Pig Beach

Pig Beach (also known as Pig Island, Major Cay, and officially Big Major Cay) is an uninhabited island located in Exuma, the Bahamas. Its unofficial name comes from the fact that it is populated by a colony of feral pigs that live on the island and in the surrounding forest. The unique feature of this island is that the pigs frequently go swimming on the beach, which allows tourists the unusual ability to interact and swim with the pigs. There is no way to reach Pig Beach except by boat, but there are a number of tours that go there every day, even from locations as far as Nassau (which requires a two-hour boat ride, each way). Nobody is sure of the exact origin of the pigs, except for the fact that they were brought to the island

Although tourists go to great lengths to visit the swimming pigs, they don’t know a whole lot about these unique creatures or their habitat. If they understood the dangers that incorrect feeding or treatment could create, many of these visitors might completely change alter their behavior. One example is the fact that it is safer to “float” their food donations rather than to place them on the beach, since it is harmful for the pigs to ingest sand. Since all tourists must access the pigs via a boat with a tour guide, the responsibility for this education should fall on these tour companies. Since their business is completely reliant on the pigs being there, they should be very amenable to spending a few minutes educating visitors before letting them off the boat. Additional educational materials could be inside of the brochures that these tour companies give out to prospective

In the case of the ingestion of too much sand, this type of issue could be resolved, if necessary, by surgery. And the other dietary dangers that the pigs experience could be dealt with using the same methods used on dogs and other animals that eat things that are not in alignment with their normal nutrition. A preventive care program could be established for the swimming pigs, including regular check-ups and vaccinations. Since there are only 15 of these pigs remaining now, this would be an easily manageable number of animals to monitor and care for. In addition, there may be opportunities for a veterinarian to monitor the breeding and care for newborn pigs so that the population does not decline any further. This veterinarian could be paid by the government and reimbursed by fees from the tour companies or the visitor center, if one is built. It should be noted that the freshwater supply for the pigs was greatly improved by the donation already of a 2,000 gallon tank of freshwater. However, there still is no program in place to keep the water filled. This is an example of the need to have an organized program of care for the swimming