Swim with Pigs Paradise: A Guide to Exuma’s Famous Swimming Pigs
Big Major Cay, an uninhabited speck of rock in the Exuma Cays, is home to roughly two dozen pigs that swim out to greet approaching boats. What began in the 1990s as a farmer’s practical relocation of a pigpen from nearby Staniel Cay has become the Bahamas’ most photographed animal encounter. The pigs, fed daily by tour operators, now spend their days wading in the shallows and paddling toward visitors. But the surge in popularity has brought real consequences — several pigs died in 2017 after ingesting sand, leading to new feeding rules that changed how the interaction works.