Prince Charming: Meet the common warthog at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
Alex the common warthog is anything but common.
Meet Alex, the common warthog at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
This is a chap with a skip in his step, a smile on his snout and a mohawk any rock ‘n’ roller would die for.
As soon as Grace Sullivan, lead keeper in Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Water’s Edge: Africa exhibit, opens his pen door, all 230 pounds of the 5-year-old, double-tusked bubbly pig comes running out with panache. He stops, looks around, gathers his bearings, then trots over to commune with Sullivan and the other two-legged creatures who have come for a visit.
“Alex is our social butterfly in Water’s Edge,” Sullivan said. “We do encounters where we bring people into the yard. And they can meet and touch him and get pictures with him. If you have good nails he loves a scratch.”
The charmer also gets to put on a harness and go for walks on a leash in the plaza by the Nile hippos exhibit.
Alex the common warthog wallows in mud on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Warthogs use their shovel-shaped heads to create wallows and efficiently dig. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
And not only does he enjoy humans, but he also has a bevy of animal buddies. The zoo’s two East African crowned cranes share a yard with Alex, and he also gets to spend quality time with Biko, the male Nile hippo.
But today the warthog is happily running solo in his yard, though he does avoid leftover snow banks: “He’s a little bit of a princess pig. He doesn’t like to get snow on his paws,” Sullivan said.
But he does love some mud. Using his shovel-shaped head, he makes quick work of a particularly sludgy part of a grassy knoll, creating his own mud wallow. He flops his big body down and rolls around before popping back up, shaking like a dog, and doing pig zoomies around the yard like a dog does after a bath. He stops here and there to scratch his rear end on a log.
“This is a happy pig,” Sullivan said.
Alex the common warthog only has three tusks because he broke one off by turning a corner too closely and hitting it on the corner of a door. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Alex is a true ham who always pleases zoo guests — it’s Sullivan’s favorite part about her playful charge.
“When you look at him, he doesn’t look like a classically beautiful animal,” she said. “He’s probably not what we would consider one of the top 10 most charismatic animal species. Regardless, he seems to capture everybody’s hearts. We get people asking all the time where he is, when Alex will be out, when we’ll do another Alex walk. He’s got his own little fan club. He’s got such a lovable personality.”
A meal fit for a pig
A warthog loves to graze on grass, using his large head to dig up dirt while hunting for tubers, roots and anything that contains water, a necessity in their native African grassland areas where water is a scarce resource. Alex also receives herbivore grains, fruits, vegetables and his favorite — leaf eater biscuits, which keepers use in his training. They also recently discovered this pig has an affinity for cooked oatmeal.
Alex the common warthog is five-year-old and weighs 230 pounds. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
Let’s talk tusks
A warthog’s four tusks, two on each side of its mouth, are modified teeth. And Alex only has three of the four, thanks to cutting a corner too closely and bonking one of his upper tusks on the corner of a door. Like any set of teeth, if you hit it hard enough and it falls out, you’re out of luck. It’s like a grown-up tooth, and it’s not growing back.
Although Alex is a lover, not a fighter, wild warthogs put those tusks to use. They use them to spar with each other, going head to head and rocking their heads back and forth while trying to punch each other with their tusks. Pig battle is done to claim territory, the love of a good female warthog or an ideal sleeping location. Females also will spar with males to keep them away from babies if the males are trying to push the little ones out of the way to get breeding access to females. Warts make the warthog
Those big bumps on a warthog’s face aren’t just for style. Made out of cartilage and fatty tissue, males have two sets and females have one.
The sun shines on Alex the common warthog’s tusks at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Warthogs have four tusks that they use to spar with each other to claim territory, the love of a good female warthog or an ideal sleeping location.
The large protrusions under their eyes help protect their eyes when they spar: “Think of them like bumpers,” Sullivan said. Incoming tusks bounce off the warts. They also help during other encounters with predators. To protect themselves they’ll run head first at an adversary and butt them with their tusks and bony skull. The warts help protect against anything that might come at them, such as the claws of a big cat.
Get the name of his hair stylist
You might see the tusks first, but then you’ll notice the long flowing mohawk along the ridge of a warthog’s back. The coarse, wiry hair helps them hold onto the mud from a mud bath and keep their skin moisturized. It also acts as camouflage in the grass and helps with sun protection. When the hair moves side to side, it allows the heat to dissipate off their skin.
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Alex the common warthog sits before receiving a treat last month from Grace Sullivan, lead keeper in Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Water’s Edge: Africa exhibit, 2024. Unlike wild common warthogs, who are typically very territorial, Alex is described by Sullivan as “the social butterfly in Water’s Edge.”
Visitors watch Alex the common warthog in his habitat in Water’s Edge on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. “He’s probable not what we would consider one of the top 10 most charismatic animal species. Regardless, he seems to capture everybody’s hearts,” lead keeper Grace Sullivan says. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
The warts made of cartilage and fatty tissue on warhogs’ faces help protect their eyes when they spar and help during other encounters with predators. “Think of them like bumpers,” lead keeper Grade Sullivan said. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
As warthogs graze on grass, they’ll often drop down onto the joint in their front legs. Young warthogs also do this to nurse from their mothers if they are standing. (Parker Seibold, The Gazette)
