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Tracking pygmy hogs in India
Following the release of the 100th pygmy hog into the wild in May 2016 (Find out more), the field team have been busy tracking the hogs using radio telemetry ear tags, and we are still following one of the hogs today - six months after release!
Pygmy hogs are shy and secretive animals that rarely emerge from their tall grassland home in India, which they share with rhinoceros, elephants and tigers. Because of this, finding equipment and techniques that allow us to effectively monitor the hogs has been a huge and ongoing challenge and we are very excited to have found a technique that seems to work. Developed with our partners Biocensus (http://biocensus.co.uk) and Biotrack Ltd. (http://www.biotrack.co.uk), these tags are allowing us to gather vital information and represent a big step forward in the conservation of this Critically Endangered species. This work would not have been possible without the kind support of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) (https://ptes.org/), who supported the development of the tags.
In 2017, we plan to release more pygmy hogs into the wild and we will be working closely with our partners to improve the radio-tracking tags and monitoring techniques. This will allow us to learn more about how the hogs use their environment and improve our ability to help the species recover in the wild. We will continue to provide updates from India throughout the year.
The Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme is a collaborative project of Durrell, IUCN/SSC Wild Pig Specialist Group, and the Governments of Assam and India. It is implemented in Assam by the Rare & Endangered Species Conservation Unit (RESCU) of EcoSystems-India, and is generously supported by The Clarkson Family Trust and the Disney Conservation Fund. More information about the pygmy hog is available here.
Pygmy hogs are shy and secretive animals that rarely emerge from their tall grassland home in India, which they share with rhinoceros, elephants and tigers. Because of this, finding equipment and techniques that allow us to effectively monitor the hogs has been a huge and ongoing challenge and we are very excited to have found a technique that seems to work. Developed with our partners Biocensus (http://biocensus.co.uk) and Biotrack Ltd. (http://www.biotrack.co.uk), these tags are allowing us to gather vital information and represent a big step forward in the conservation of this Critically Endangered species. This work would not have been possible without the kind support of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) (https://ptes.org/), who supported the development of the tags.
In 2017, we plan to release more pygmy hogs into the wild and we will be working closely with our partners to improve the radio-tracking tags and monitoring techniques. This will allow us to learn more about how the hogs use their environment and improve our ability to help the species recover in the wild. We will continue to provide updates from India throughout the year.
The Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme is a collaborative project of Durrell, IUCN/SSC Wild Pig Specialist Group, and the Governments of Assam and India. It is implemented in Assam by the Rare & Endangered Species Conservation Unit (RESCU) of EcoSystems-India, and is generously supported by The Clarkson Family Trust and the Disney Conservation Fund. More information about the pygmy hog is available here.