Page 27 - NORDIC SAFARI CLUB CHAPTER NEWSLETTER 1st QUARTER 2021

This is the biggest, heaviest, rarest and ugliest of
the Suidae family of Africa. A forest monster from a
fairy tale.

The giant forest hog or GFH is native to wooded habitat
and, despite its large size, remains largely unstudied
and was only described for science in 1904, a mere
110 years ago! The specific name honors Richard
Meinertzhagen, a British brigadier, who shot the type
specimen in Kenya and had it shipped to the Natural
History Museum in London. Meinertzhagen was a
formidable man and a controversial figure who also
shot some Indian soldiers deserting their posts during
the invasion of Tanzania by the British forces during the
First World War when the reception by the German
forces under the control of Von Lettow Vorbeck made
things too hot for them.

From my observations in the hunting areas where
Hylochoerus Meinertzageni lives, the boars reach up to
2,1 metres in length and 1,1 metres in height and weigh
as much as 220 kilograms. Females weigh about 50
kilograms less. Adults of both sexes are black with
long, sparse, wiry hair covering the body. Down the
midline of the back, very long bristles form a mane that
is raised when they are excited or in danger. The face
of the GFH is very distinctive. The flat rounded nose
disc is exceptionally large, measuring up to 18
centimetres (7 inches) across, which becomes even
bigger when mating. Boars develop large naked
swellings beneath their eyes. Mature males also have
swollen preorbital glands which can exude copious
secretions which spread over their faces.

Both sexes have sharp tusks. In boars, the tusks flare
outwards and backwards with a slight upward curve -
never as long as those of a big warthog but much
longer than those of the average red river hog.
Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game has a minimum
entry level of 7 7/8 inches and the world record, which
measured a monstrous 15 ½ inches, was shot in 1963
by Dr. P. Galves Rodrigues in Semliki, Uganda. The
SCI number one was shot in Kaffa, Ethiopia by Nassos
Roussos in 1974. The longest tusk was 13 inches long
and it is true that currently the biggest GFH boars are
shot in Ethiopia, while in the Central African Republic
where I hunt for them, the average tusk length is just
under eight inches long and, with a bit of luck, you can
shoot a bigger boar if you hunt well and are patient. In
any case you can hunt them successfully in purpose.

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