The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig ("Cavia porcellus"), also known as cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus "Cavia". Despite their common name, guinea pigs are not native to Guinea, nor are they closely biologically related to pigs, and the origin of the name is still unclear. They originated in the Andes of South America. Studies based on biochemistry and hybridization suggest they are domesticated descendants of a closely related species of cavy, such as "C. tschudii", and do not exist naturally in the wild. They were originally domesticated as livestock, for a source of meat, and continue to be consumed as food.
Introduction
Guinea pig
Guinea pig | Introduction
They originated in the Andes of South America Andes of South America They are not found naturally in the wild Various regions of South America
where do guinea pigs come from in the wild
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"C. porcellus" is not found naturally in the wild; it is likely descended from closely related species of cavies, such as "C. aperea", "C. fulgida", and "C. tschudii", which are still commonly found in various regions of South America. Studies from 2007–2010 applied molecular markers and studied the skull and skeletal morphology of current and mummified animals, thereby revealing the ancestor to most likely be "Cavia tschudii". Some species of cavy identified in the 20th century, such as "C. anolaimae" and "C. guianae", may be domestic guinea pigs that have become feral by reintroduction into the wild. Wild cavies are found on grassy plains and occupy an ecological niche similar to that of cattle.
Guinea pig | Natural habitat
The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig ("Cavia porcellus"), also known as cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus "Cavia". Despite their common name, guinea pigs are not native to Guinea, nor are they closely biologically related to pigs, and the origin of the name is still unclear. They originated in the Andes of South America. Studies based on biochemistry and hybridization suggest they are domesticated descendants of a closely related species of cavy, such as "C. tschudii", and do not exist naturally in the wild. They were originally domesticated as livestock, for a source of meat, and continue to be consumed as food.
Guinea pig | Introduction
With the exception of domestic pigs in Timor and Papua New Guinea (which appear to be of Sulawesi warty pig stock), the wild boar is the ancestor of most pig breeds. Archaeological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated from wild boar as early as 13,000–12,700 BCE in the Near East in the Tigris Basin, being managed in the wild in a way similar to the way they are managed by some modern New Guineans. Remains of pigs have been dated to earlier than 11,400 BCE in Cyprus. Those animals must have been introduced from the mainland, which suggests domestication in the adjacent mainland by then.
Wild boar | Domestication
They are social, living in the wild in small groups that consist of several females (sows), a male (boar), and the young (which, in a break with the preceding porcine nomenclature, are called "pups" not "piglets"). They move together in groups (herds) eating grass or other vegetation, and do not store food. While they do not burrow themselves or build nests, they frequently seek shelter in the burrows of other animals, as well as in crevices and tunnels formed by vegetation. They tend to be most active during dawn and dusk (crepuscular), when it is harder for predators to spot them.
Guinea pig | Natural habitat
The montane guinea pig is native to the high Andes in South America. Its range extends from Peru southward to the Tarapacá Region of Chile and the Tucumán Province of Argentina. Its altitudinal range is above sea level. It lives in moist habitats with rocks and coarse vegetation, making runways through the foliage. In Argentina it lives in burrows with several entrances.
Montane guinea pig | Distribution and habitat
This species is native to the coastal strip of land in eastern Uruguay and southeastern Brazil. Its typical habitat is moist grassland, marshes, the edges of woodland and small valleys.
Greater guinea pig | Distribution and habitat
The guinea pig was first domesticated as early as 5000 BC for food by tribes in the Andean region of South America (the present-day southern part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia), some thousands of years after the domestication of the South American camelids. Statues dating from "circa" 500 BC to 500 AD that depict guinea pigs have been unearthed in archaeological digs in Peru and Ecuador. The Moche people of ancient Peru worshipped animals and often depicted the guinea pig in their art. From about 1200 AD to the Spanish conquest in 1532, the indigenous peoples used selective breeding to develop many varieties of domestic guinea pigs, which formed the basis for some of the modern domestic breeds.
Guinea pig | History
MtDNA studies indicate that the wild boar originated from islands in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and subsequently spread onto mainland Eurasia and North Africa. The earliest fossil finds of the species come from both Europe and Asia, and date back to the Early Pleistocene. By the late Villafranchian, "S. scrofa" largely displaced the related "S. strozzii", a large, possibly swamp-adapted suid ancestral to the modern "S. verrucosus" throughout the Eurasian mainland, restricting it to insular Asia. Its closest wild relative is the bearded pig of Malacca and surrounding islands.
Wild boar | Taxonomy and evolution
There is also a type of Guinea hog in South America.
