An unusual welcome awaits visitors to Big Major Cay in the Bahamas. Moor your boat off the beach (which is the only way to reach this tiny, uninhabited island) and you are likely to be greeted by dozens of excited pigs bursting from the undergrowth and hurling themselves into the water before you can reach dry land.
These are not wild pigs but feral ones, and many a tale is told about how they got to Pig Island, as Big Major Cay has inevitably come to be known. One story goes that they are descended from animals stowed there by sailors of old, who never returned for them. Another is that they are the survivors of a shipwreck.
How did pigs get to Pig Island?
A less swashbuckling (but more likely) scenario is that the pigs have been here only since the 1990s, having been introduced by farmers from neighbouring islands. The pigs have learned that tourists bring special treats, hence their eagerness to meet new arrivals. Meanwhile, more people are coming to swim with the pigs. But there are downsides to this newfound fame. The deaths of several animals have been linked to their ingesting large volumes of sand when people feed them on the beach.
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Main image: two pigs swimming in the Bahamas. Credit: Getty