What is a kune kune pig?

New Zealand's kune kune pig is a friendly, compact animal with short, stumpy legs, a round, sturdy body, a short upturned snout and two tassels hanging from its lower jaw. The breed has been described as a 'Walt Disney cartoon version of a pig', with adult pigs generally not growing larger than 120kg (260 lb) and coming in a wide variety of colours, patterns and hair types.

Although once very rare, the world population of purebreds is increasing all the time, with these unique little pigs living all over the world from Wales to America.

So what is it that makes these pigs so special?

The word 'kune' literally translates from Maori as 'fat and round', which is a very apt name for this breed (as you can see!). This name was originally used by the Maori to distinguish the kune kune pigs from the Captain Cooker breed also present in New Zealand, which are rather more long and lean than the Kune. Captain Cookers are sometimes confused with the kune kune, but there are many differences, the most obvious being that Cookers are generally feral and larger with considerably longer snouts.

Like all pigs, the kune has a large head with no real neck, well muscled shoulders and a mobile snout which can be used for rooting up food or turning over logs, and a powerful, stocky body covered with hair.

The one most distinctive feature of the kune kune is its piri piri or dew laps that hang from the lower jaw. These are a feature found nowhere else in pigs except in Polish black and white pigs. The exact function of these structures is as yet completely unknown.

The kune kune is smaller than commercial breeds of pig; neither sexes grow much higher than 60cm (24"), longer than 80cm (31"), or heavier than 120 kg (260lb). Although the breed shows a lot of genetic diversity, the pig's body is usually quite rotund, stocky and stolid, with short, thick legs and a coat of bristly or soft hair of many possible colours, including pure black, tortoiseshell, ginger, and 'smoky blue'. The snout is short in purebreds and can be upturned to varying degrees, and the ears can be pricked or flopped depending on the particular animal. Almost all kunes display a very good temperament, which is no doubt a result of the breed's long domestication.

Kune kunes develop tusks, the males much more so than the females. They start growing when the pig is about twenty two months old, but will not develop much beyond the upper lip in sows.

The breed was prized by the Maori for their ability to fatten on little more than a subsistence diet of grass, their placidity and disinclination to roam and their good quality meat and fat.

Until recently purebred kune kunes were in grave danger of becoming extinct in New Zealand, and as recently as 1988 there were only about 160 purebreds left worldwide. Luckily in the late seventies two wildlife park owners realised the danger of extinction these pigs were under and bought as brought as many specimens as they could find from around the country to a breeding colony in the South Island with the aim of increasing the size of the dwindling population and distributing the pigs to other breeders around the country. Spreading the breed throughout the country, and later on, the world, helped to keep up numbers and ensure against localised catastrophe decimating the breed.

In 1989 the New Zealand Kune Kune Breeders' Association was founded to preserve this wonderful breed of pig. Although the kune kune is still a registered as a rare breed, there are at least two thousand now worldwide, with hundreds in the UK, US and other countries.

This unusual pig's diet is also notable in that they are grazers rather than foragers, and are able to live happily on a low protein diet of grass alone. In colder climates, however, kune kunes s will often require supplementary feeding over the winter in the form of grain or pellets, but a constant diet of ordinary commercial pig food is not a suitable alternative to fresh grass.

Despite years of intensive research by historians and biologists, no one really knows where the kune kune pig originated. It is widely assumed the breed was originally from China, because of the Polish pigs still found there today which have the characteristic chin tassels of the kune kune, but the matter is still under debate. The next section covers more thoroughly this topic of origin.

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