The Afrotropical Suids - IUCN

in the principal inhabited islands, where domestic sows are often mated to wild boars
(Mathur, 1967). However, these populations are of extreme importance to the cultures
and economies of these people (Mathur, 1967; Oliver, 1984a; Oliver et al., this vol.,
section 5.9), and it is possible that remnant, purebred populations of ancestral type
survive on some of the smaller, uninhabited islands (R. Whitaker, pers. comm.).
Both the Andaman and Nicobar populations were generally assumed to be endemic,
and they are accorded full legal protection by their Schedule 1 categorization under the
terms of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. In fact, both are certainly feral,
though midden deposits in the Andamans indicate that they were introduced at least
2,000 years ago (P. Dutta, pers. comm.). During this period these pigs have evidently
evolved as an integral component of these biologically important, but now seriously
threatened insular ecosystems, which also include some of the most isolated tribal
societies in the world. These are the Jarawa, Sentenilese and the (nearly extinct)
Andamanese and Onges negritos, whose hunting cultures are linked intimately with
the wild pigs, which are a primary food resource and may also have ritual and
religious significance. Unfortunately, the negritos and their wild pigs are now
seriously threatened by increased contacts with more recent immigrant groups, and
high levels of deforestation from logging, agricultural encroachment and other
developments (Whitaker, 1988). In addition, the wild pigs are subject to increasing
pressure from immigrant poachers who use more efficient hunting techniques,
including firearms, snares and dogs, as compared to the indigenous negritos with
whom they are in direct competition for these diminishing resources. Recent proposals
to promote the interests of the negritos have included suggested gifts of domestic pigs
(Tewari, 1984), which could pose a further serious threat to the wild pigs through
genetic contamination and/or disease (Oliver, 1984a,b).
3. Simeulue Island and other selected 'ex-Sus celebensis' ferals.
The revelation by Groves (1981) that the dwarf feral pigs of Simeulue Island (N. W.
Sumatra), the so-called 'Sus mimus', are a highly modified form of S. celebensis, also
provided clues to the origins of the island's human inhabitants, whose language is most
closely related to Buginese or other south Sulawesi dialects. Shortly before the
publication of Groves' review, MacKinnon (1981) reported that the Simeulue pigs
were threatened, and urged that their taxonomic status be clarified with a view to the
establishment of a suitable reserve in the event that they were found to be a distinct
species. Although this is not the case, the Simeulue pigs are still of considerable
scientific, especially anthropogenic, interest and they are of undoubted socio-economic
importance to the present-day Simeuluese, whose forefathers were presumably
responsible for their introduction. Therefore, despite their feral status, these pigs have
been cited as one of the reasons for the creation of the proposed Pulau Simeulue Game
Reserve (26,750 ha), which will also protect an endemic subspecies of macaque
(Macaca fascicularis fuscus), and an important endemic avifauna and entomofauna
(WCMC, 1991).
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