Hello friends! Our world is full
of amazing and mysterious places, which never ceases to surprise anyone who gets to visit them.
How is it even possible? How did the inhabitants
of these places adapt to life there? and even managed to live there for many years.
It would seem that man is a rational being who has learned to survive in the sizzling
desert as well as in Sub-Zero temperatures. But what if people aren't the only creatures
capable of surviving in unusual situations. Today we will talk about one of those mysterious places
which became very popular and all of it thanks to its unusual and only inhabitants.
Most of us have probably never heard of a place called “big major K”
but if we were to clarify that it's the island of pigs. AKA the pig beach,
many travellers would immediately understand what we're talking about.
Yes friends! There actually is a place on our planet that has pigs as its only inhabitants
and even more so those pigs can swim. This completely uninhabited island is
located in The Bahamas in the Atlantic Ocean and is also known as “pig island”,
major K and by its official name Big major K. The island owes so many of its names
to its unusual inhabitants, pigs. These ownerless and squelching inhabitants
simply filled the entire area. All these animals do most of the time is swim in the crystal-clear
waters of the Caribbean Sea. And sunbath on the shore, a lifestyle many might find envious.
In addition to the pigs, there are also birds, a couple of cats and goats living on the island.
The island has always been uninhabited that is people have never lived on it. This piece of land
is notable for its irregular shape in the form of a boat and its small size. Its length is one
kilometre, 800 meters from north to south. The maximum width is one kilometre,
600 meters and its area is about one square kilometre, but even such a tiny size,
didn't prevent the pigs from settling on it. To this day the researchers have been unable
to find a definite answer to the. When did the pigs appear on this island? However,
as we all understand they couldn't have appeared on the island out of thin air.
Therefore, the experts put forward several theories of how these animals
ended up on the desert island and not just anywhere, but in the middle of the ocean.
One of these series suggests that it was the pirates who brought pigs to the island
several centuries ago as a food stockpile. They probably planned to come back to the island again
sometime later, but it never happened. The pigs didn't sit around waiting for people,
but they did manage to survive on the island. They even adapted over time
and learned to swim. No one can say for sure whether this is the but the pirates rated The
Bahamas up until the 17th and 18th centuries. The second theory claims that there was once
a small shipwreck in the local waters. The ship was probably heading across the Atlantic Ocean.
The pigs managed to survive with the people and get to the nearest shore.
But many years later, the population of the pigs only increased
while people died from various disease. There are many other theories too ranging from the
suggestion that the island was used as a pig farm and ending with an assumption that it was a bait.
However, no one has a definite answer. In any case, the archipelago includes about 700 islands
and only 30 of them are inhabited. And until the nineties no one had heard of the pig beach.
Having discovered pigs on a desert island in the late eighties, the inhabitants of the
neighbouring islands started feeding. Thus, the animals quickly got used to
the fact that people coming to the island would always bring them food.
So, these simple animals as we're used to thinking of them quickly made the
connection between the boats approaching the island and getting delicious treats.
Thus, the pigs started coming out specifically to greet people and even going into deeper water
to look for boats. Today every member of the huge pig population knows how to swim.
Even little pigs are used to the water from childhood. As soon as they see
boats and yachts approaching the island, the beggar pigs joyfully
rush into the water and are ready to swim even hundreds of meters to get to them.
These pigs are very friendly and aren't afraid of people at all.
They boldly swim up to them and even try to climb a board and take food directly from their hands.
Sometimes it is virtually impossible to get these animals off the boat.
They're willing to sail anywhere with people as long as they get their tasty treats.
Now the pigs have become virtually tame. They wait for people with gratitude and even allow
them to pet and play with their piglets. While swimming in the water with people
is actually their favourite pastime, but the Bahamian pigs became truly famous around the world
only after 2009. It was then that the underwater photographer, Eric Chang sailed to the island.
Eric and his crew didn't just enjoy swimming in the ocean with the pigs and feeding them,
but also took a series of photographs dedicated to these friendly Islanders.
When these photos spread around the world crowds of tourists poured into the island.
Swimming with the Bahamian pigs has become even more popular than swimming with dolphins.
And this is perfectly understandable, one can swim with dolphins in many places,
but swimming with pigs is quite rare. If not unique!
There are three small lakes on the island, which provides sources of fresh water and
larger neighbouring islands reliably protect this place from the efforts of tropical storms.
There is also enough greenery on the island so that the pigs won't go hungry.
As of today, there are over a hundred pigs living on the island, but it is simply impossible to get
the exact number since they are very fast and so they're all over the place all the time.
At first glance, it may seem that these aren't even pigs at all in their behaviour
they are more like dogs. Since they are just as curious and
aren't afraid of people. They are happy to pose for pictures in exchange for a tasty treat. And
because they spend so much time swimming in the ocean, the Bahamian pigs are exceptionally clean.
So even close contact with them won't cause any discomfort,
the Bahamian swimming pigs have become so famous that they even have a book written about them.
“The secret of pig island” by Jennifer Nolan and of course it's worth noting that every single
person that has ever visited this pig paradise is ready to go back there with great pleasure.
Since that's the only place on earth where one can get such an unforgettable experience.
So that's the way the unusual pig beach is! Friends, would you like to go there one day?
Let us know in the comments, but that's probably all for today.
Rate the video if you liked it and see you soon.