ineptshieldmaid replied to your post āseramarias replied to your post ādanceswchopstck replied to your...ā
I think it's more likely that both pigs and people are 'skin colour =/= hair colour' animals. People's skin tones vary over their bodies but don't take up the shade of their hair, as far as I know (eg: even very pale people can have very dark hair; very dark people with pale hair). Pigs are very genetically similar to humans especially in skin - thus their usefulness for animal testing and transplants and the like.
But I do have birthmarks that grow darker hair than the surrounding skin. I mean, I have so little pigment anywhere that itās hard to notice, and real sparse body hair besides, but I have a huge silver dollar-sized mark on my right ankle, which is about the color of like, normal person skin, a really faint pinkish brown, and grows dark brown hair, while the rest of my leg is approximately the color of paper and grows blondish-brown hair. Itās not that there arenāt variations in the color of my hair all over-- lighter on top of my head than at the base of my neck, and I mean, in areas where my body hair grows thicker, itās also a bit darker, though not much-- but itās notable, at least on that spot. (I have another birthmark on my neck, and again, itās pretty pale, but I canāt say as Iāve noticed the hair on it at all, though I canāt see it well because itās kind of behind my jaw in any reflective angles I can get on it. Theyāre not really dark birthmarks, but theyāre big enough, and theyāre not moles, which often have strange hair growth associated with them-- I have those too, mind!)Ā
I didnāt think to get a photo of my birthmarks. But I have a sample photo of one of the pigs, taken yesterday.Ā
You can see that the hair and the skin underneath have slightly different areas of pigmentation. I feel like thatās pretty clearly what Iām looking at, there. But whether the pig we just processed had markings like that or not, Iām not sure; my only clue was a bit of remaining black hair stubble on one shoulder.
mooserrificĀ replied to your postĀ āseramarias replied to your post ādanceswchopstck replied to your...ā
FWIW when I raised blue butt pigs, they definitely had blue-black pigmentation on their rumps, and that was still there after we scalded and ran them through the tumbler!
I love that there is such a thing as blue butt pigs. What a name. Oh huh-- Googling them is interesting. So one of the related searches google suggested was Old Spot, and thatās what these pigs are. Well, mutts-- theyāreĀ āheritage stockā hogs, not commercial bred, and theyāre a mix of Tamworth and Old Spot and... sort of... assorted. (The red breeding sow, whose name is creatively Red, is pretty much purebred Tamworth, to the point that she has their characteristic kneeling posture when nursing. The others are just Old Spot-ish mutts, including the boar, who Iām actually not sure of his breed at all-- but whatever he is, his offspring are universally charming and heās very sweet-natured, so I canāt complain. I really do like that dumb boar.)Ā
Anyway-- inconclusive! Maybe that pigment is more superficial in some than others! Maybe this pig was the one from the last batch that was tricolor, and most of his variegated colors were brown and white, and he only had a little black, so maybe his skin wasnāt black in any places.Ā
All the ones weāve gotten back before have been cut up entirely, sans skin, so I just donāt have much data.Ā