Category:Tibetan Pig

The Tibetan, a swine breed originating on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is especially adapted to the high, cold climate and to being on pasture all year round.

Characteristics
The breed has a light body weight - about 35 kg at maturity. They are alert, engaging in running and jumping, with quick responses for guarding against attack from other animals. They have a narrow head and long straight snout, to faciltate searching for feeds under the ground. Their black hair coat, with long, dense bristles 12 cm long (about 2 to 3 times longer than other breeds, and three times as dense as in Sichuan native pigs) protects it from the strong solar radiation of ultra-violet rays and from the cold weather on the plateau.

It has highly developed digestive organs, the length of the intestine being about 36 times its own body length (in Sichuan pigs, the intestine is only 28 times its body length). This is presumably a mechanism responsible for the pig's ability to utilize shrubs as feed, as well as the stems, roots, and hard seeds of wild plants.

It has the ability to deposit fat in the body. The internal and visceral fat is about 15% of bodyweight, which for other pig breeds is 7-10%.

Muscles have a marble appearence and meat has a special flavor.

The breed has low prolificacy, with a litter size of 5, and weaning 69%.