世界最小イノシシ１２匹、野生へ　インド

【マナスＡＦＰ＝時事】インド北東部アッサム州で、かつては絶滅したと思われていた世界最小のイノシシ「コビトイノシシ（学名：Ｐｏｒｃｕｌａ　ｓａｌｖａｎｉａ）」１２匹が、保護事業の一環で野生に戻された。（写真はインド北東部のマナス国立公園で、野生に返されるコビトイノシシ）
　コビトイノシシは背の高い草が生える湿地に生息し、かつてはインドやネパール、ブータンにまたがるヒマラヤ山脈の丘陵地帯の平原で見られた。
　自然保護活動家らによると、コビトイノシシの個体数は１９６０年代に減少し、１９７１年にアッサム州で再発見されるまで絶滅したと考えられていた。１９９３年までには、ブータンと国境を接するアッサム州のマナス国立公園の一部地域で見られるようになった。
　１９９６年には、州政府や中央政府など複数の機関によるコビトイノシシ飼育下繁殖事業が開始した。
　同事業に参加する科学者、ドリティマン・ダス氏は２６日、ＡＦＰに対し、「今回は、雄７匹、雌５匹の計１２匹を野生に戻した」と語った。昨年は１４匹を野生に返しており、これまでに今回の分を含め計１４２匹を野生に戻したという。
　コビトイノシシ飼育下繁殖事業では現在、約７０匹を飼育しており、さらに繁殖させて野生に戻す計画だ。
　自然保護活動家らは、野生のコビトイノシシの個体数は２５０匹に満たないと推定している。
　コビトイノシシの生息地は、定住や農耕といった人間の活動により環境が破壊され、失われた。また、生息地の減少は不適切な管理も原因の一つだと専門家は指摘する。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/07/01-12:20）

A dozen of the world's smallest pigs have been released into the wild in northeastern India as part of a conservation programme to boost the population of a species once thought to have become extinct.
The pygmy hog, which has the scientific name porcula salvania, lives in tall, wet grasslands and was once found along plains on the Himalayan foothills in India, Nepal and Bhutan.
Its population declined in the 1960s, leading to fears it had become extinct until it was rediscovered in India's northeastern state of Assam in 1971, conservationists say.
By 1993, it was only found in a few pockets of Assam's Manas National Park, which borders Bhutan.
The Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme, involving several organisations including from state and national governments, established a captive breeding scheme with six hogs in 1996 to try and revive their population.
This time we are releasing 12 pygmy hogs including seven male and five female, the programme's field scientist Dhritiman Das told AFP at the release site in Manas National Park on Saturday.
Eight of the hogs were released in Manas on Tuesday and four more on Saturday. Some 14 were released last year.
The programme looks after around 70 captive hogs and is breeding more to be released.
The past week's releases take the number of pigs reintroduced into the wild by the programme to 142.
The wild population is estimated to be less than 250, conservationists say.
In next four years, we target to release 60 hogs... so that they can build their own population in the wild, Das added.
The programme has also sought to rehabilitate the grasslands home to the tiny creatures, which measure about 25 centimetres (9.8 inches) in height and 65 centimetres in length and weigh around 8-9 kilogrammes (17.6-19.8 pounds).
The species' survival has been threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitats due to human activity such as settlement and agriculture, and the improper management of such areas, experts say.