Guinea hog | Introduction
Archaeological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated from wild boar in the Near East in the Tigris Basin, Çayönü, Cafer Höyük, Nevalı Çori being managed in the wild in a way similar to the way they are managed by some modern New Guineans. Remains of pigs have been dated to earlier than 11,400 years ago in Cyprus. Those animals must have been introduced from the mainland, which suggests domestication in the adjacent mainland by then. There was also a separate domestication in China which took place about 8,000 years ago. DNA evidence from subfossil remains of teeth and jawbones of Neolithic pigs shows that the first domestic pigs in Europe had been brought from the Near East.
Domestic pig | History
Humans have introduced pigs into Australia, North and South America, and numerous islands, either accidentally as escaped domestic pigs which have gone feral, or as wild boar.
Pig | Distribution and evolution
Cavia guianae is a guinea pig species from South America. It is found in southern Venezuela, Guyana, and portions of northern Brazil. Some biologists believe it to be a feral offshoot of the domestic guinea pig, "Cavia porcellus"; others subsume it under the wild cavy, "Cavia aperea".
Cavia guianae | Introduction
The name derives from the belief that the origins of the Guinea hog were from African Guinea, but its now thought that Guinea just implied small, like Guinea Cattle. Guinea Hogs and Guinea Cattle are both smaller breeds of domestic livestock. The true African Guinea hogs are a large, red breed with upright ears, bristly hair and long tails, suggesting genetic influence of the Nigerian black or Ashanti pig. They were brought to America on slave ships. Around 1804, Thomas Jefferson acquired some of these pigs, which had arrived from Africa via the Canary Isles. The original strain, although basically black, also had a hint of red and were consequently called "red Guineas"; that strain, well known at the beginning of the 19th century, is extinct.
Guinea hog | History
Many efforts have also been made to promote guinea pig husbandry in developing countries of West Africa, where they occur more widely than generally known because they are usually not covered by livestock statistics. However, it has not been known when and where the animals have been introduced to Africa. In Cameroon, they are widely distributed. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they can be found both in peri-urban environments as well as in rural regions, for example, in South Kivu. They are also frequently held in rural households in Iringa Region of southwestern Tanzania.
Guinea pig | Sub-Saharan Africa
The Guinea hog, officially named American Guinea Hog, also called the pineywoods Guinea, Guinea forest hog, acorn eater, and yard pig, is a breed of domestic pig originating in the United States. Despite its name, the breed is not from the country of Guinea, though the foundation stock was thought to be derived from West Africa. Newer DNA studies point to European origin. It's believed the American Guinea Hog is related to the Improved Essex, a now extinct breed. The Guinea hog is a rare breed with a black coat, sturdy body, curly tail and upright ears. There are two types of Guinea hog in North America, small-boned and large-boned Guinea hogs, the latter having longer legs.
Guinea hog | Introduction
The same process may also apply to other domesticated animals. In 2019, a study showed that the domestic pig had arrived in Europe from the Near East 8,500 years ago. Over the next 3,000 years they then admixed with the European wild boar until their genome showed less than 5% Near Eastern ancestry, yet retained their domesticated features.
Domestic pig | History
The Brazilian guinea pig has a wide distribution in South America at altitudes between above sea level. Its range extends from Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela to northern Argentina. Its typical habitat is open grassland and savannah.
Brazilian guinea pig | Distribution
The Brazilian guinea pig ("Cavia aperea") (preá in Portuguese) is a guinea pig species found in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. "Cavia aperea" has been successfully mated to the domestic guinea pig, "Cavia porcellus", though many females become infertile in successive generations. Brazilian guinea pigs are mainly diurnal animals and are narrower and longer than domesticated guinea pigs.
Brazilian guinea pig | Introduction
The montane guinea pig ("Cavia tschudii") is a species of caviid rodent found in the Andes in South America. The montane guinea pig is the likely ancestor of "Cavia porcellus", the domestic cavy or domestic guinea pig.
Montane guinea pig | Introduction
The scientific name of the common species is "Cavia porcellus", with "" being Latin for "little pig". "Cavia" is New Latin; it is derived from "cabiai", the animal's name in the language of the Galibi tribes once native to French Guiana. "Cabiai" may be an adaptation of the Portuguese "çavia" (now "savia"), which is itself derived from the Tupi word "saujá", meaning rat. Guinea pigs are called "quwi" or "jaca" in Quechua and "cuy" or "cuyo" (plural "cuyes, cuyos") in the Spanish of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Breeders tend to use the more formal "cavy" to describe the animal, while in scientific and laboratory contexts, it is far more commonly referred to by the more colloquial "guinea pig".
Guinea pig | Name
While modern guineafowl species are endemic to Africa, the helmeted guineafowl has been introduced as a domesticated bird widely elsewhere.
Guineafowl | Introduction
The size and distribution of the wild population is not known.
