Why do the common warthog Phacochoerus africanus stay at Kichwa Tembo
The common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) is common over all of Africa’s savannah grassland. The females live in small family groups with their offspring and the males alone or in bachelor groups. The warthog is a grazer but can also eat fruits and roots. Maasai Mara is a national reserve in Kenya...
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| Formato: | First cycle, G2E |
| Lenguaje: | sueco Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2015
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| Acceso en línea: | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/8446/ |
| Sumario: | The common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) is common over all of Africa’s savannah grassland. The females live in small family groups with their offspring and the males alone or in bachelor groups. The warthog is a grazer but can also eat fruits and roots. Maasai Mara is a national reserve in Kenya with a rich species fauna. It is becoming an increasing problem with tourists and tourist lodges taking over the savannah, not treating the wildlife properly and forcing the animals to restrict their habitats to small areas. This study aims to find out why a group of 60 warthogs lives close to humans inside the fenced off area of one tourist lodge, called Kichwa Tembo. Kichwa Tembo is located at the edge of Maasai Mara National Reserve. The study was carried out for ten days during the light hours in the end of April and beginning of March in 2015. The results showed that the warthogs spent most of their time foraging for food. The most common food type was grass but a surprisingly large amount of their diet was figs from a strangler fig three (Ficus thonningii), which made up to one third of their diet. The savannah was unusually dry for the season at the time of the study. The warthogs were observed eating bulbs, tubers and rhizomes when the grass was too dry to eat. Another reason for the warthogs to stay at Kichwa Tembo seemed to be for the protection against large predators due to the electric fence around the area. |
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