Beach Babe: Swimming Swine Draws Tourists To The Bahamas

The pink and black spotted pigs were seen keeping their snout above the water as they took a dip in the cooling sea.

The images were taken by Manchester photography duo Nick and Caroline Robertson-Brown in The Exuma Cays, Bahamas, last year.

The Bay draws dozens of tourist boats to see and feed the famous swimming animals.

Twenty domestic pigs live on the uninhabited island Big Major Cay, commonly known as Pig Beach.

Nick and Caroline were told the pigs were brought to the island in 1992 at the start of the Gulf War.

Locals were worried the conflict would deplete the supply of American fuel to the Bahamas and therefore make travel between islands for food trade difficult – requiring the live pigs as a back-up food source.

As the precaution became unnecessary the abandoned animals turned feral and frequently swam out to passing ships and boats in the hope of being fed.

Caroline said: “There are other stories, including that a hurricane forced them to flee and were blown to this island.

“Others still say that they were put there as a deliberate tourist attraction.

“Each day a few boats turn up to see them. It is a great way to spend a day, speeding along these beautiful islands and finally getting to the pigs.

“The pigs are not in danger from the boats which move very slowly in the shallow water.

“However, they do suffer from a very bad diet. Most tourists seem to throw them bread, containing far too much salt and sugar. We did hear that some of the pigs had tested positive for diabetes due to this poor diet.”

The feral pigs are welcoming to swimmers and Nick and Caroline got the opportunity to snorkel with them.

She added: “It was a really lovely experience and certainly one we had never had before.

“The pigs are not at all scared of people and so they will come very close to see if you might have a treat in your hand.”