They live in herds (sounders) of up to 20 animals consisting of females and their offspring, but usually also including a single old male. Females leave the sounder before giving birth and return with the piglets about a week after parturition. All members of the sounder protect the piglets, and a piglet can nurse from all females. Boars fight by running head on into each other, followed by head pushing and attempts to slash the opponent with their lower tusks. As all suids of Sub-Saharan Africa, the giant forest hog has not been domesticated, but it is easily tamed and has been considered to have potential for domestication. In the wild, though, the giant forest hog is more feared than the red river hog and the bushpig (the two members of the genus "Potamochoerus"), as males sometimes attack without warning, possibly to protect their group. It has also been known to drive spotted hyenas away from carcasses and fights among males resulting in the death of one of the participants are not that uncommon. Despite its size and potential for aggressive behaviour, they have been known to fall prey to leopards (probably almost exclusively large male forest leopards which are often larger than their savannah-dwelling equivalents) and clans of spotted hyenas. Although in some localities the lion may also be a predator of giant forest hogs, the species are usually segregated by habitat, as African lions do not generally occur in the densely forested habitats inhabited by this suid.