New Guinea singing dog | Introduction
Pigs have been domesticated since ancient times in the Old World. Archaeological evidence suggests that pigs were being managed in the wild in a way similar to the way they are managed by some modern New Guineans from wild boar as early as 13,000–12,700 BP in the Near East in the Tigris Basin, Çayönü, Cafer Höyük, Nevalı Çori. Remains of pigs have been dated to earlier than 11,400 BP in Cyprus that must have been introduced from the mainland which suggests domestication in the adjacent mainland by then. A separate domestication also occurred in China. In India, pigs have been domesticated for a long time mostly in Goa and some rural areas for pig toilets.
Pig | Domestication
The Baudin Pig is a landrace of domestic pig, originating on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. The landrace descended from pigs released on the island in the 1800s. The entirety of the wild stock of the breed was wiped out during the Kangaroo Island bushfires, and the only remaining examples of the breed are kept at a rare breeds farm on the island. The breed is named after Nicolas-Thomas Baudin, one of the possible individuals credited with introducing pigs to Kangaroo Island. Westran Pigs are an inbred form of the breed, crossed with large white, which are used in medical research, particularly for xenotransplantation
Baudin pig | Introduction
This small mammal is unusual in that it produces a small number of precocial offspring with a high survival rate when it might have been expected to produce large litters of altricial young.
Greater guinea pig | Behaviour
A guinea pig is a domestic rodent. Guinea pig may also refer to:
Guinea pig (disambiguation) | Introduction
The shiny guinea pig ("Cavia fulgida") is a guinea pig species of southeastern South America. The rodent is endemic to Brazil and Argentina. It is native to the Atlantic Forest ecoregions.
Shiny guinea pig | Introduction
This species is found from the Eastern Cape province of South Africa through KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Province, to Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, DRC, Angola and Cameroon.
Dixeia pigea | Distribution
The commonly occurring native species are untagged.
List of birds of Guinea | Introduction
The greater guinea pig ("Cavia magna") is a species of rodent found in the coastal strip of Brazil and Uruguay, where it lives in moist grassland and marshes.
Greater guinea pig | Introduction
This is a list of people from Guinea, a country in West Africa.
List of Guineans | Introduction
With around 1 billion individuals alive at any time, the domestic pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet. The ancestor of the domestic pig is the wild boar, which is one of the most numerous and widespread large mammals. Its many subspecies are native to all but the harshest climates of continental Eurasia and its islands and Africa as well, from Ireland and India to Japan and north to Siberia. Long isolated from other pigs on the many islands of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, pigs have evolved into many different species, including wild boar, bearded pigs, and warty pigs.
Pig | Distribution and evolution
The genetic evidence is that dingoes arrived in Australia 8,300 YBP and brought by an unknown human population.
New Guinea singing dog | Lineage
An alternative theory posits that another bird, a guinea fowl native to Madagascar introduced to England by Turkish merchants, was the original source, and that the term was then transferred to the New World bird by English colonizers with knowledge of the previous species.
Wild turkey | Introduction
The small mammal is endemic to the small coastal island of Moleques do Sul Archipelago, located in the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. The archipelago formed about 8,000 years ago, having a total of three islands with a surface area of only . "Cavia intermedia" is phylogenetically comparable, and said to be a common ancestor of the species "Cavia magna", who also inhabited the island. The guinea pig's geographical distribution of only is one of the world's smallest for a mammal. The region is a part of Serra do Tabuleiro State Park where restrictions and protection of the species are not enforced.
Santa Catarina's guinea pig | Distribution
Peruvian wild guinea pigs were first described by E. T. Bennett in 1835, who termed them "Cavia cutleri". Johann Jakob von Tschudi, in an 1845 publication, used the term "Cavia cutleri" to refer to what are now considered two separate entities - the first, Bennett's "Cavia cutleri", which was later (by Oldfield Thomas in 1917) identified as probably a differently pigmented version of "Cavia porcellus", and the second, a wild Peruvian guinea pig that was clearly different from the animal Bennett described. In 1867, Leopold Fitzinger renamed the latter guinea pig "Cavia tschudii".
Montane guinea pig | Taxonomy
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans arrived on New Guinea perhaps 60,000 years ago, although this is under debate. They came probably by sea from Southeast Asia during an Ice Age period when the sea was lower and distances between islands shorter. Although the first arrivals were hunters and gatherers, early evidence shows that people managed the forest environment to provide food. There also are indications of neolithic gardening having been practiced at Kuk at the same time that agriculture was developing in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Today's staples – sweet potatoes and pigs – were later arrivals, but shellfish and fish have long been mainstays of coastal dwellers' diets.
History of Papua New Guinea | Archaeology
"C. insculpta" is native to freshwater streams, lagoons and rivers of the Northern Territory of Australia, as well as to the island of New Guinea, where it is believed to occur in all the larger, and some smaller, southward-flowing rivers.
