Page 58 - World of Animals - Issue #39

OF THE WORLD

Think pigs are just boring farm animals? Wait

until you find out about the secret lives of bizarre
babirusas, weird warthogs and peculiar peccaries

Words Matt Ayres
There’s more to pigs than truffle hunting and mud dependent on their home terrain, while others live

wallowing. Whether you think of them as adorable opportunistically, snorting out survival strategies in the
or unclean, there’s no denying the impact that these unlikeliest of places.
remarkable mammals have had on our planet. But sadly, people aren’t always up for sharing
We farm pigs in their hundreds of millions. The their homes with local pig populations. In areas
modern farmyard swine has developed into an where human settlements and agricultural plots have

unrecognisably different animal to its wild boar expanded, pigs increasingly find themselves rooting
ancestors, but its core evolutionary traits remain the around for food in places where they aren’t welcome.
same; intelligence, sociability and powerful senses are As a result, wild pigs in developing countries are often
all key characteristics of the humble domestic pig. killed by farmers and hunters, and several species are
Around the world, different pig species have now endangered because of this.
developed their own evolutionary advantages to From forest-dwelling hogs to swine swimming in the
help them thrive in their endemic habitats. Some are sea, meet the pigs that call our planet home.

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