Warthog

Warthogs are stout, thick-skinned wild pigs built for the African grassland — a heavy head, sparse bristly coat, and three pairs of wart-like pads across the face that give them their name. A big boar can top 300 pounds; sows run smaller. Both sexes carry curved tusks, the upper pair sweeping up to two feet long on a mature male, but warthogs are grazers first — they kneel on calloused wrists to crop short grass, and root up bulbs and rhizomes when grass is scarce. Sows and young stick together in family groups, while boars are usually solitary or loosely paired. At night they shelter in burrows dug by other animals, often old aardvark holes, to escape both the cold and nighttime predators. Free-ranging populations are now established in parts of South Texas.