IUCN Species of the Day: Pygmy Hog

 

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(tm)

 

Photo credit: Joe Blosson

 

Once widely distributed across the alluvial grassland plains in the Himalayan foothills, the Pygmy Hog, Porcula salvania, declined so severely that by the 1960s it was presumed extinct.  Today, one small wild population survives in the tallgrass habitats of Manas National Park, northeast India.  It is the world’s smallest wild pig, not much taller than a domestic cat, and the most threatened, classified as ‘CRITICALLY ENDANGERED’ on the IUCN Red list of Threatened Species™.

Tall grasslands, being very in nutrients, are highly suitable for cultivation and, due to a rapidly growing human population, few now remain.  Indiscriminate burning of grass and livestock grazing adds further pressure to the Pygmy Hog’s habitat.

Initiated in 1995, the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme aims to restore the species in hystorically occupied sites in northeast India through captive breeding and reintroduction, and improved managed of the Manas National Park.  To date, over 100 individuals have been bred in captivity, and last year 30 Pygmy Hogs were released into the Sonai Rupai Wildlife Sanctuary.

 

Geographic Range of the Pygmy HogCredit: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

 

To learn more about the Pygmy Hog, click here.  Or visit the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species by clicking their logo below.

 

 

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