Pig-nosed turtle | Geographic range and <a href="habitat">habitat</a>
*Wild pig
List of introduced species | Mammals
Domestic guineafowl, sometimes called pintades, pearl hen, or gleanies, are poultry originating from Africa. They are the domesticated form of the helmeted guineafowl ("Numida meleagris") and are related to other game birds such as the pheasants, turkeys and partridges. Although the timing of their domestication is unknown, there is evidence that domestic guineafowl were present in Greece by the 5th century BC. They lay 25–30 eggs in a deep, tapering nest. Their eggs are small, dark and extremely thick-shelled. The hens have a habit of hiding their nests, and sharing it with other hens until large numbers of eggs have accumulated.
Domestic guineafowl | Introduction
This derives from the Middle High German name "merswin". This originally meant "dolphin" and was used because of the animals' grunting sounds (which were thought to be similar).
Guinea pig | Name
It is also used in folk medicine and in community religious ceremonies. The animals are used for meat and are a culinary staple in the Andes Mountains, where they are known as "cuy". In the 1960s a modern breeding program was started in Peru that resulted in large breeds known as "cuy mejorados" ("improved cuy"). Marketers tried to increase consumption of the animal outside South America. Biological experimentation on domestic guinea pigs has been carried out since the 17th century. The animals were used so frequently as model organisms in the 19th and 20th centuries that the epithet "guinea pig" came into use to describe a human test subject.
Guinea pig | Introduction
The Guinea Pig is a 1948 British film directed and produced by the Boulting brothers, known as The Outsider in the United States. The film is adapted from the 1946 play of the same name by Warren Chetham-Strode.
The Guinea Pig (film) | Introduction
The photo was published in his book "Mammals of New Guinea". In 2012, Australian wilderness adventure guide Tom Hewett took a photo of a tawny, thick-coated dog in the Puncak Mandala region of West Papua, Indonesia. In 2016, a literature review found that there is no definitive evidence that the founding members of captive populations of New Guinea singing dogs were wild-living animals; they were raised as members of village populations of domestic dogs. However, in 2020 a nuclear genome study indicates that the highland wild dogs from the base of Puncak Jaya were the population from which captive New Guinea singing dogs were derived.
New Guinea singing dog | Introduction
Texel guinea pigs were originally bred in Britain. They are characterized by their long, curly coat and fur that is coarser, not so curly, and shorter around their faces.
List of guinea pig breeds | Texel
The modern breed of skinny pig originated from a cross between haired guinea pigs and a hairless lab strain. The hairless strain that it is most likely related to was a spontaneous genetic mutation that was first identified at Montreal's Armand Frappier Institute in 1978, in a colony of Hartley lab guinea pigs. In 1982 they were sent to Charles River Laboratories to be bred for laboratory use and are commonly used in dermatology studies today. They are an outbred strain that has an intact thymus and standard immune system.
Skinny pig | Introduction
Guinea pigs (called "cuy", "cuye", or "curí") were originally domesticated for their meat in the Andes. Traditionally, the animal was reserved for ceremonial meals and as a delicacy by indigenous people in the Andean highlands, but since the 1960s, it has become more socially acceptable for consumption by all people. It continues to be a major part of the diet in Peru and Bolivia, particularly in the Andes Mountains highlands; it is also eaten in some areas of Ecuador (mainly in the Sierra) and in Colombia, exclusively in highland locations in the department of Nariño near the border with Ecuador.
Guinea pig | South America
Walter's duiker was first recognised as a new species in 2010 when specimens of this duiker were found on sale at a bushmeat market. The duikers have not been observed by researchers in the wild, but are believed to come from the Dahomey Gap, an area of savannah which is a portion of the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic with a relatively dry climate, that extends all the way to the coast in Benin, Togo and Ghana, separating the rainforest zones on either side.
Walter's duiker | Distribution and habitat
The montane guinea pig is a medium-sized species, growing to a total length of . The colour varies in different parts of the range; in Peru, the dorsal fur is dark reddish-brown mixed with black, and the underparts are dark buffy-grey; in Chile, the dorsal surface is pale agouti brown with paler underparts; in Bolivia, the upper parts are agouti olive and the underparts creamy-white or white.
Montane guinea pig | Description
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the even-toed ungulate family Suidae. Pigs include domestic pigs and their ancestor, the common Eurasian wild boar ("Sus scrofa"), along with other species. Pigs, like all suids, are native to the Eurasian and African continents, ranging from Europe to the Pacific islands. Suids other than the pig are the babirusa of Indonesia, the pygmy hog of Asia, the warthog of Africa, and another genus of pigs from Africa. The suids are a sister clade to peccaries. Juvenile pigs are known as piglets. Pigs are highly social and intelligent animals.
Pig | Introduction
How the animals came to be called "pigs" is not clear. They are built somewhat like pigs, with large heads relative to their bodies, stout necks, and rounded rumps with no tail of any consequence; some of the sounds they emit are very similar to those made by pigs, and they spend a large amount of time eating. They can survive for long periods in small quarters, like a 'pig pen', and were easily transported by ship to Europe. The animal's name alludes to pigs in many European languages. The German word for them is "Meerschweinchen", literally "little sea pig", in Polish they are called "świnka morska", in Hungarian as "tengerimalac", and in Russian as "морская свинка".
