[4] The blonde Mangalica variety was developed from older, hardy types of Hungarian pig (Bakonyi and Szalontai) crossed with the European wild boar and a Serbian breed (and later others like Alföldi[5]) in Austria-Hungary (1833).

[1] That year, Prince of Serbia Miloš Obrenović sent 12 pigs of the autochthonous Serbian Šumadinka breed, ten sows and two boars.

In 1927, the National Society of Fat-Type Hog Breeders (Mangalicatenyésztők Országos Egyesülete) was established, with the objective of improving the breed.

Monte Nevado, a Spanish company began the breeding and recovery of Mangalica, and they were awarded with the Middle Cross of Hungary in 2016.

[9] Apart from Hungary, the Mangalica is present in Austria, Canada,[10] Croatia,[11] the Czech Republic, Germany, The Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United States.

They are left to roam free in a reservation, becoming partially feral, with cases of breeding with wild boars known.

By the early 2010s, their number had grown to 1,000 in Zasavica and in populations kept in the individual farms in the Syrmia and Mačva regions.

[25] Meat from the Mangalica can be easily found in Hungary, as Hungarian farmers produce about 60,000 animals each year.