Pygmy Hog

About this species

Size

Shoulder height 20–25cm; length 55–71cm

Weight

6.6–9.7kg

Habitat

Tall, wet alluvial grassland in the Himalayan foothills, up to about 300m

Range

Endemic to India; the only known population is at Manas National Park, Assam

The pygmy hog is the smallest pig, only 20–25 cm at the shoulder and 55–71 cm long, weighing 6.6–9.7 kg. The skin is greyish brown with blackish-brown bristles, the irises are hazel brown, and it usually has no facial warts. The head is sharply tapered, with a slight crest of hair on the forehead and back of the neck, and the tail is only about 2.5 cm. Females are slightly smaller than males (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is endemic to India, once widespread in the tall, wet grasslands of a narrow belt in the southern Himalayan foothills from north-western Uttar Pradesh to Assam. It was thought extinct in the early 1960s, and a small population was rediscovered in 1971 when hogs fled a fire near the Barnadi Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam. The only known population now lives in Manas National Park, threatened by livestock grazing, fires and poaching. It lives in small family groups of one or two females and their young, up to 20 animals, with adult males generally solitary (Wikipedia, general species account).

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)