Guinea pig | Name
The animal may be cut open and its entrails examined to determine whether the cure was effective. These methods are widely accepted in many parts of the Andes, where Western medicine is either unavailable or distrusted.
Guinea pig | History
Andean immigrants in New York City raise and sell guinea pigs for meat, and some South American restaurants in major cities in the United States serve "cuy" as a delicacy. In the 1990s and 2000s, La Molina University began exporting large breed guinea pigs to Europe, Japan, and the United States in the hope of increasing human consumption outside of countries in northern South America.
Guinea pig | Western world
Whether they are native to Gibraltar or were brought by humans is unknown.
Old World monkey | Introduction
This is a medium-sized guinea pig with an adult length of about and a weight of . The tail, at around 2.4 mm, is almost non-existent. The dorsal fur is dark olive-brown mixed with brown and black, and the underparts are a pale grey or yellowish-grey. Its karyotype has 2n = 64 and a reportedly variable FN of 116 or 128 for "C. a. aperea" and 128 for "C. a. pamparum".
Brazilian guinea pig | Description
Safer bedding materials made from hardwoods (such as aspen), paper products, and corn cob materials are other alternatives. Guinea pigs tend to be messy within their cages; they often jump into their food bowls or kick bedding and feces into them, and their urine sometimes crystallizes on cage surfaces, making it difficult to remove. After its cage has been cleaned, a guinea pig typically urinates and drags its lower body across the floor of the cage to mark its territory. Male guinea pigs may also mark their territory in this way when they are taken out of their cages.
Guinea pig | Domestic habitat
Cavia anolaimae is a guinea pig species from South America. It is found in Colombia near Bogotá. It is believed to be a feral offshoot of the domestic guinea pig, "Cavia porcellus", and is often treated as a synonym of "C. porcellus", but Zúñiga et al. (2002), based on morphologic characters, recognized them as different species. According to the molecular analysis of Dunnum and Salazar (2010) "C. anolaimae" is a subspecies of "Cavia aperea", C. aperea anolaimae, and a possible synonymous of "C. a. guianae" .
Cavia anolaimae | Introduction
Wild pigs have been reported in Bohol and Sibuyan, although it is unclear whether these populations are "S. cebifrons" or "S. philippensis".
Philippine warty pig | Distribution and habitat
Researchers found that in Amazonia, where large mammals were scarce, pacas and common agoutis accounted for around 40 percent of the annual game taken by the indigenous people, but in forested areas where larger mammals were abundant, these rodents constituted only about 3 percent of the take. Guinea pigs are used in the cuisine of Cuzco, Peru, in dishes such as "cuy al horno", baked guinea pig. The traditional Andean stove, known as a "qoncha" or a "fogón", is made from mud and clay reinforced with straw and hair from animals such as guinea pigs. In Peru, there are at any time 20 million domestic guinea pigs, which annually produce 64 million edible carcasses.
Rodent | Consumption
This nudibranch was described from Pig Island, Madang Lagoon, Madang, Papua New Guinea, . It is known only from Papua New Guinea.
Hypselodoris paradisa | Distribution
The guinea pig's natural diet is grass; their molars are particularly suited for grinding plant matter and grow continuously throughout their life. Most mammals that graze are large and have a long digestive tract; guinea pigs have much longer colons than most rodents, but they must also supplement their diet by eating their feces (coprophagy) . However, they do not consume all their feces indiscriminately, but produce special soft pellets, called cecotropes (or caecal pellets), which recycle B vitamins, fiber, and bacteria required for proper digestion. The cecotropes are eaten directly from the anus, unless the guinea pig is pregnant or obese.
Guinea pig | Diet
A large rodent, the greater guinea pig grows to a total length of and weight of for males and a total length of and weight of for females. The dorsal fur is dark agouti brown and the underparts are reddish brown. It is semiaquatic and has membranes joining the toes. Its karyotype has 2n = 64 and FN = 128.
Greater guinea pig | Description
Domesticated guinea pigs thrive in groups of two or more; groups of sows, or groups of one or more sows and a neutered boar are common combinations, but boars can sometimes live together. Guinea pigs learn to recognize and bond with other individual pigs, and testing of boars shows their neuroendocrine stress response is significantly lowered in the presence of a bonded female when compared to the presence of unfamiliar females. Groups of boars may also get along, provided their cage has enough space, they are introduced at an early age, and no females are present. Domestic guinea pigs have developed a different biological rhythm from their wild counterparts, and have longer periods of activity followed by short periods of sleep in between.
Guinea pig | Domestic habitat
In 2016, a literature review found that "there is no definitive evidence that...the founding members of captive populations of New Guinea Singing Dogs were wild-living animals or the progeny of wild-living animals rather than being born and raised as members of village populations of domestic dogs."
