CHINA NOW BEGINNING TO GROW PIGS AS LARGE AS A POLAR BEAR

A pig as large as a polar bear?  Must be an exaggeration.

Pork is a staple in China.  The country has a pig problem.  Swine fever has halved the hog herd.  Vietnam also has this problem.  As a result, pork prices have surged by more than 70%.  Importation is not the answer, for the world supply is limited.  The country already grows half the global total.  

Their solution, grow larger pigs.  They once averaged 240 pounds, but are now up to 310 pounds.  That pig to the right is more than a thousand pounds.  It is currently raised only in Nanning.  

How does this compare with hogs around the world?  Well, there is Esther the Wonder Pig now living in Ontario, Canada.  She is house trained and enjoys cake.  But she is only 650 pounds, yet still growing.  She is not for human consumption and has a fan club.

Here is Hogzilla (right), a wild pig in Georgia reported to be 1000 pounds and 12 feet long.  A further check indicated 800 pounds and less than 8 feet long.  That's the nature of really large swines.  Exaggeration.

There have been similar hoaxes, and you wonder about Big Bill (below), a Poland China breed of hog from Tennessee that supposedly weighed 2,552 pounds in 1933.   According to that link, Guinness verified  the story.  But the Guinness Book of Records only began in 1955, so something seems fishy here.  Especially so when you compare these photos and the fact that Guinness does not seem to show this category.

What about polar bears?  The largest on record is a 2209 pound giant shot in northwestern Alaska in 1960:

Polar bears:

• have the strongest bite force of all carnivore land mammals
• can swim in freezing cold waters a hundred miles
• do not hibernate
• eat almost anything, from seals to kelp
• cubs are born blind at around 2 pounds, and stay with mother for two years
• paws measure almost a foot across, with claws up to 2 inches long
• rest 20 hours/day
• mostly live in Canada (60% of 26,000 left)

Why are polar bears white?  Actually, the skin is black and their fur is transparent.  However, it looks white to the eye, evolution to camouflage their presence.

Hell pigs like Dinohyus hollandi lived in prehistoric times and grew to 2000 pounds.  However, they were more closely related to hippos and whales.

Thus, the headlines you read about China beginning to produce pigs the size of polar bears is actually true, for adult polar bears tend to weigh from 775 to 1200 pounds.  They look larger because the fur is fluffy.

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