Duroc Pig

An American pig breed with a coat that varies from golden to dark reddish brown, a large muscular frame and partly drooping ears, which emerged around 1800 in New England, though its exact origins are debated; proposed ancestries include stock from the Guinea coast of Africa carried during the slave trade, an influence from British Berkshire pigs, or Iberian imports around 1837, and the breed's name is thought to come either from a stallion owned by a New York resident in the 1820s or from a racehorse named for Napoleon's aide General Christoph Duroc. Today's Durocs are medium sized with moderately long bodies and slightly dished faces, mature boars weighing around 882 pounds and sows about 772 pounds. The breed is raised mainly for meat, valued for hardiness and quick, thorough muscle growth, and became popular at agricultural shows from around the 1950s; it is now kept in more than 100 countries, with a global population estimated at a little over 2.5 million animals.