Pygmy hog
Dwarf boar ( drawing from Smit, 1885)
The dwarf boar (Sus salvanius, Syn: Porcula salvania ) is a mammal of the family of genuine pigs ( Suidae ). It is the smallest of pig and highly endangered. Occasionally, it is assigned to its own genus Porcula.
Description
The males reach a body length of 65 to 70 inches, the females are 55 to 62 cm. The shoulder height is 20 to 30 centimeters, the tail is a short stub 2 to 3 centimeters in length. The weight is in the males from 7.7 to 11.8 kg, and in females from 6.6 to 7.6 kilograms. The males are built robust and also have longer canines than the females. The body is rounded and the legs are relatively short. The fur is gray brown, at the bottom there is a little brighter.
Distribution and habitat
Dwarf boars are located in the northern South Asia, their original distribution area encompassed the northeastern India and southern Nepal and Bhutan. Today, however, they only live in two wildlife parks in the Indian state of Assam. Their habitat is dense, tall grasslands, which are often passed with trees and bushes.
Way of life
Miniature pigs live in family groups of usually four to five animals, which are composed of one or two females and their offspring. The adult males are solitary outside the breeding season, but sometimes keep loose contact to the associated family. They are more active during the day, but rest during the midday heat. Situated Startled dwarf boars reach high speeds, the naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson, who first scientifically described, but also reported that they would fearlessly attack interferers.
The only pigs they use throughout the year sleeping nests. For this purpose, they dig a well, which is lined with grasses and other plant material. Nests are shared by the family group, which also helps to reduce heat loss on cold nights.
Food
Miniature pigs are like most pigs omnivores. Take roots, tubers, fruits and other plants, but also insects, eggs, small vertebrates and carrion to himself. You will spend approximately six to ten hours per day looking for food. While foraging they ransack in pigs typically the ground. While foraging they hold through grunts with other animals of their group contact.
Reproduction and rearing of young
After a gestation period of around 100 days usually occur three to four young. Reproduction is seasonal and at the onset of the monsoon reached the end of April-May peak. The young animals at birth to achieve a size from 16 to 19.5 inches and a weight of 133-250 grams. The skin will initially have a grayish - pink color. After about 11 days, the boys get a brown - yellow striped fur. The breeding is done by the females of the family group. Sexual maturity occurs at 13 to 33 months, the maximum age of these animals can be 10 to 12 years.
Miniature pigs and humans
Endangering
Miniature pigs are an endangered species. The reasons for this are firstly the hunting for their meat, on the other hand in the destruction of the habitat by sprawl, overgrazing, agricultural impairment, slash and burn and flood control projects. These reasons have led to the stocks fell sharply, and the end of the 1950s was thought the dwarf boar already extinct.
1971, it was rediscovered in the Manas National Park in Assam, was found next to a small population in the Barnadi National Wildlife Refuge. Despite running safeguards the total population is estimated to be only 100 to 150 animals from the IUCN it is classified as " critically endangered " ( critically endangered ).
1977 three copies of the ectoparasitically living louse Haematopinus oliveri were found in the coat of dwarf wild boars, which has since not been detected.
Zoos
The dwarf boar was previously only very rarely seen in western zoos. In the 19th century the Berlin and London Zoo held these animals. In 1976, the Zurich Zoo and the couple Cal Cutta, which was very well known. Cutta 1977 mother of five piglets, but died when the boys were three months old. The raising of the boys succeeded, however. Died in 1978, the last female, Dira, the effects of a difficult birth.