Total Pageviews

New Zoo Rarity: Hogs With Uncloven Hooves

The Queens Zoo's new trio of mulefoot hogs awaits your visit.Julie Larsen Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society The Queens Zoo’s new trio of mulefoot hogs awaits your visit.

What’s new at the Queens Zoo these days are three female mulefoot hogs.

The mulefoot, a domestic hog named for its unusual non-cloven hoof, is black, beautiful and classified as “critically rare” by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

A century ago, according to the conservancy, the mulefoot was widely bred in the Midwest “for ease of fattening and production of meat, lard and especially hams.” But it is no longer commonly bred by farmers, the zoo said.

The ladies are a year old and can be visited on the zoo’s farm.

It was not immediately clear whether hogs with uncloven hooves would be considered kosher.

Developing…