During the Spring Festival holiday, many visitors came to the Chongqing Natural History Museum.

Many people visited the Chongqing Natural History Museum on the first day of Year of the Pig with sunny weather.

A joint zodiac picture exhibition called “Jinzhu Gongfu” has been held by Chongqing Natural History Museum during the Spring Festival holidays.

CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Going home (家) for the Spring Festival is the wish of every wandering people. This year is Year of the Pig. Have you ever known that the Chinese character "shi (豕)" out of "jia (家)" refers to the pig in ancient Chinese language, meaning that pig is the indispensable element for a family? From that, we can see the importance of pig in Chinese traditional customs. During the Spring Festival holiday, the Chongqing Natural History Museum was held a joint zodiac picture exhibition called “Jinzhu Gongfu” and showed the collection of various specimens from all over the world.

Pig is one of the oldest domesticated livestock and is the species most closely to human life, according to the introduction from staff of Chongqing Natural History Museum. Pig is raised and eaten by Chinese people from the ancient time, so that it has been integrated into the Chinese civilization and culture and shaped the personality trait of “cute, simple yet clumsy”, becoming the auspicious element with its distinctive features. You can be aware of what pig means in the minds of former people, and feel the good yearning for crops and livestock by these lovely and various pig images in this exhibition.

In the museum, the collection of various specimens from all over the world have attracted many visitors’ attentions. Let’s have a look at these various looks of “Bajie” (a pig character of the novel Journey to the West) from different genera and families. 

Specimen of Asian boar

Asian boar:

It has 1.5 to 2 meters in average body length, about 90 centimeters in shoulder height and 90 to 200 kilograms in body weight. Boar in the south of northeast China and the far east of Russia even weighs nearly 400 kilograms. The male boar has two pairs of growing canine teeth, which can be used as weapon or excavation tool and whose average length is 6cm, of which 3cm is out of mouth. The female boar has shorter canine teeth, not showing out of mouth, but it has lethality to a certain extent.

Specimen of African boar.

African boar:

Distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar woodlands and wet grasslands, it has 100 to 150cm in body length and weighs 50 to 130kg. The most typical feature is that the male has warts under its eyes, sideburns on its face and white hair on its temples. African boar will dig hole in the area covered by tall grasses and reeds as its nest. It is nocturnal, ferocious and good at swimming.

Specimen of warthog.

Warthog:

People is terrified by the sight of warthog due to the ugly face and four huge tusks. It is the only pig in the world that can survive without water for several months. While entering the cave, its back part of body will go first and its head always faces the entrance of cave in order to fight the invaders by its tusks at any time. And when leaving, it will rush out at high speed from the cave to avoid any predators who may be waiting at entrance.

Specimen of South African porcupine

South African porcupine: 

Belonging to the order of rodent and family of porcupine, it is the largest rodent in South Africa and the largest porcupine in the world. There are long and hard spines on the back and tail, which are key organs to defend against natural enemies.

Specimen of North American porcupine

North American porcupine:

It belongs to the order of rodent and family of North American porcupine. There are numerous spines formed by specialization of coarse hairs underneath its long hairs on the surface. The spine is easy to fall off but the barb on spine is firmly embedded into the body of predator. The spine is usually laid flat on the body unless the porcupine is attacked. If threatened, it will swing its own spiny tail at predator. (Translated by Jiang Yuling, Fathom Language Limited)