xix
Introduction
Erik Meijaard and Mario Melletti
Pigs tend to have an image problem. The word ‘pig’ often con-
jures up images of ‘Babe’, the popular porcine film star, perhaps
unsurprisingly with an estimated global domestic pig popula-
tion of about one billion. That is about one pig for every seven
people, not counting wild and feral pigs. 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. However, there is a lot more to wild pigs
and their American relatives, the peccaries, than just this one
species. Honestly, how many wild pig and peccary species can
you name? Give it a try and list every wild species you know, then
Google the question and check how far you got. The answer is no
less than 21 distinct species. And many of these are on unique
evolutionary lines sometimes dating back millions of years, far
older than our own species of modern humans!
These wild, feral and domesticated pigs and peccaries pro-
vide a source of crucial protein for billions of forest-dependent
and other pork-loving people, as well as for many wild carni-
vores, including such conservation icons as tigers, lions, jag-
uars, and wolves. In areas where they remain abundant these
large, omnivorous landscape engineers are ecological keystone
species. Through their feeding, rooting and sometimes preda-
tory behaviour, pigs and peccaries have significant impacts
on the ecological functioning of large and small ecosystems.
Sometimes these impacts are positive, enriching otherwise
more homogeneous environments and allowing other species
to thrive. However, where pigs have been introduced into areas
where native flora and fauna are not adapted to these invad-
ers, they can also have a major negative influence and even
drive other local species to extinction. So in many areas, pigs
and peccaries are very important in the conservation of Earth’s
biodiversity. But here is the catch – some pigs and peccaries are
actually highly threatened with extinction themselves. From the
21 species, 13 are listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List, with
two species considered Critically Endangered (see Table 1).
The conservation crisis facing many pig and peccary species
is not just a sideshow of concern to wildlife conservationists.
Wild pigs and peccaries play important cultural roles. Ask any
Dayak hunter on Borneo, Papuan tribal people, or indigenous
people of Amazonia about the most important species to their
daily lives, and most likely one of the many species of pigs and
peccaries will top their list. Humans have built entire cultures on
the basis of their relationship with these species, some of which
date back to at least 40,000 years ago. The oldest rock paint-
ing in the world is, you guessed it, a wild pig – the babirusa of
Sulawesi. Human–pig relationships range from the occasional
slice of bacon on a British breakfast plate to intricate pig-based
cultures on the Nicobar Islands (Andaman Sea, Indian Ocean),
where people dearly love their pigs and compose songs in their
praise. Another example of pig–human relationships comes
from Cheju Island in Korea, where these animals were highly
valued and respected. Pigs functioned, until the recent past, as
transformers of human waste into fertilizers with the pigsty–
privy an important part of the ecosystem (see Chapter 5 in this
book). Pigs are even rumoured to have driven religious conver-
sion. The King of Makassar, seat of Sulawesi’s mightiest seafarers
in present-day Indonesia, converted to Islam after a visiting holy
man magically rid the surrounding forests of wild pigs. The local
penchant for pork had been a major stumbling block on the path
to Islam, but once there were no more pigs there was no more
resistance. A Catholic priest who had worked with his Christian
communities in Indonesian Borneo for over three decades once
told Erik a similar story. ‘The main reason that people have not
converted to Islam’, he said, ‘was that Christianity allowed them
to eat pork and drink alcohol’, both of which are prohibited to
Muslims. How many other species in the world can put that on
their CVs below the heading of ‘Influence on Human Culture’?
How close we are to pigs has been revealed in recent experi-
ments that aim to grow human organs in domestic pigs through
a process called gene editing. This cross-species experiment
aims to fill the growing gap between supply and demand of
donor organs, potentially saving many human lives, although
at the unfortunate expense of the pigs. Once again, this empha-
sizes the importance of pigs and peccaries to us humans, not
only as a potential life saver and major source of food, but also
as an intelligent, sensitive species that is genetically surprisingly
similar to us. Being the most numerous large mammal species
in the world, we should pay more attention to pigs and peccaries.
What does the evolutionary history of these animals tell us about
their genetic diversity, and how can that knowledge be used in
the food and medical industries? What can we learn from the
recovery of wild pigs in Europe and their invasive nature in areas
where they have been introduced, and how does this help us pro-
tect rare pig species on the edge of extinction? The present book.
12:27: