There is an uninhabited island in the Bahamas known as the Pig Island or Pig Beach. It got its unofficial name from the fact that it is populated by swimming pigs that live on the island. Pig Island is one of the over 360 islands in the Exuma archipelago within the Bahamas.
A single, factual account of how the pigs ended up on the cay does not appear to exist. Folklore and various theories claim a number of different scenarios including pirates.
Some say the pigs are said to have been dropped off on Big Major Cay by a group of sailors who wanted to come back and cook them. The sailors, though, never returned; the pigs survived on excess food dumped from passing ships.
Another legend has it that the pigs were survivors of a shipwreck and managed to swim to shore, while other accounts claim that the pigs had escaped from a nearby islet. Yet others suggest that the pigs were part of a business scheme to attract tourists to the Bahamas while another claims the pigs were stocked on the island in the 1990s by residents of nearby Staniel Cay to raise for food.
The pigs are now fed by residents from neighboring islands and tourists and the island is unofficially known as Pig Beach by both locals and tourists.
In 2017, a number of the resident pigs were found dead which caused speculation regarding the cause of death including claims of tourists feeding pigs alcohol or the pigs ingesting sand.
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