http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts1710The woolly mystery known as the sheep pig
Tue Apr 20, 5:18 pm ET
A "sheep pig" may sound like a fanciful creation — "Charlotte's Web" meets the late Nickelodeon "CatDog" cartoon, perhaps. But there evidently is such a thing on Planet Earth, and as the name suggests, it's a traditional curly-tailed pig covered in a sheep-like wool coat. (The opposite pairing, an overgrown sheep who eats anything in its path and ferrets out truffles, is an experiment that natural selection is apparently not yet up to tackling.) And no, we're not trying to pull the wool over your eyes. (Sorry — it had to be done).
The animal in question, native to Austria and Hungary, is known in zoological circles as a Mangalitsa. The Tropical Wings Zoo in Essex, England, just took in three of the rare creatures — a male and two females — as part of an education and breeding program. You can watch a news report on the animals below:
There are, of course, countless questions that swirl around the Mangalitsa. What does sheep-pig bacon taste like? Is sheep-pig wool water-resistant? And how many indie-rock bands will name themselves the Sheep Pigs by the end of the week?
— Brett Michael Dykes is a national affairs writer for Yahoo! News.
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