageni from Tanzania still exists.

Journal of East African Natural History Vol. 88 (1&2) 1999: pp. 25-34