In the tall grass of Kuribeel, in Assam's Manas National Park, 15 pygmy hogs put their snouts to the ground and vanished into the reeds this week - and a species that the world once wrote off went back to being wild [1].
The pygmy hog is the smallest pig on Earth, about 25 centimetres tall and 6 to 9 kilograms, small enough to sit in cupped hands [1]. It was presumed extinct until a chance rediscovery in 1971, which makes every release less a reintroduction than a resurrection [1]. The July 21 group brings the number of captive-bred pygmy hogs returned to these grasslands to 194 - the slow, patient arithmetic of a population being rebuilt one small handful at a time [1].
That work is run by the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme, led by the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, which breeds the animals and picks the grassland that can hold them [1]. The goal is not a number on a chart but a self-sustaining wild population - hogs that raise more hogs without anyone's help [1].
A species back from presumed extinction, 15 at a time, until the grass is full again: it is one of the quieter kinds of good news, and one of the most complete [1].