New Guinea singing dog | Captive status and distribution
The Philippines (Filipino: " Baboy Ramo" or "Baboy Damo") has four endemic species of wild pigs. This makes the Philippines unique in having arguably the largest number of endemic wild pigs (Genus "Sus"). Two separate populations of unstudied wild pig species have been reported on the islands of Tawi-Tawi (near Sabah, Malaysia), and Tablas (in the central Philippines). Hybridization with "domestic pigs" is becoming very common.
Wild pigs of the Philippines | Introduction
"List of mammals of Guinea"
Wildlife of Guinea | Mammals
Subsequent research using wider sampling restored the consensus among mammalian biologists regarding the current classification of rodents as monophyletic.
Guinea pig | Characteristics
Activity is scattered randomly throughout the day; aside from an avoidance of intense light, no regular circadian patterns are apparent. Domestic guinea pigs generally live in cages, although some owners of large numbers of guinea pigs dedicate entire rooms to their pets. Cages with solid or wire mesh floors are used, although wire mesh floors can cause injury and may be associated with an infection commonly known as bumblefoot (ulcerative pododermatitis). "Cubes and Coroplast" (C&C) style cages are now a common choice. Cages are often lined with wood shavings or a similar material. Bedding made from red cedar (Eastern or Western) and pine, both softwoods, were commonly used in the past, but these materials are now believed to contain harmful phenols (aromatic hydrocarbons) and oils.
Guinea pig | Domestic habitat
E. Castle and Sewall Wright made a number of contributions to this area of study, especially regarding coat color. In 2004, the U.S.'s National Human Genome Research Institute announced plans to sequence the genome of the domestic guinea pig.
Guinea pig | In scientific research
The wild boar ("Sus scrofa"), also known as the "wild swine", "common wild pig", or simply "wild pig", is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is now one of the widest-ranging mammals in the world, as well as the most widespread suiform. It has been assessed as least concern on the IUCN Red List due to its wide range, high numbers, and adaptability to a diversity of habitats. It has become an invasive species in part of its introduced range. Wild boars probably originated in Southeast Asia during the Early Pleistocene and outcompeted other suid species as they spread throughout the Old World.
Wild boar | Introduction
The red river hog ("Potamochoerus porcus"), also known as the bush pig (but not to be confused with "P. larvatus", common name "bushpig"), is a wild member of the pig family living in Africa, with most of its distribution in the Guinean and Congolian forests. It is rarely seen away from rainforests, and generally prefers areas near rivers or swamps.
Red river hog | Introduction
Remains of pigs were compared with the Eurasian ("Sus scrofa") and Palawanese wild boar ("Sus ahoenobarbus"). It is known that the Eurasian wild boar was imported as a domesticate to the islands from mainland Southeast Asia to the islands during the Terminal Holocene.
Palawan | Prehistory
The hyraxes are any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. About the size of a domestic cat they are well-furred, with rounded bodies and a stumpy tail. They are native to Africa and the Middle East.
List of mammals of Guinea | Order: <a href="Hyracoidea">Hyracoidea</a> (hyraxes)
The study found that the assumption of reproductive isolation with population bottlenecks was not supported. The study indicated that pigs were domesticated separately in Western Asia and China, with Western Asian pigs introduced into Europe, where they crossed with wild boar. A model that fitted the data included a mixture with a now extinct ghost population of wild pigs during the Pleistocene. The study also found that despite back-crossing with wild pigs, the genomes of domestic pigs have strong signatures of selection at DNA loci that affect behavior and morphology. The study concluded that human selection for domestic traits likely counteracted the homogenizing effect of gene flow from wild boars and created domestication islands in the genome.
Domestic pig | History
There was also a separate domestication in China, which took place about 8,000 years ago. DNA evidence from sub-fossil remains of teeth and jawbones of Neolithic pigs shows that the first domestic pigs in Europe had been brought from the Near East. This stimulated the domestication of local European wild boars, resulting in a third domestication event with the Near Eastern genes dying out in European pig stock. Modern domesticated pigs have involved complex exchanges, with European domesticated lines being exported in turn to the ancient Near East. Historical records indicate that Asian pigs were introduced into Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Wild boar | Domestication
The derivation of the breed's name is unknown, but does not connote an origin in the geographical region of Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia). The Abyssinian breed is known for their 'rosettes', which are cowlicks growing from the coat. Between the rosettes of the Abyssinian's hair are the ridges, worth 25 points by ARBA standard. The ridges between two rosettes should ideally stand rigidly straight, without breaking down onto either side even if pressed down lightly with the palm of a hand. There should be a collar ridge, back ridge, rump ridge, and ridges between every saddle, hip, and rump rosette.
