Not quite like Porky, this is what the pigs on the island nation of Vanuatu look like.
The above title may seem like just another goofy slogan used by the University of Idaho several years, but once you hear this story, you’ll have to agree with just how true of a statement it is.
Take, for example, the research of James K. “Mac” McIntyre (’76 BS Zoology, minor Chemistry and ‘80 Teacher Certification, Secondary Sciences). I’ll bet that during his years in Moscow, he never dreamed he eventually would be conducting research on intersexual pigs in the tiny island nation of Vanuatu.
The country is a string of islands that total the land mass of Massachusetts located about 1,000 miles east of northern Australia, and it just so happens to be the home of a huge genetic improbability - the presence of an abnormally large number of intersexual pigs.
McIntyre read reports from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s about the unusual percentage of these animals that present both male and female characteristics but cannot reproduce, and decided to check it out for himself. It turns out that these pigs do exist and are unusually abundant.
But why?
Apparently local customs placed great value on a pig’s tusk that grew into a double loop; a characteristic that occurred only in these intersexual pigs. Even though the pigs could not reproduce and pass on their genetic deformation to make more intersexual pigs, their numbers continued to grow. This is because the sows that gave birth to the intersexual pigs (apparently at a 20% rate) were highly prized and bred to create more sows capable of producing the unusual trait.
Generations of this human-made genetic selection created an unusually large number of intersexual pigs. However, today there are far fewer of these statistical anomalies than a century ago. This is because missionaries and traders have decimated the population of Vanuatu through disease while simultaneously discouraging the practicing of ancestral traditions, including the breeding of the intersexual pigs.
Special thanks goes out to Mac McIntyre for emailing me to share his research. If you’re interested in the study, you can read all about it on his web page.
I’d like to encourage other alumni of the University of Idaho to send me news and information about your own research projects. I’d love to learn and share what Vandals are doing out in the world of science!