Species group · Mammals

Pigs

WAnimals has 3 species of pig, spread across 2 families (Orycteropodidae, Suidae).

3 species
2 families
43 countries
24 parks
Weight
39 kg – 350 kg
Length
90 cm – 2.2 m
Lifespan
15 – 18 years

Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 3.

All 3 species of pigs on WAnimals

Each one has its own full entry. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

2 Least Concern1 Not Evaluated

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

See the global conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 43 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…

  • It can eat as many as 50,000 ants and termites in a single night's foraging, found by smell and hooked out with a tongue up to 30 cm long.

    From Aardvark

  • It lives in savannah, grassland, woodland and scrub across much of sub-Saharan Africa.

    From Aardvark

  • It can dig almost a metre of tunnel in barely 15 seconds with its powerful front claws.

    From Aardvark

  • The largest wild pig in the world: the males top 275 kg.

    From Forest Hog

  • It is the largest wild pig in the world, and yet it was not scientifically described until 1904, one of the last large African mammals to be recognised by Western science.

    From Forest Hog

  • Unlike almost all other suids it hardly roots at all: it grazes grass and browses leaves, and its snout is less adapted to digging than a wild boar's.

    From Forest Hog

  • Its gestation lasts, by the stockman's classic rule, three months, three weeks and three days: about 114 days.

    From Wild Boar

  • It has hardly any functional sweat glands, which is why it wallows in mud to cool down and to protect itself from the sun and from parasites.

    From Wild Boar

Ecosystems

See every species group · Explore the species one by one