Abstract:
Few studies have investigated the ecological interactions between wild species of Suidae and
their parasites, leaving our knowledge concerning this host–parasite system fragmented. In
the present study, we applied network studies to analyse community nestedness in helminth
assemblages of common warthogs, Phacochoerus africanus (Gmelin) (Suidae). Helminth data
were compiled from 95 warthogs, including young and adult males and females, from 2 different
conservation areas in Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces, South Africa, collected
monthly over a period of 1 year each. The aim was to study the effect of host sex, age and
season of sampling on the structure of helminth infracommunities harboured by the warthogs
and to search for non-random structural patterns in the warthog–helminth interaction networks.
Furthermore, we investigated the influence of a warthog’s age, sex and season of sampling
on beta diversity and dark diversity of their helminth infracommunities. Lastly, we asked
whether the effects of host sex, age and sampling season on helminth communities differed
between the 2 localities. We found that helminth communities of warthogs were nested
and host–parasite interactions were influenced by all 3 factors as well as combinations thereof.
However, the resulting patterns differed at the 2 localities, indicating that local environmental
processes are important drivers of community structure.
