Once upon a time humans settled on the Pantanal, and they brought pigs. One day some escaped and found lovers in the wild! The result is what you see here.
They are a hybrid of domestic and wild pig (peccaries), and is one of very few species allowed to hunt in Pantanal.
This sow was clad in watery mud, a familiar trait that ensures protection from the sun, but more importantly the water evaporation provides cooling just as it does for humans through sweat.
In habitats like that of Pantanal with plenty of lakes, ponds and rivers there is no problem finding this protection. But when humans brought pigs to dry land like deserts, the only means of protection found was sewage-infested mud from latrines and its own urine and faeces, and thus the desert residents soon forgot where their beloved pigs came from and labeled the pig filthy and untouchable.
One side-effect of the muslim misconception and no to pork is that the pork industry is considerably smaller without this market, with an equally lesser impact on land required to farm pork.
Last updated on 19 January 2014