List of guinea pig breeds | Abyssinian
The greater guinea pig is a herbivore. It is a solitary animal and has a complex network of tunnels and runways through the vegetation. The home range is variable and seems to be related to the animal's size, its sex, and the water level in the area. Females seem capable of breeding at any time of year but births predominate in spring and the early part of summer. Females may have up to three litters in one year. The gestation period is about 64 days and the litter size is very small (1 or 2 pups). The young are quite large when born and grow fast, and some females born in the spring themselves breed successfully when between 30 and 45 days old.
Greater guinea pig | Behaviour
The "Cavia intermedia" is a rodent approximately 20–40 cm in length. These cavies lack sexual dimorphism, which differs from other cavies, because males are usually larger than females. Their cylindrical body shapes are in shades of brown or gray and are carried by short limbs. These guinea pigs have coarse, long fur and longer fur in the neck region, with ears having no fur. These guinea pigs, like most, have no external tail. Cavies have incisors that continuously grow and are naturally filed down by grazing habits.
Santa Catarina's guinea pig | Physical description
In New Guinea, cassowary eggs are brought back to villages and the chicks raised for eating as a much-prized delicacy, despite (or perhaps because of) the risk they pose to life and limb. They reach up to tall and weigh as much as
Ratite | Living forms
"P. girardi" occurs on the island of Annobón in Equatorial Guinea. The species may also occur in the Republic of the Congo.
Philothamnus girardi | Geographic range
The Baldwin guinea pig is a breed developed from a spontaneous genetic mutation in Carol Miller's show-line of white crested golden agouti. Though born fully furred, Baldwin guinea pigs begin to lose their fur at two to five days of age, starting at the nose and leaving them almost entirely hairless by about two months of age. They retain whiskers and sometimes a few hairs on their feet. Baldwins are known for having skin of a rubbery texture, many wrinkles and large, droopy ears. They come in all colors and patterns that haired guinea pigs come in, such as Dutch, tortoiseshell, broken colors, Himalayan and selfs.
Baldwin guinea pig | Introduction
Due to the small numbers of remaining Visayan warty pigs in the wild, little is known of their behaviors or characteristics outside of captivity. In 2012 the Negros Interior Biodiversity Expedition undertook camera trapping in the Northern Negros Natural Park and gained the first photos taken in the wild of the Visayan warty pig.
Visayan warty pig | Introduction
Guinea pigs (cavy) have perhaps been kept the longest as pets among rodents. While historically they served as a foodstuff for the native Inca people, they were imported to Europe as early as the mid-16th century, shortly after Spain conquered Peru. As an oddity from the New World, they were afforded a special status, and seen as house pets, rather than vermin or food. While their popularity was initially limited to the wealthy, their prodigious reproductive habits ensured that they spread throughout the middle classes shortly after their introduction; guinea pig burial places (not scattered bones—as would be found with an eaten animal) have been found in archaeological digs in early modern middle-class suburbs.
Rodents as pets | Guinea pig
Santa Catarina's guinea pig ("Cavia intermedia") or Moleques do Sul cavy is a rare guinea pig species of southeastern South America.
Santa Catarina's guinea pig | Introduction
In 1993, two were imported into the United States from the UK.[https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/123018972/the-men-who-brought-the-kunekune-pig-back-from-the-brink [1]]
Kunekune | History
This stimulated the domestication of local European wild boar, resulting in a third domestication event with the Near Eastern genes dying out in European pig stock. Modern domesticated pigs have involved complex exchanges, with European domesticated lines being exported, in turn, to the ancient Near East. Historical records indicate that Asian pigs were introduced into Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries. In August 2015, a study looked at over 100 pig genome sequences to ascertain their process of domestication, which was assumed to have been initiated by humans, involved few individuals, and relied on reproductive isolation between wild and domestic forms.
Domestic pig | History
The gudgeons "Oxyeleotris caeca" from the upper Kikori River system in Papua New Guinea and "O. colasi" from the Lengguru area in Western New Guinea are the only described species of cave-adapted fish from the island.
Fauna of New Guinea | Freshwater
The term agouti (, ) or common agouti designates several rodent species of the genus Dasyprocta. They are native to Middle America, northern and central South America, and the southern Lesser Antilles. Some species have also been introduced elsewhere in the West Indies. They are related to guinea pigs and look quite similar, but they are larger and have longer legs. The species vary considerably in colour, being brown, reddish, dull orange, greyish, or blackish, but typically with lighter underparts. Their bodies are covered with coarse hair, which is raised when alarmed. They weigh and are in length, with short, hairless tails.
Agouti | Introduction
This species has its origines in Africa where it is known from Cameroon, Centrafrique, Congo, Chad, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo but also from several islands as São Tomé and Príncipe, Madagascar and Réunion. It was introduced to New Caledonia in 2008.
