Safari West in Santa Rosa welcomes 4 baby warthogs

It’s springtime, and at Safari West, a 400-acre African animal preserve near Santa Rosa, that means all kinds of new babies. There are young addax calves, a pair of demoiselle crane chicks and a giraffe with a new calf on the way.

But four warthoglets, as the park likes to call them, born two weeks ago are the highlight of the tours this spring.

The babies, three boys and a girl, are the fourth litter for mom, Njeri, and dad, Pig Newton. The hogs are already racing around their new enclosure and going tusk to tusk, or rather wart to wart, as they won’t fully develop their trademark tusks until their fifth year.

Warthogs get their name from prominent “warts” on their faces — one beneath each eye and one on each cheek. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa and are highly intelligent, making them favorites among the animal tenders at Safari West.

The piglets arrived just in time to occupy a new, spacious enclosure, which includes a muddy wallow for the hogs, who don’t have sweat glands to cool them off.

No word yet on names of the new additions.

For more information, go to safariwest.com.