Some amazing pig facts

Here are some animal facts and news about pigs:

Newborn piglets learn to run to their mothers’ voices and to recognize their own names. Mother pigs sing to their young while nursing.

According to Professor Donald Broom of the Cambridge University Veterinary School, “[Pigs] have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated. Even more so than dogs and certainly [more so than human] 3-year-olds.”

A pig's squeal can be as loud as 115 decibels – that’s 3 decibels higher than the sound of a supersonic airliner.

Professor Stanley Curtis of Penn State University has found that pigs can play joystick-controlled video games and are “capable of abstract representation.” Dr. Curtis believes that “there is much more going on in terms of thinking and observing by these pigs than we would ever have guessed.”

Pigs do not “eat like pigs” or “pig out.” They prefer to eat slowly and savor their food.And when they’re not squealing, they’re talking. Pigs communicate constantly with each other, and more than 20 different vocalisations have been identified; from wooing a mate to saying ‘I’m hungry!”

And when they’re not either squealing or talking, pigs will eat almost anything – including human bones. In 2012, a farmer in Oregon, America, was eaten by his pigs after having a heart attack and falling into their enclosure. By the time a concerned relative came looking for him, only his dentures were left.

Pigs appear to have a good sense of direction and have found their way home over great distances. Adult pigs can run at speeds of up to 11 miles an hour.

Suzanne Held, who studies the cognitive abilities of farmed animals at the University of Bristol’s Centre of Behavioural Biology, says that pigs are “really good at remembering where food is located, because in their natural environment food is patchily distributed and it pays to revisit profitable food patches.”

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