Global News - May 2008
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Rare pygmy hogs released into the wild in India
Mon 19 May 2008 17:00 UK — Asia,Other
Officials from India have revealed that they have successfully released a number of the world's smallest pigs back into the wild.
The BBC reported that Assam Forest officials released 16 pygmy hog into the wild, after a 12-year conservation project.
Standing only 25 centimetres high and weighing just nine kilograms, the pygmy hogs were once thought to be extinct.
However, it was discovered that a few hundred survive in India's Assam state.
Assam's chief wildlife warden, MC Malakar, explained to the BBC: "This is a great day in the history of animal conservation throughout the world and we are proud of the achievement."
The pygmy hogs are threatened by population growth in the area. The IUCN's William Oliver explained to the broadcaster that "a great loss of habitat" had occurred in recent years.
"Ceaseless population expansion has diminished those habitats to a few isolated fragments and those isolated fragments are susceptible to other forms of disturbance like annual dry season burning and livestock grazing," he concluded.
The IUCN currently lists pygmy hogs as critically endangered.
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