Meet the swimming pigs of the Bahamas

Meet the swimming pigs of the Bahamas

You're swimming in the glistening waters of the Bahamas, and the sight reminds you that things just couldn't get any more exciting. Like the ice in your crisp and cool tropical drink, your heart begins to melt.

Your boat approaches a white beach and 20 adorable pigs and piglets rush towards you for a playful encounter in the shallows.

Welcome to Pig Island... Where all the pigs go to heaven.

What started in the early 1990s as five baby piglets (four female and one male) is now the enduring reason millions of tourists flock to the Bahamas annually for a little pig-cuddle therapy.

Where do they come from? those piggies?

These cute mammals come to Big Major Cay mysteriously, the truth of their arrival obscured as if buried by pirates.

Some say they were left on the island by sailors, with the intention of returning and feasting on the pigs. Others believe the pigs were survivors of an old shipwreck nearby. There is also a story that a man named Wade Nixon, along with his business partner and good friend Don Rolle, brought the pigs to the island to start a farm in preparation for Y2K in the 1990s. Their fear of impending technological collapse consumes them and the pigs are their idea of survival.

Either way, these adorable residents arrive and settle in quite comfortably in their new home. Not a bad place to find a "refuge".

Celebrity Pigs in the Bahamas: How They Got Famous.

At first, swimming pigs were far from an instant sensation. It wasn't until the 2000s, with the rise of smartphones, that pigs would blow up the world wide web.

The pigs go from humble islanders to celebrity in no time. They've even attracted visits from Hollywood stars Amy Schumer, Jennifer Lawrence and Johnny Depp (who owns an island nearby) in recent years. Not stopping there, pigs have been featured in music videos and featured in a romantic setting on ABC's "The Bachelor."

While the pigs seem right at home on the beach of Big Major Cay, the tropics are not really their natural habitat. Traditionally, they roamed the forest in the center of the island looking for food, but with the growing interest in the island, the pigs are slowly starting to make their way to the coast. Currently, they have completely moved away from the forests and spend their days on beaches, awaiting the arrival of tourists and eventually a snack.

Can you pet the pigs?

Exuma is the only place in the world that offers this unique experience, and Pig Beach is the perfect place for this unusual vacation activity - one you'll definitely remember for a long time to come.

While swimming pigs are wild, they are incredibly friendly. They will let you swim to them if they don't get to you first. Gently touching and stroking the pigs is acceptable, but as a general rule, treat the pigs with respect and they will do the same. Avoid teasing the pigs, throwing rocks at them, or trying to ride them. The pigs are wonderful, intelligent creatures and are used to human company, even though their island has no full-time residents.

They love a good breakfast

Feeding our porcine friends is permitted, but tourists are asked to think twice about what, how and where they feed them. In the past, ingesting too much sand due to beach feeding was harmful to pigs.

Pigs are animals, they will eat anything. The Bahamian Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources requested that tourists feed the pitted pigs fruits and vegetables. Pigs ONLY feed in the water where they are less likely to ingest sand. If you are on land, however, you can give them fresh water as there is a shortage on the island.