In 1807, a sea captain left pigs on a distant island for the benefit of future sailors. In a 2022 paper in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology , Michael Trotter and Michael Willis reviewed how livestock arrived at these subantarctic islands south of mainland New Zealand and the fate of the pigs. A little act of kindness can cast a very long shadow. More than two hundred years later, people are still arguing about the pigs of the Auckland Islands.
He returned a year later and stayed on the islands for two months. Livestock arrived on the islands to feed castaways or to be farmed, the study explains. Survivors of the General Grant later caught pigs on Auckland Island. The rescue also had medical benefits. Samples from the pigs were sent to labs around the world and returned free of a virus that worried researchers studying pig-to-human transplants. The pigs were first studied as a possible source of cells to treat diabetes. The breed has been a valuable source of medical products, the study reports. But it is a small group. A separate genetic study found low variability compared with other pigs. Wild pigs also stayed on Auckland Island. They found that removing all three was worthwhile and feasible, but that it depended on further development of new technology. The issue split people. Trotter and Willis wrote that the pigs do cause some environmental damage, but argued their human value could be of huge global benefit and their genetic material should be preserved. That left the island pigs both a medical resource and an environmental problem, depending on whom you asked.
Captain Abraham Bristow found the islands in 1806 but did not land. In 1810 he wrote a letter saying he had left a breed of hogs on Enderby Island for the benefit of future navigators. Ships did wreck there, including the Grafton in 1864, and the General Grant in 1866. Neither the pigs in the biosecure facility nor those elsewhere in the country are likely to number more than 30 mature animals. Stephen Horn and colleagues reported in a 2022 feasibility study that it was the only island in New Zealand’s subantarctic region that still had introduced mammalian pests: pigs, mice and cats.
Because of the economic effects of COVID-19, decision makers delayed the work in 2020.
