Zoo Miami’s newborn warthog piglets doing well
With faces perhaps only mother could love, four newborn warthogs have had their first medical checkups at Zoo Miami.
The two males and two females were born June 29, but spokesman Ron Magill said zoo staff didn‘t want to separate them from their mother until Tuesday.
“This exam confirmed their sex and helped to ensure that they have an excellent start in life,” he said. “The preliminary reports are that all four piglets appear to be healthy and developing well.”
Their parents, both 4-years-old, traveled far to meet and mate in Miami-Dade.
Mom is from the Indianapolis Zoo and dad came from the Zoo Safari Park in San Diego.
The piglets and their mother will be bonding for an undetermined length of time before going on public display at the zoo, Magill said.
This is the third successful birth of warthogs at Zoo Miami, 12400 SW 152nd St., with the first happening in 1995, he said.
Warthogs are from sub-Saharan Africa. They are not naturally aggressive, but these wild pigs grow large, powerful tusks which they use to protect themselves, establish dominance between males, and dig through the ground for roots and grubs to eat. Males have larger tusks than females.
These wild hogs don’t have actual warts, as their name implies. They have fatty tissue on the sides of their heads that prompted the name.