Apple Valley, MINN – Best known for their “punk rock” hairdos and faces only a mother could love, four critically-endangered Visayan warty pigs are formally making their public debut at the Minnesota Zoo today–Wednesday, April 11–beginning at 9:00 a.m.

As of December, 2006, there were just 24 Visayan warty pigs in the United States. The four male pigs at the Minnesota Zoo, born in San Diego, are between 11-15 months old and weigh approximately 20-40 pounds. Unlike other wild pig species, male warty pigs sport a flamboyant mane that may grow to be over a foot long, sometimes standing straight up when the animals are excited. They also have three pairs of bumps or “warts” on their faces which may help protect them against the tusks of other males in battle, hence the name “warty pig.”

Photos by Chet Ellingson

Unfortunately, Visayan warty pigs are the most critically-endangered of the world's wild pig species. Originally found on several of the Visayan Islands in the Philippines, they have disappeared from 98% of their former habitat and now survive in only the most remote forest fragments of Negros and Panay. The Minnesota Zoo’s pigs are descendants of animals that originated from a remarkable captive breeding center on the island of Panay. Infamous as crop raiders on the farms that have replaced their former rain forests, these pigs suffer from over-hunting, hybridizing with free-ranging domestic pigs, and continued loss of habitat. With the situation in the wild heading rapidly towards extinction, three captive breeding centers on the two islands were established in the mid 1990s.