College welcomes new piglets
GALLERY Batman, Billy Bob and Louis are settling into their new home - some of the latest arrivals at a Suffolk college campus famous for its animal collection.
Richard Cornwell
BATMAN, Billy Bob and Louis are settling into their new home - some of the latest arrivals at a Suffolk college campus famous for its animal collection.
The youngsters are the children of portly Polly the pig who has been part of the animal studies department at Otley College for the past three years.
While the majority of staff and students have been enjoying the summer holidays, Polly has been working extremely hard over the last few days as she has given birth to her litter of nine new babies, her second litter since moving to the college.
Staff have named the area where the pigs reside as Hogsfort in tribute to the Harry Potter books and films.
They have been keeping an eye on the new arrivals - and have already named some of the piglets.
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The names Billy Bob and Louis were chosen because of famous folk born on the same day as the piglets: Billy Bob Thornton and Louis Armstrong.
College spokesman John Nice said: “In recent years we have managed to breed meerkats, sheep, fish and now pigs.
“It is important that our learners get to study a variety of species first hand and this is the reason for the breeding programme.
“They also get to take some animals to county events as part of the courses so hopefully one of these new arrivals will be seen at next year's Suffolk Show.”
Otley has only housed animals on site for the last five years.
In years gone by, many goats and livestock were at the campus and at one time the college produced its own goat's cheese, yoghurts and frozen milk.
For the last few years, the college has been gradually increasing the amount of species on site as the animal studies department has expanded.
