Which zoo has the best / most diverse suid & peccary collection ?

Despite being being highly intelligent and engaging animals suids and peccaries have a largely negative association for many visitors to zoos.

They consequently often fail to get the ex-situ and in-situ attention that they deserve despite 10 species of the world's 17 wild pigs (and 1 of the world's 3 peccaries) being listed of conservation concern by the IUCN

Yet some zoos do manage to succeed in both maintaining these animals for conservation purposes and effectively showcasing them and their plight to the public.


Which zoo (anywhere in the world) has the greatest diversity of suids and peccaries currently kept ?

What is impressive about the way they are kept and showcased?




Look forward to reading your replies !


Photo credits to @Therabu.

 

In the USA it has to be Miami, with babirusa, chacoan peccary, warthog, RRH, and visayan warty pig. The only species they're missing are collared peccary, wild boar, Bornean bearded big (only at Capital of Texas zoo), and possibly white-lipped peccary. I think even 3 species in the US is a high number.

 

If you combine the two major zoological institutions of Berlin:
- 4-5 wild suid species
- 1 domestic pig breed
- 2 peccary species
Impressive: the historic pig house at Zoo Berlin.

 

Marwell at one time held Collared Peccary, Vietnamese Pot Bellies, Babirusa, Warthog and a mysterious wild caught Wild Boar (long before they were farmed/reintroduced to the UK he was one of two rounded up by police the female died in capture but he lived for many years and was MASSIVE.

Sadly all 5 are now gone, which maybe proves your point....

 

Why do you say that suids have a largely negative association in zoos? I see people viewing babirusas, red river hogs, and warthogs with interest.

 

In Europe, Chester has more suids than any other collection I believe. They have warthogs, red river hogs, babirusas and warty pigs. However, if you include peccaries into the category at hand, Berlin Zoo ties it.

 

For many people, a pig is a pig is a pig. And thus the main association is ham, pork chop and bacon. With warthogs as the exception from the rule due to TLK.
And the situation is even more peculiar for suids in countries where they are deemed "unclean" by the local main religions.
Meet Khanzir, the Only Pig in Afghanistan

 

At the same time, miniature pigs and pot-belly pigs are semi-popular as pets (not to the extent of ponies). And never forget the impact of the kid's show Peppa Pig.

 

The Wilhelma has domestic pig, collared peccari and Sulawesi babirusa and has kept european wild boar.

 

Species i would Like to See in Zoos are the bornean bearded pig and Giant forest hog.

 

Well I said that because suids and peccaries are not typically animals which are common or popular exhibits amongst the public in zoos.

I have observed negative comments from visitors in areas around peccary exhibits and I remember hearing a couple express disgust about the bearded pigs at the London Zoo when I was there in 2019.

That said I do think that certain popular movies have increased their appeal like "the lion king" with warthogs etc.

I suppose what inspired this thread was reading a small article in EAZA's "Zooquaria" Magazine called "Think pig !" by Oxford's Erik Meijaard and Copenhagen zoo's Kirstin Leus who are also of the IUCN SSC Wild pig specialist group.

In that article they discuss the need for zoos to house the Visayan warty pig and for zoos to support in-situ conservation work with endangered suid and peccary species. I'll post a few quotes from this article in this comment:

"Pigs tend to have an image problem. The word ‘pig’ often conjures up images of the eponymous film character Babe, perhaps unsurprisingly with an estimated global domestic pig population of about one billion. Encouraged to broaden the mind to wild pigs, Europeans tend to leap to images of fierce, mud-covered, Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa), more preferably encountered in a stew. So let us suggest a new game to play at ‘bo(a) ring’ dinner parties – how many wild pig species can you name (and yes, do encourage folk to google because those photos will liven up any party!). The total is no fewer than 17! These wild (and semi-domesticated) pigs provide a source of crucial protein for hundreds of millions of forest-dependent people, as well as for many wild carnivores, including such sexy conservation icons as tigers and leopards."

"But we continue to need your help! Please continue supporting range-state conservation activities. For example, who could resist financing the high profile programme for the endearing Critically Endangered pygmy hog (Porcula salvania)? Surely those WAZA conference participants who visited the project while in India have become fans for life! Please consider keeping Visayan warty pigs in your collection, too. It will be hard to look ourselves in the mirror if we fail to fulfil the promise to build an insurance population for this Critically Endangered ASAP species."

 

Yes, pet pigs are popular but suids seem to occupy a very strange place within Western culture where they are on the one hand disliked and on the other loved. It is very much a "love / hate relationship" it seems.

Pigs tend to be associated with filth / dirt, greed / gluttony, corruption, obesity. I mean just think of how many times you have heard people say expressions like: "greedy pig" or "fat pig" to refer to the eating habits of an obese person or "filthy pig" to refer to someone's decadent behaviour whether sexual or otherwise or "the pigs" to refer negatively towards the police.

I think that @Batto is right that much of this stems from the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) and their particular aversion and dislike of the pig and the consumption of its flesh which is enshrined in their religious texts (Bible, Quran and Torah).

The cultural anthropologist Marvin Harris had a really interesting theory about why this dietary taboo emerged and that it may have done so because of a biological rationality. I might post it later in the thread but for the moment it could lead the topic off track so will leave it for a bit.

One last thing I will add on this topic though and proof of its connection to the Abrahamic religions is that the dislike of the pig has not held sway for all of human history. You see pre-christian pagan civilizations like the Celts, Vikings and the Germanic tribes attributing positive values to the ferocity and nobility of the wild boar for example and you see it emerge as a heraldic embelm of the elites in Medieval Europe (weirdly considering the power that the church held).

Moreover, in cultures beyond the Western world you see that pigs take on a great cultural importance as symbols too. So for example you have the pig within the Han Chinese Zodiac as one of the symbolic animals, in Feudal Japan the boar takes on a similar symbolic role as a heraldic symbol of some Samurai clains. Pigs are / were used heavily as signalling devices of wealth and status and in rituals within the indigenous cultures of Oceania in Papua New guinea, New Zealand, Fiji, the Solomon islands, Vanuatu etc.

 

Thanks for the comment @TeaLovingDave !

Very interesting to read just how many species they have held.

Definitely think that the Berlin collections hold and have held an extensive and very impressive collection of suids.

 

I'm intrigued by the idea of this historic "pig house" I'm going to have to check this out, very interesting indeed.

Given Berlin zoo's amazing architecture I bet it will turn out to be a very ornate and elegant looking building.

 

My Chinese Zodiac year is the pig, which some consider to be the most auspicious of the twelve.

 

My kids liked to watch Peppa Pig for a while. So far, I cannot detect any heightened interest in suids in them. They do like ham sandwiches, though...

@Onychorhynchus coronatus: I should mention that pigs are also considered a symbol of good fortune in German countries. "Schwein gehabt" = I got lucky. I remember doing an episode on the aforementioned duality regarding pigs in the radio program I did in Greifswald. NAow that was a funny episode. ^^
As for the Pig House in Berlin:

 

Really made me laugh , lol!

 

The "Schweine haus" is definitely underwhelming, bit disappointed actually, I was expecting some early 20th century ornate building / secular temple to nature.

Would listen to the radio programe but I guess it is in German right ?

I didn't know about the significance of pigs in Germany or the duality of these animals, interesting, that has to be pre-christian in origin right ?