Not a looker, but a popular guy.
Chen Yusheng/VCG via Getty Images
  • A pig named "Strong Pig" became a symbol of resilience in China after he was found alive after a 2008 earthquake.
  • On Wednesday at the age of 14 - which is around 100 human years - Strong Pig took his last breaths.
  • Tributes to Strong Pig began pouring out across Chinese social media sites.

He wasn't handsome, but he was strong.

Hence his name: Zhu Jianqiang, which means Strong Pig in English.

Strong Pig became a legend among man and beast after he miraculously survived a devastating 7.9-magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province in 2008 that left nearly 70,000 dead.

The 330-pound pig was trapped beneath rubble for 36 days before rescuers discovered him, apparently surviving on bits of charcoal and rainwater. When he was found he was so skinny he looked like a goat, reported The Jakarta Post.

Caretakers nursed him back to health, and moved him to what would become his permanent home, the Jiancuan Museum in Sichuan, where he lived in a roomy pen and was regularly visited by admirers.

Strong Pig became an attraction, but he also garnered a legacy. In 2011, NPR reported that he had been cloned and six piglets bearing his hardy DNA had been weaned.

In mid-May, the South China Morning Post reported that the 14-year-old pig - around 100 years old in human years - was in failing health.

He died on Wednesday night, his caretakers said, of "old age and exhaustion."

Memorials poured out to Strong Pig across the Chinese social media site Weibo in response to the news. The hashtag StrongPigDied has more than 300 million views already, Agence France-Presse reported.

Rest easy, old friend.

https://www.businessinsider.co.za/heroic-strong-pig-survived-2008-china-earthquake-mourned-2021-6