Aspidimorpha quinquefasciata | Distribution
Cavia patzelti, commonly known as the Sacha guinea pig, is a species of "Cavia" native to Ecuador. Little is known about its population.
Cavia patzelti | Introduction
Since that time, they have been largely replaced by other rodents, such as mice and rats. However, they are still used in research, primarily as models to study such human medical conditions as juvenile diabetes, tuberculosis, scurvy (like humans, they require dietary intake of vitamin C), and pregnancy complications.
Guinea pig | Introduction
Guinea pigs do not store their food. They typically travel in groups, or herds, scavenging for grass and other vegetation. They are commonly active during dawn or dusk when they are less likely to encounter predators (crepuscular). As pack animals in the wild, the domestic Guinea pig also thrives when kept with one or more companions (except boars in the presence of a sow). They live off a diet consisting of grass hay and food pellets, typically synthesized from timothy hay. Like humans, Guinea pigs can not synthesize their own vitamin C making their food intake their only source of vitamin C; a lack of vitamin C will often cause fatal scurvy.
Rodents as pets | Guinea pig
While domestic pigs, both captive and feral (popularly termed "razorbacks"), have been in North America since the earliest days of European colonization, pure wild boars were not introduced into the New World until the 19th century. The suids were released into the wild by wealthy landowners as big game animals. The initial introductions took place in fenced enclosures, though several escapes occurred, with the escapees sometimes intermixing with already established feral pig populations. The first of these introductions occurred in New Hampshire in 1890. Thirteen wild boars from Germany were purchased by Austin Corbin from Carl Hagenbeck and released into a game preserve in Sullivan County.
Wild boar | History
The rodents are solely represented by the family Muridae, and within this family, 29 genera are native to New Guinea. They are believed to have migrated to New Guinea during two periods. The first group, called the "old endemics" form part of an ancient clade including other old endemics from Australia and the Philippines and likely migrated to New Guinea during the Late Miocene or Early Pliocene. The second group includes a number of species of the genus "Rattus". These are believed to have moved to New Guinea later. Most New Guinea species form a monophyletic group with some Moluccan species, which is most closely related to the Australian group (one species of which also occurs on New Guinea) and to the "R.
Fauna of New Guinea | Placental mammals
Helmeted guineafowl are often domesticated, and it is this species that is sold in Western supermarkets.
Helmeted guineafowl | Domestication
According to records in the Anthropological Institute and Museum, AMZ 6698, the holotype, is from "Equatorial Africa", and AMZ-AS 1730 is from the "Cameroons". According to mammalogist Ronald Nowak, these designations imply that the latter came either from modern Cameroon or far eastern Nigeria (British Cameroons) and the former from Cameroon or a neighboring state. In 1999, Simon Bearder claimed, citing a personal communication by C. Wild, that "Pseudopotto" had been seen in the wild and in 2001, ornithologist Christopher Bowden noted the occurrence of "Pseudopotto" on Mount Kupe in Cameroon, also citing C. Wild. However, the IUCN Red List notes that while sightings of the false potto at 820 to 940 m (2690 to 3080 ft) on Mount Kupe had been reported, surveys had failed to confirm its occurrence there, though pottos, some with long tails, had been found.
False potto | Distribution and status
The species originally occurred in North Africa and much of Eurasia; from the British Isles to Korea and the Sunda Islands. The northern limit of its range extended from southern Scandinavia to southern Siberia and Japan. Within this range, it was only absent in extremely dry deserts and alpine zones. It was once found in North Africa along the Nile valley up to Khartum and north of the Sahara. The species occurs on a few Ionian and Aegean Islands, sometimes swimming between islands. The reconstructed northern boundary of the animal's Asian range ran from Lake Ladoga (at 60°N) through the area of Novgorod and Moscow into the southern Urals, where it reached 52°N.
Wild boar | Reconstructed range
The black guineafowl is native to West Central Africa south of the Sahara. Its range includes Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The extent of its range is estimated to be . It is found on the forest floor in primary and secondary tropical rainforest, especially with thick undergrowth, and in nearby cultivated croplands.
Black guineafowl | Distribution and habitat
The Peruvian has a long smooth coat all over its body, including a prominent "forelock" resulting from a portion of its coat on the head and the neck growing forward on the body.
List of guinea pig breeds | Peruvian
Potamochoerus (meaning "river pig") is a genus in the pig family (Suidae). The two species are restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, although the bushpig, possibly due to introduction by man, also occurs in Madagascar and nearby islands. Early in the 20th century, there were considered to be as many as five different species within the genus. These were gradually consolidated, until, in the 1970s, it was generally agreed that all were representatives of just a single species ("P. porcus"). The bushpig was again recognised as a separate species from about 1993. The oldest fossils that can be assigned to the genus date from the mid Pliocene in Europe, and are first seen in Africa from least the mid Pleistocene, suggesting that it originally evolved in somewhere in Eurasia.
Potamochoerus | Introduction