Kunekune

The breed is believed to descend from an Asian domestic pig introduced to New Zealand in the early 1800s. Maori communities adopted it, and the name means fat and round in the Maori language. Michael Willis and John Simister ran the recovery breeding program after the near-extinction, two pigs reached the United States from the UK in 1993, and by 2010 the breed no longer faced extinction.

They are small, round and hairy, standing about 24 inches and weighing 130 to 440 pounds, and the coat can be long or short, straight or curly, in colors from black and white through ginger, cream, gold-tip, black, brown and tricoloured. Most carry piri piri, a pair of fleshy tassels hanging under the chin, which no other breed has. The snout is medium to short and slightly upturned; the ears are semi-lopped or pricked.

Docile and friendly, and unusually clever with people: a 2017 report documented remarkable social learning and a very good memory.

What makes them unusual is that they are true grazers. A Kunekune will maintain itself on pasture alone, with an upturned snout that does far less rooting damage than other pigs, which is why they are kept in orchards and on smallholdings where a rooting pig would be destructive.

Pasture, first and last. The breed feeds itself on grass, and the whole point of the snout is that it can do so without wrecking the ground.

Ask for registration from the American KuneKune Pig Society, which verifies parentage by DNA. The trade is growth and fat: they grow slowly and finish very fat, so as a meat animal they are inefficient, and most are kept as pasture pigs and pets rather than for pork.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.