10 fascinating facts about pigs – Foundation for Animal Welfare in Germany
- The pig is one of the most intelligent animals on our planet. They are even smarter than dogs and some primate species.
- They are very clean animals, strictly separate their sleeping place from their «toilet» and avoid soiling the feeding place.
- Since they cannot sweat, pigs are very sensitive to heat. They regulate their body temperature by bathing, rolling or wallowing.
- Pigs are very social animals, have a fixed hierarchy and like to sleep snuggled up close to each other, especially in colder temperatures.
- Before giving birth to piglets, sows build nests. You can recognize your piglets mainly by their smell, but also by their voice and appearance.
- Pigs love digging in the ground for food with their snouts. Under near-natural conditions, they spend 70% to 80% searching for food.
- Pigs have a keen sense of hearing. Their hearing is much more sensitive to high tones than humans.
- Pigs have a remarkable long-term memory, once they have internalized a process.
- A pig’s movable snout is its sense of touch, so to speak, and contains as many touch-sensitive cells as both human hands put together.
- When bills grunt they want to say something. No pig grunts like another. Depending on the barn environment in which the pig grows up, it develops a different personality.