A California Pig Just Beat Every Celebrity on Instagram and Did Something No Animal Has Done Before

America fell in love with Bunny the talking dog when she started pressing buttons to ask existential questions on TikTok.

Now a pig from Sacramento just made Bunny look like an amateur.

Merlin the Pig didn't just go viral – he did something that has never happened in the history of Instagram for his species, and the way he pulled it off will make you question everything you thought you knew about farm animals.

Merlin the Pig Just Earned a Guinness World Record for Most Instagram Followers

Merlin is a four-year-old Mini Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig living in Sacramento, California – and as of February 23, 2026, Guinness World Records officially declared him the most-followed pig on Instagram on the planet, with 1.1 million followers.

His owner, Mina Alali, adopted him in March 2022 when he was just a piglet.

She started training him at three months old.

Not tricks. Not sit and stay.

She taught him to talk.

Merlin's house is loaded with more than 30 voice-recorded buttons placed around the floors and walls – and he uses them every single day to tell Mina exactly what he wants.

Hungry? There's a button for that.

Want to go outside? Button.

Feeling affectionate? Button.

The Guinness announcement post pulled in over 46,000 likes from fans worldwide.

The Talking Pet Pig With 30 Buttons Who Communicates His Every Want

Merlin isn't the first animal to communicate through buttons, but he's part of a growing movement that has stunned scientists and pet owners alike.

It started with Bunny, the Sheepadoodle who became a TikTok sensation asking questions like "what is dream?" and "where is Uni?" – and whose button use sparked a legitimate university research project called TheyCanTalk, studying whether animals can use augmentative communication devices to interact with humans.

Researchers initially expected dogs to dominate the study.

Cats surprised everyone.

And now a pig – an animal most Americans only associate with bacon – is leading the internet's largest cross-species conversation about what animals actually understand.

Guinness World Records previously awarded similar titles to other animals in separate species categories: Nala the cat holds the record for most-followed cat on Instagram with over four million followers, and a duck named Ben Afquack once held the record for his species.

Merlin just joined that club – and brought a skill set none of them had.

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What Science Says About Pet Pig Intelligence and Why It Surprises Everyone

Here's what the scientific community has known for years that most people refuse to believe: pigs are not dumb.

Studies confirm that pigs demonstrate abstract thinking, tool use, name recognition, and emotional complexity that rivals dogs – and in some cognitive tasks, outperforms primates.

They form lasting friendships with other pigs.

They show signs of grief when companions die.

Mother pigs communicate with their piglets through distinct vocalizations, and those piglets learn to recognize their mother's voice within days.

Merlin's button vocabulary isn't a party trick – it's a window into a mind that was always there, waiting for someone to hand it a keyboard.

Mina Alali did exactly that, and 1.1 million people showed up to watch.

"The comments saying our content helps with bad days, depression, anxiety, etc. is what gets me up in the morning," Alali said when Merlin received his official Guinness plaque – thanking the community that made the record possible.

When you watch a pig cross a room to press a button that says "love" – you don't forget it.

Sources:

• Ben Hooper, "Pig with 1.1 million Instagram followers earns Guinness World Record," UPI, March 12, 2026.
• "Most followers on Instagram for a pig," Guinness World Records, verified February 23, 2026.
• "Merlin the pig brings joy to Davis, social media," Davis Enterprise, March 2026.
• "Can any animal learn to speak with buttons like Bunny the 'talking' dog does?" Salon, January 15, 2022.
• "National Pig Day: What Research Reveals About the Hidden Minds of Pigs," A-Z Animals, March 1, 2026.