Cute little piglets drink milk from their Pygmy Hog mother's udders

• published: 20 Jul 2015
• views: 65

These highly endangered Pygmy Hog piglets are among the 150 left in the world! Each weighs just over 100 grams... The piglets tug at their mother's udders for piggie milk! The mother gets bothered and walks off, leaving the piglets looking non-plussed! The Pygmy Hog is the smallest and rarest wild suid in the world. The species was historically known from only a few locations in northern West Bengal and north-western Assam in India, though it is now believed likely to have occurred in an extensive area of tall, alluvial grasslands south of the Himalayan foothills from north-western Uttar Pradesh and southern Nepal to Assam, possibly as far as southern Bhutan. After at least two decades without reported sightings the species was already feared extinct. However, in 1971 it was coincidentally ‘rediscovered’ in two separate locations in north-western Assam; namely Barnadi Reserve Forest in Darrang District and Manas National Park. Subsequent field surveys confirmed its continued occurrence in several other reserve forests in north-western Assam in the late 1970s, but continued commercial forestry operations resulted in its extirpation in all of these areas by the early to 1980s and in Barnadi by the late 1980s/early 1990s. Extensive surveys in other parts of its former range during the 1980s and early 1990s also failed to locate any other surviving populations. These findings substantiated growing concerns that the species had been reduced to only a few disparate locations in and around Manas National Park. Successful captive breeding of the species and its reintroduction to the wild has ensured its survival for now. The species nonetheless remains severely threatened throughout its last remaining range even in Manas, through degradation of its habitat through dry-season burnings, risk of disease through increased incursions by domestic livestock and other factors. Pygmy Hogs measure about 65 cm in length, with a head and body length range of 55–71 cm. Shoulder height is about 25 cm adult animals weigh 6·6–9·7 kg. Females are a little smaller and the newborn babies weigh only 150–200 g. Pygmy Hogs differ from members of the genus Sus in the extreme reduction in body, ears and tail size, relatively short medial false hooves, and snout disc perpendicular to axis of head. There is an absence or warts or gonial whorls, while the body shape is more ‘streamlined’ than in other pigs; in adults tapering from relatively longer hindquarters to smaller forequarters. Pygmy Hogs prefer undisturbed patches of grassland dominated by early successional riverine communities, typically comprising dense tall grass intermixed with a wide variety of herbs, shrubs and young trees. Grasslands dominated by Narenga porphyrocoma, Saccharum spontaneum, S. bengalensis, Imperata cylindrica and Themeda villosa, forming characteristic grass associations of 2 to 3 m height. Most such communities are subject to wide-scale annual burning and accordingly characterised by a low diversity and a preponderance of a few, fire-resistant grasses, and therefore almost certainly constitute sub-optimal habitats for pygmy hogs. The species is not found in areas subject to prolonged inundations during the monsoon. The generally high soil fertility of these alluvial areas also makes them highly suitable for human settlement and agricultural development; thereby contributing to the rapid decline of these habitats and these animals throughout their known or presumed former range. Source : https://sites.google.com This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of 50, 000+ hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, XDCAM and 4K. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Please subscribe to our channel wildfilmsindia on Youtube for a steady stream of videos from across India. Also, visit and enjoy your journey across India at www.clipahoy.com , India's first video-based social networking experience! Reach us at rupindang@gmail.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com