Chimp & See Talk

Bushpigs vs Red River Hogs at Cold Fire and Restless Star

  • jwidness by jwidness moderator

    I did some digging and found more information about bushpigs and red river hogs at our current eastern sites. First, bushpigs can vary enormously in pelage color from bright red to nearly black, and not just by subspecies or geographic range -- it's possible to find bushpigs of many different colors within a single social group! Second, the general scientific consensus is that red river hogs do not live as far east as our current sites. There may be a hybrid zone or clinal variation, but we won't know without genetic testing. Regardless, it's unlikely that we would see any 100% red river hogs in our footage (though if we find any, the scientists would love to see it). I think what that means is that we should be tagging all animals in the Potamochoerus genus with bushpig at cold fire and restlessstar. It's not a totally clear-cut answer, but hopefully that helps a bit!

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  • Snorticus by Snorticus in response to jwidness's comment.

    Thanks for looking into that, jwidness. How should we be classifying them?

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  • jwidness by jwidness moderator

    Mimi said to classify them as red river hogs, but tag them as bushpigs. Thanks!

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  • jwidness by jwidness moderator

    For a look at various colors of bushpig in the same group, see ACP000cnqz ACP000cnr1 ACP000cnr3 ACP000cnr5

    enter image description here

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  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    this is great! thanks for looking into it - I had a big discusssion with the bosses about it - and there wasn't a consensus on what is what - but i think how we are doing it here makes the most sense 😄

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