Tamworth pigs


Registered as a breed in the early 19th century on the statesman Sir Robert Peel’s estate at Tamworth in Staffordshire, they, too, have lost out to fast-growing, large-littering modern breeds specifically designed for intensive farming. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust estimates fewer than 300 registered breeding Tamworth females in the UK.

The pigs graze throughout the summer and in the autumn gorge on fallen acorns, plentiful in our landscape of open-grown oaks. When the ground is soft, from autumn through to late spring, they rootle, turning over clods of turf with their snouts, in search of roots and rhizomes, earthworms and other invertebrates. Pigs are particularly partial to the deep, strong roots of docks and thistles.

The pigs' disturbance has provided numerous surprises. Rootling exposes bare soil, allowing pioneer plants like sallow (hybridised willow) to colonise. Sallow is the food source of the purple emperor butterfly. Before rewilding there were no purple emperors on Knepp. Now we have the largest breeding population in the UK.

Soil exposed by rootling is swiftly colonised by solitary bees, and the over-turned clods of earth kick-start the creation of anthills which, in turn, provide food for our burgeoning population of green woodpeckers.

Rootling also provides opportunities for so-called 'weed' species - like chickweed, scarlet pimpernel, vetchlings, common fumitory, knotgrass and red fescue - food source of the critically endangered turtle dove. Before we began rewilding we had no turtle doves at Knepp. By 2017 we had at least 14 purring males, and we know they are breeding because we have seen fledglings. Turtle doves are, according to the RSPB, the most likely bird to go extinct within our shores by 2020. Knepp is the only place in the country where turtle dove numbers are increasing. Could the turtle doves' success here be a consequence, at least in part, of our rootling pigs?