{"id":383874,"date":"2026-04-17T07:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383874\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T07:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T07:45:07","slug":"pig-on-the-run-dashes-straight-to-whitianga-beach-and-vanishes-while-swimming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/383874\/","title":{"rendered":"Pig on the run dashes straight to Whitianga beach and vanishes while swimming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img  alt=\"A black pig was spotted on the run, and heading straight for a morning dip at a Whitianga beach today. Photo \/ Deborah Kelsall \" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>A black pig was spotted on the run, and heading straight for a morning dip at a Whitianga beach today. Photo \/ Deborah Kelsall <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">She posted videos of the pig on a Whitianga community page, which received plenty of surprised reactions from other locals. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018Relatively unusual\u2019 but \u2018completely natural behaviour\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">SPCA scientific officer Jessica Walker told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/waikato-news\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/waikato-news\/\">Waikato Herald<\/a> pigs were \u201ccapable swimmers and will happily enter the water\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Walker said while it was \u201crelatively unusual\u201d for pigs to have access to open water or beaches, entering water when given the opportunity was \u201ccompletely natural behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">There wasn\u2019t a specific pig breed that enjoyed swimming more than others, but pigs enjoy \u201cwallowing\u201d the most, lying and rolling around in shallow waters. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis behaviour helps them regulate their body temperature, as pigs cannot sweat to cool themselves down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">SPCA has seen previous reports of pigs swimming in water, but incidents reported to the animal welfare agency were \u201cinfrequent\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018Caught in the ongoing current\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/topic\/thames-coromandel-district-council\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/topic\/thames-coromandel-district-council\/\">Thames-Coromandel District Council<\/a> said it was notified of the swimming pig, and staff attended the scene shortly afterwards. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cUnfortunately, this situation did not have a light\u2011hearted outcome. The pig entered the water and was caught in the outgoing current,\u201d a council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">No further sightings have been reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">If members of the public see an animal creating a potential hazard on council reserves or on roads, they should contact the council so the situation can be assessed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">If there is an immediate risk to public safety, people should call 111.<\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">However, this wasn\u2019t the first time residents of the town have witnessed a pig enjoying a morning dip. In 2021, two locals spotted a black pig swimming through Whitianga Harbour. <\/p>\n<p class=\"npuzLaxKHxgCDhG\" style=\"display:none\">Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakat\u0101ne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A black pig was spotted on the run, and heading straight for a morning dip at a Whitianga&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[95,7972,199259,1866,33443,1304,111,139,69,90,13136,530,8145,147,10811,16124,17933,223,1961,61,199260,3608,6123,62121,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-383874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-beach","10":"tag-dashes","11":"tag-find","12":"tag-heading","13":"tag-morning","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-on","18":"tag-pig","19":"tag-residents","20":"tag-run","21":"tag-science","22":"tag-straight","23":"tag-surprised","24":"tag-swimming","25":"tag-the","26":"tag-this","27":"tag-to","28":"tag-vanishes","29":"tag-were","30":"tag-while","31":"tag-whitianga","32":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}