Comments on: Save The Porcula

By: sschaper

sschaper — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:58:02 +0000

Tengu,
Hogs have a rather unpleasant aroma. They -are- mighty cute, but you would not want one as a house pet, unless they don’t smell anything like the breeds of hogs raised in the US.

I was thinking that if they tasted good, and gained well, that they could be domesticated, and that would save the species.

(talk about *baby* back ribs!)

Taming animals is what humans do.

By: DWA

DWA — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:15:47 +0000

“Good-looking, sexy animals get all the media attention, and the unique may be ignored due to human favoritism generally going to the attractive animals. Who cries for the plight of the poor pigs?”

Based on the pix herein supplied, find me ten animals in the world cuter than the pygmy hog. (It’s even got a cute name.)

We are talking major AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! factor.

This isn’t a case of a non-cute animal. This is a case - however it happened; can’t you see one with a pwetty widdle wibbon ‘wound it’s widdle neck? - of an animal about which virtually nothing was known to the public at large.

That’s never cute. And it’s a shame.

By: youcantryreachingme

youcantryreachingme — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:14:07 +0000

Yep - my first reaction too: sell them to the pet market. Conserving them should be a no-brainer. Realistically though, on the ground, getting that level of authority is probably very difficult. I wish the program every success and encourage them to occupy multiple sites so that the captive populations aren’t wiped out by a freak incident like fire, storm or disease.

Australia’s equivalent is probably the Gilbert’s potoroo - missing for 115 years before being rediscovered. It is currently the world’s most endangered mammal with somewhere between 30 to 50 in the wild. These, I believe are located within feral-proof fencing but again they need to create at least two geographically separate populations to guard against threats such as fox introduction or fire.

By: Tengu

Tengu — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:33:21 +0000

They are very cuddly, tasty and tamable.

Why dont we all have one? This is a spiecies that would do very well domesticated. I have been saying this for years.

But no ones heard of them.

(also host to the equally rare Pigmy hog louse…)

By: red_pill_junkie

red_pill_junkie — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:11:08 +0000

Meh… I was expecting to see the picture of a pig wearing plastic vampire fangs or something

By: MattBille

MattBille — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:12:48 +0000

As I look back at the account of this species I wrote in 1995 for Rumors of Existence, being tasty was a significant part of the species’ problem. Even when it was rediscovered after being driven out of hiding by a grass fire, some went to conservation offices and others to local kitchens.

By: sschaper

sschaper — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:05:05 +0000

Are they good eating? How well do they gain?

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:27:29 +0000

I don’t care what anyone says, they’re cute. I’ll take a few. I do hope we can save them.