Lover Not A Fighter ; Thats What Pumba's All About

Masai Mara National Reserve

Fake it till you make it seemed to be a very fitting description for the Warthog when I first saw him. I remember telling my wife exactly that, knowing that these poor guys are primary carnivore fodder around the African Savannah. “Poor guy‘s been at it for few million years at least too”, I said. But seriously, if an alien with no idea about animals landed up in the Savannah, I’m sure he’d think that this guy is obviously the boss. I mean you have to see these guys walk about. It’s ridiculous how they strut about with full confidence with their tails up like they own the place and funnily, the tail comes down right when he stops strutting. It’s hilarious. I have yet to come across an animal that makes me laugh as hard as the Warthog does with no effort to get that reaction from me. No wonder he landed the role of Pumba in the Lion King.

These dudes are stout and long and funnily, they can’t lean down to the ground. They have to bend their fore limbs to the ground to get their faces to ground level. (Pic : 2). Add to that, the totally odd shape of their faces with the face tusks and you have a design here that’s totally unparalleled in appearance and behavior anywhere else in the world. Oh he’s all Hakuna Matata alright. No worries when even birds could lift off your kids or a Cheetah could snag you up when you’re trying to pick something off the ground. They have calloused pads to protect the wrists that form during the development of the fetus. So these guys burrow and our Boss has to reverse into his, to dash out asap in case of trouble. He won’t even bother to save his kids and will leave the female to tend to that duty.

Who knew that a group of Warthogs is called a sounder? I didn’t. That’s the name of the groups they live in. Well, the females do and the males come and go like lions in a pride (Ref : Lion Life). Young adult males usually live alone. The males limit conflict to mating rights. So a dominant Boar will mate with more than one sounder in his home range and will fight other Boars. During the rutting season, he may employ one of two strategies to mate. The first is called the staying tactic, where he will stay and defend one or few females as a resource valuable to him. Alternately, he will choose the roaming tactic where he will do just that, roam and compete for females in heat. So I stand corrected. our Boss, will fight only for love it seems and the rest is all no worries as far as he is concerned. He knows he’s got a bulls eye on his head and probably just makes the best of his situation. No worries!

Hey, dude’s gotta survive and he has. He’s not endangered yet. In fact, some of these guys were taken over to the US and in 2020 it was noted that descendants of those guys were running free in Southern Texas. They number around 250000 in Southern Africa. He’s surviving and thriving everywhere it seems despite being carnivore fodder, hunted for his tusks and meat by humans and even being prey to owls and eagles. Something about his strategy isn’t as comical as the rest of him obviously given that they took them over to the new world just to hunt in the game ranches and they managed to out breed and outlive the hunting. He’s actually pretty damn successful if you think about it. He’s all over and winning wherever he goes. Hakuna Matata indeed Pumba. Well, played, Sir, I thought you were a fool while you were actually teaching those Lions a thing or two about survival of the fittest. In comparison, there’s like 23000 lions left in all of Africa.

Our Boss, is a lover, not a fighter. That’s what he’s all about and he simply just out bred all his competition and is winning with love not war. Guess he wasn’t faking at all huh, being one of the most successful Savannah animals. Just goes to show how first impressions sometimes just may not be true after all.