Pygmy hog

The pygmy hog (Porcula salvania) is a critically endangered suid, previously spread across India, Nepal, and Bhutan, but now only found in Assam. The current world population is about 150 individuals or fewer. Recent conservation measures have improved the prospects of survival in the wild of this critically endangered species.

Description and biology

They are about 55 to 71 cm (21.7-28.0 in) long and stand at 20–30 cm (7.9-11.8 in), with a tail of 2.5 cm (1 in). They weigh 6.6-11.8 kg (14.5-26.0 lbs). Their skin is dark brownish-black and the hair is dark. Piglets are born grayish-pink, becoming brown with yellow stripes along the body length. Their heads are sharply tapered and they have a slight crest of hair on their foreheads and on the back of their necks. Adult males have the upper canines visible on the sides of their mouths. They live for about eight years, becoming sexually mature at one to two years old. They breed seasonally before the monsoons giving birth to a litter of three to six after a gestation of 100 days. In the wild, they make small nests by digging a small trench and lining it with vegetation. During the heat of the day, they stay within these nests. They feed on roots, tubers, insects, rodents, and small reptiles.

Hog

Hog may refer to:

Animals

Other uses

See also

Domestic pig

The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus or Sus domesticus), often called swine, hog, or pig when there is no need to distinguish it from other pigs, is a large, even-toed ungulate. It is variously considered a subspecies of the wild boar or a distinct species. Its head-plus-body-length ranges from 0.9 to 1.8 m (35 to 71 in), and the adult can weigh between 50 to 350 kg (110 to 770 lb). Compared to other artiodactyls, its head is relatively long, pointed, and free of warts. Even-toed ungulates are generally herbivorous, but the domestic pig is an omnivore, like its wild relative.

Domestic pigs are farmed primarily for the consumption of their meat, called pork. The animal's bones, hide, and bristles are also used in commercial products. Domestic pigs, especially the pot-bellied pig, are sometimes kept as pets.

Description

The domestic pig typically has a large head, with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone and a disk of cartilage at the tip. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food, and is a very acute sense organ. The dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.33.1.4.3, giving a total of 44 teeth. The rear teeth are adapted for crushing. In the male the canine teeth can form tusks, which grow continuously and are sharpened by constantly being ground against each other.

Dicks (band)

Dicks are an American punk rock band from Austin, Texas, originally formed in 1980. They initially disbanded in 1986 before reforming in 2004. Dicks are considered influential in introducing the sound of hardcore punk and incorporating blues rock influences into their sound.

The band went through two distinct incarnations in the early 1980s, changing its lineup when singer Gary Floyd moved from Austin to San Francisco in 1983. A version of its original lineup was revived when the band reunited in 2004. As a political band with socialist lyrics during the Reagan era, they did not shy from controversy. Floyd was one of a handful of openly gay musicians in the 1980s punk scene.

Early history

Dicks were formed in Austin in 1980 by Gary Floyd, Buxf Parrott, Pat Deason and Glen Taylor. Their first single "Dicks Hate The Police", released in 1980, brought them much attention and is now regarded as a classic hardcore punk record. In the song Gary Floyd sings from the perspective of a policeman who abuses his power by going after minorities and taking his anger out on civilians.

Pygmy peoples

A pygmy is a member of an ethnic group whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as a member of any group where adult men are on average less than 150 cm (4 feet 11 inches) tall. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid".

The term is most associated with peoples of Central Africa, such as the Aka, Efé and Mbuti. If the term pygmy is defined as a group's men having an average height below 1.55 meters (5 feet 1 inch), then there are also pygmies in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Andaman Islands,Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Bolivia, and Brazil, including some Negritos of Southeast Asia.

Etymology

The term pygmy, as used to refer to diminutive people, derives from Greek πυγμαῖος pygmaios via Latin Pygmaei (sing. Pygmaeus), derived from πυγμή – meaning a fist, or a measure of length corresponding to the distance between the elbow and knuckles. (See also Greek pechus.) In Greek mythology the word describes a tribe of dwarfs, first described by Homer, the ancient Greek poet, and reputed to live in India and south of modern-day Ethiopia.

Pygmy (Greek mythology)

The Pygmies (Greek: Πυγμαῖοι Pygmaioi, from the adjective πυγμαῖος from πυγμή pygmē, "the length of the forearm") were a tribe of diminutive humans in Greek mythology. According to the Iliad, they were involved in a constant war with the cranes, which migrated in winter to their homeland on the southern shores of the earth-encircling river Oceanus. One story describes the origin of the age-old battle, speaking of a Pygmy Queen named Gerana who offended the goddess Hera with her boasts of superior beauty, and was transformed into a crane.

In art the scene was popular with little Pygmies armed with spears and slings, riding on the backs of goats, battling the flying cranes. The 2nd-century BC tomb near Panticapaeum, Crimea "shows the battle of human pygmies with a flock of herons".

The Pygmies were often portrayed as pudgy, comical dwarfs.

In another legend, the Pygmies once encountered Heracles, and climbing all over the sleeping hero attempted to bind him down, but when he stood up they fell off. The story was adapted by Jonathan Swift as a template for Lilliputians.

Pygmy (novel)

Pygmy is an epistolary novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It was released on May 5, 2009.

Plot

The plot revolves around a 13-year-old boy named Agent Number 67 from an unnamed, totalitarian state described as a "mash-up of North Korea, Cuba, Communist-era China, and Nazi-era Germany", as an exchange student to live with an American family from an unnamed Midwestern location as a sleeper agent to execute a terrorist attack on the United States codenamed "Operation Havoc". Nicknamed "Pygmy" by his American family for his diminutive size, he is introduced into the rituals of modern American life such as enrolling in public school and going to church.

He sodomizes a bully, who had been victimizing his host brother, in the bathroom of a Wal-Mart. The scene is described in graphic detail. This is only the first of many acts committed by the operative in order to adjust to American life while preparing with his fellow operatives, who are also masquerading as exchange students, to execute "Operation Havoc".