Rare piglets born at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

Proud mum Trish has been fussing over her new babies who can now be seen running around their home at the park.

'It's absolutely brilliant to welcome these beautiful Visayan Warty piglets to Yorkshire Wildlife Park,' said animal manager, Debbie Porter, at the park in Branton, near Doncaster.

'We're very proud to be part of the conservation effort. The piglets won't be let out in to the main outdoor reserve for a while yet, as they're still so small they would fit through the fence! But the public can already see them running around inside and playing with their mum Trish.

'Dad Troy is being kept separate until they have grown up a little and can run freely in their reserve. Visayan warty pigs normally have one to three piglets in a litter so Trish is doing fantastic rearing a litter of five.'

The piglets are born stripy, to help camouflage them while they are young, but this disappears with age. The birth is an important step in the global conservation programme for the species, which is on the critically endangered list after being hunted to near extinction in its native Philippines.

Male Visayan warty pigs are unique amongst pigs as they grow a long mane during the breeding season. Hunting and de-forestation is pushing this species to extinction, it has disappeared from 98 per cent of its former range in the wild, but Trish and Troy, who are both six years old, offer hope for the future along with breeding programmes in the Philippines.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park and the YWP Foundation support many conservation projects around the world.