Which small mammal interests you more: The volcano rabbit or the pygmy hog? (poll)

I see, that is quite sad really, as had it worked out and the bureauocratic hurdles overcome I'm sure it would have meant this species becoming a long term ex-situ resident of the Jersey zoo.

Yes, I also suspect that the species would probably have eventually settled in to breeding well in captivity and could well have become somewhat established in zoos in Europe.

However, I do think that there are some suid species that have experienced inbreeding depression ex-situ. The one that comes to mind that I read about a while back was one of the barbirusa species.

 

TLD beat me to it and preempted my response.

Interesting to note, though, that several pygmy hogs were born at London Zoo beteeen 1883 and 1886 although, sadly, none of the piglets were raised.

 

I'll have to look further into this, I didn't know that they had been kept and bred in the London zoo, that is interesting !

From what I remember the pygmy hog was believed to have gone extinct for much of the 20th century until its rediscovery at some point mid-century ?

 

Should you want more details of the London Zoo births, nine pygmy hogs were born there, as follows:

• 4 on 23rd May 1883
• 1 on 16th May 1884
• 3 on 11th June 1885
• 1 on 23rd June 1886

 

Thanks for this Tim ! Very interesting to learn this.

It seems that the species was breeding at the London zoo over successive years until their demise (and most probably in captive conditions that would give a heart attack to most zoo professionals now).

 

Unfortunately I haven't seen pygmy hog yet, but I had vaguely hoped I'd manage to in 2020.

 

Nevermind @devilfish I reckon that you will get round to seeing it in the next few years , were you intending to visit the captive breeding facility in Assam, India?

 

Pygmy hog currently in the lead !

Thought I'd add this to the thread. An interesting report from this year relating to pygmy hog conservation and fears regarding the threat from the emerging swine flu pandemic in Asia.

Virus lockdown for world’s smallest and rarest wild pigs

 

Showering before going inside, opting for food less prone to hold the virus, buying all the dried grass they need in advance - great to know the team is taking such precautions!

And just a correction: that virus isn't from the flu family, in fact it's a double-stranded DNA virus and the only species in its order. Known to infect domestic pig, wild boar, common and desert warthogs, bushpig, red river hog and giant forest hog.

 

Yes, I agree, very good that this team is putting such a lot of effort into this as it would be catastrophic for the species.

My bad, a typo, you are right, it is a swine fever rather than flu and thank you for the correction.

 

Yes, Assam state zoo and probably one of the breeding centres - but 2020 got in the way.

 

Never knew that these were also kept at a zoo as well as the private captive breeding centre, are they on public display there ?

 

At 73 % of the current poll result the pygmy hog definitely appears to be on course to winning this contest.

 

Looks like the pygmy hog absolutely smashed this poll and won outright!

I'm glad that so many zoochatters are fond of and interested in these charismatic species as much as I am.

Here is a video from Durrell of these pint sized porkers to celebrate their victory in the poll.

 

I still appreciate pygmy hogs, but a tiny rabbit from Mexico sounds cooler.

 

Yes, a very cool little animal indeed.

Both of them are in fact but the pygmy hog definitely seems to have more fans on zoochat judging by the poll.