{"id":4238,"date":"2026-03-19T12:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/insta-ham-merlin-the-pig-oinks-his-way-to-a-world-record\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:59:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:59:26","slug":"insta-ham-merlin-the-pig-oinks-his-way-to-a-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/19\/insta-ham-merlin-the-pig-oinks-his-way-to-a-world-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Insta\u2011ham: Merlin the Pig oinks his way to a world record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-03-19 12:59:24<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>A California pig has officially hogged the spotlight after trotting his way into the record books. <BR><br \/>\nMerlin the Pig, a four\u2011year\u2011old porcine influencer, has earned a Guinness World Records title for having the most Instagram followers for a pig: 1.1 million.<BR><br \/>\nGuinness confirmed Merlin\u2019s milestone after counting his fanbase as of Feb. 23, crowning him the undisputed king of swine\u2011fluencer culture. The curly\u2011tailed celebrity lives in California with owner Mina Alali, who adopted him in March 2022 and began training him when he was just three months old.<BR><br \/>\nMerlin isn\u2019t just cute \u2014 he\u2019s clever. Videos on his Instagram show him using more than 30 buttons placed around the house, each playing a voice recording that lets him \u201ctell\u201d Alali exactly what he wants. <BR><br \/>\nGuinness said: \u201cNow, at 4 years old, Merlin has over 30 buttons in the house that he uses regularly, sparking conversation online about just how intelligent, emotional and human-like pigs can be when given the time, patience and positive reinforcement.\u201d<BR><br \/>\nFans tune in daily to watch Merlin \u201cchat,\u201d demand snacks, request cuddles and generally live his best pig life. His button\u2011pressing antics have sparked debates about animal intelligence.<BR><br \/>\nMerlin\u2019s rise from rescue piglet to global superstar has been nothing short of ham\u2011azing, and with more than a million followers hanging on his every oink, it\u2019s clear he\u2019s not slowing down. In fact, he may be the only influencer who can say he\u2019s bringing home the bacon without ever leaving the house.<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-03-19 12:59:24 A California pig has officially hogged the spotlight after trotting his way into the record books. Merlin the Pig, a four\u2011year\u2011old porcine influencer, has earned a Guinness World&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4240,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4238\/revisions\/4240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}