Warthog (Wild Safari Wildlife by Safari Ltd.)

The common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) is a species of pig (family Suidae) that occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. Aside from the wild boar it is the most familiar of the wild pig species. It is also common, with a large range that covers grasslands, savannas, and forests. Warthogs are the only pigs adapted to live as grazers in open habitats and the bulk of their diet is made up of grasses. They’re still pigs though, and enjoy a broad omnivorous diet of fruit, roots, eggs, carrion, and invertebrates. Female warthogs and their young live in groups while adult males are mostly solitary outside the breeding season. Although warthogs are proficient diggers, they tend to occupy burrows dug by other animals, especially aardvarks. Today we’re looking at the Safari 2020 warthog.

There are actually two species of warthog. The common warthog and the desert warthog (P. aethiopicus). Safari’s figure represents the common warthog, and their website identifies it as such. The figure measures 4” (10.16 cm) long and has a shoulder height of 2.5” (6.35 cm). The actual common warthog stands 25-33.5” (63.5-85 cm) tall at the shoulder and measures 35-59” (89-149 cm) long. The Safari warthog comes out to be 1/14 in scale when scaled down from the maximum length.

The Safari warthog is presented in a static posture with the head looking slightly rightward. The head is appropriately large, flattened, gnarly, and knobby. The cone shaped “warts” are prominent on the figure suggesting it represents a male but there are no sculpted genitalia. In life these warts are made up of thickened skin and gristle. The tusks are also prominent with tusks on both the upper and lower jaw clearly discernable. In life the bottom tusks rub against the upper tusks, keeping them razor sharp.

The rest of the body is somewhat compact, with a rounded torso, and thin muscular legs. Warthogs can reach a speed of 30 mph and running is their main form of self-defense. If piglets are involved, then you can expect the typical tenacity associated with pigs in general. When feeding, warthogs often move about on their wrists, which leads to the development of thick calluses there. Although I wouldn’t expect them to be sculpted on the figure, their presence would have been nice.

Warthogs are covered in sparse stiff hairs, whiskers on the cheeks, a mane along the back, and a tuft of hair on the end of the tail. On the figure the mane is blonde. In life most warthogs have a dark colored mane but I found a few examples on the web of individuals with lighter manes. The hair on the cheeks tends to be light colored but on the toy they’re the same color as the rest of the body, but they’re at least sculpted onto the figure. The rest of the figure is mottled gray and brown, and this is acceptable. The tusks and inside of the ears are white, eyes shiny black, and hooves gray. The paint application on the tusks isn’t great with most of the surface area near the mouth being the same color as the rest of the figure. They’re small though, and no doubt difficult to paint with precision.

The Safari warthog was not a figure that was initially on my radar and there are enough warthog figures out there to choose from that I felt no real pressure to quickly acquire one. I got Safari’s because it was part of their blowout sale. Before Safari’s it was Schleich’s warthog that was on the forefront of my mind. Other decent warthogs have been made by PNSO, Mojo, and Papo. You can’t go wrong with Safari’s though; it is a decently realistic and accurate little figure. If you want one, then you’ll need to act quickly and buy one from a distributor that still has them in stock, this figure was retired in 2023.