African Wild Warthog

Warthog’s Bar and Grill

Spike’s Older Cousin Chip

So What Happened to Wild Warthog’s Then?

This is a true account of how man and beast develop symbiotic relationships in the oddest of places. Our tale today comes from the African highlands, played out in one of the beautiful lodges catering to visitors from all over the world. This is how we were introduced to today’s star…

Imagine you’ve just had a wonderful afternoon game drive, soaking up the sights and sounds of the Zimbabwean bush. Now you’re relaxing with a soothing nightcap after dinner in front of a lovely fire in the lodge’s bar before heading to bed. When to your amazement in strolls one of the biggest, fully-grown wild warthogs you’ve ever seen.

Crazy, huh?

No, the really crazy part comes when this wild warthog ambles over to the bartender who without a word (the bartender, that is), hands him a cushion!

The enormous piggy thing then takes said cushion to the fireplace, carefully puts it down at just the right distance and stretches out, full length with his gigantic tusks resting just-so on the comfy pillow, trotters to the fire, and promptly goes to sleep without a how do you do!

Apparently, he spends any a cold night there and in this fashion has turned it into a regular routine. If the barman isn’t there, this resourceful hog will grab a pillow off one of the couches! As you can tell its happened before. Then in the morning it’s c’est la vie and back to the wild bush, meaning he’s just a wild warthog part of the time and (don’t tell his mates).

Spike Doing What He does Best

Wild Warthog for Dinner

Spike – for that’s his name – pretty much spends most of his time in front of that fire when he’s not visiting the kitchen checking out for what tid-bits are on offer from the chef. This accounts for a large part of his size – I had to. As a result, he’s become a huge visitor attraction and guests love going to the bar just to see this fat pig sleeping by the fireside on any cold night! Really, its only to see the pig. They’re going to rename the pub ‘Spikes Bar’.

Actually, it all started with those tid-bits, when this wily – but very skinny – wild warthog one evening arrived at the lodge looking for scraps from the kitchen. Perhaps led there by the smells. As things in nature do, his lodge-dwelling days developed from there.

Spike is quite an attraction but massive beast. The lodge owner had asked that his tusks be removed because pigs tend to be so unpredictable and he’s probably quite dangerous. The request was diplomatically declined by the vet who believed that Spike, being a wild pig and all half of the time, would be at a disadvantage in his natural habitat without some tasks!

Chip, Spike’s cousin – and a completely wild warthog – derived his own name from chipping off the end of his one tusk, perfectly illustrating just how much warthogs use their tusks. Spike’s been in this routine for a long time and remains well-behaved in public. Stands to reason that for now, warthog and tusks shall not be parted too soon.