World's Smallest Pig: Conservationists Released Hog Into the Wild in Fear of Extinction

The pygmy hog (Porcula salvania) is the only member of the genus Porcula, and there may be as few as 200 of them in the wild. They are endemic to plains on the Himalayan foothills in India, Nepal, and Bhutan.

They are the world's smallest pigs, standing at only 7-11 inches (20-30cm) in height, according to the EDGE of Existence. Unfortunately, they receive less attention than other South Asian mammals like the Bengal Tiger and Indian rhinoceros. They also receive fewer conservation efforts not until recently.

Now, conservationists are reintroducing their population to the wild as they released nearly a dozen of them in northeastern India as part of the Pygmy Hog Conservation Program.

Conservationists Released Pygmy Hogs to the Wild

The population of the pygmy hog declined in the 1960s, which led conservationists to fear that perhaps the world's smallest pig become extinct. But they were rediscovered in India's northeastern state of Assam in 1971.

Then by 1993, the pygmy hog population was only found in a few areas in Assam's Manas National Park, which borders Bhutan. Then, a few years later, the Pygmy Hog Conservation Program was established to lead the conservation of pygmy hogs and try to revive their population.

"This time we are releasing 12 pygmy hogs including seven male and five female," the program's field scientist Dhritiman Das said at the release site in Manas National Park on Saturday as quoted by Phys.org.

Conservationists released eight of the 12 hogs in Manas on Tuesday, June 22, and another four pygmy hogs were released on Saturday, June 26. Last year, the program was able to release 14 pygmy hogs in the wild.

The release of the pygmy hogs last week takes the number of the hogs reintroduced to the wild by the program to a total of 142 pygmy hogs.

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Pygmy Hog Conservation Program

The Pygmy Hog Conservation Program looks after 70 captive pygmy hogs and breeds them before releasing them to the wild. Das said that they hope to release 60 hogs in the next four years so that the species could build their own population in the wild.

The program's aim is to deliver a broad, multi-disciplinary program of conservation activities for the recovery of critically endangered pygmy hogs by promoting the pygmy hog as a flagship for conservation efforts of grasslands, the home to the world's smallest pigs. The survival of the species has been threatened by habitat loss and improper management of those areas.

The main objective of the program, according to their website is to assist the recovery of the pygmy hog population by reintroducing captive-bred hogs to all suitable habitats and to facilitate enhanced understanding of the species and its role for the better management and conservation of biodiversity in the alluvial grasslands of the Himalayan foothill plains in South Asia.