It’s Kinda Sus…
Literally, it is a kind of Sus — it means pig, swine or hog in latin that is used in zoology and taxonomy. Sus is the genus of 9 species of pigs including wild boar, domestic pig, and this extraordinary one I was lucky enough to encounter.
The World’s Rarest Pig
Can a pig be rare? I’m not talking about breeds like Iberian black pigs. I’m talking about a species.
The Visayan warty pig (Sus cebifrons) is a critically endangered species endemic to 6 islands of Visayas, Philippines. But now it is believed to be extinct in 4 of the islands (Cebu, Masbate, Guimaras and Siquijor) with only small surviving populations in Negros and Panay. There are now as few as a total of 200 of these pigs left in the world.
Three Little Pig, Three Different Destinies
There are domestic pigs (Sus domesticus) dying every minute but genocide is unlikely. Wild boars (Sus scrofa) are hunted in many places but still thriving to the point to have become a pest.
Meanwhile, their cousin is hiding in a small island or two near Cebu sitting on the brink of extinction. Actually one of the two subspecies and its nominotypical subspecies, Sus cebifrons cebifrons, is believed to be already extinct.
No species of any pigs have gone extinct in human history. I think the Visayan warty pig is likely going to be the first one, and this prediction is NOT SUS.
