Pig Facts

Most people believe that pigs are lazy animals that love to lie in mud and do nothing all day long. This is obviously not true as pigs are supposed to be very intelligent animals. In fact, after the chimpanzee, dolphin, and the elephant, the pig occupies the fourth position as the most intelligent animal. Pigs also have the ability to learn tricks and the grunting sound that they make is actually a sophisticated way of communicating with one another. If you name a pig and keep calling it by its name, within a week you will notice it responding to its name. That should give you an idea about the pig's intelligence.

Here are some pig facts that you may not have known earlier:

Pigs are social animals and forge close bonds with other members of their family. Not only are they close to their mates, they also form close ties with other pigs in the family. They cuddle up together when they sleep and female pigs will look after their young ones together to make the work easy.

After a piglet is born, it consumes so much food that in a week's time it will weigh twice its birth weight.
Usually pigs are quite friendly with one another and never get into fights. However, if a female, known as a sow, thinks that its young ones are in danger, it will fight. The male will also fight if it thinks that it is being threatened and is in danger.

The reason that pigs love to cover themselves with mud is that they do not have any sweat glands. So, in order to cool down their bodies, they cover themselves with mud.

You may not believe it looking at a pig, but pigs are great swimmers and can swim very well.
Anatomically, pigs have powerful and strong sense of smell and vision. The snout of a pig is made up of highly sensitive cells and this allows them to smell everything in the vicinity. In Europe, pigs are used to locate truffles in the wild. As the pig's eyes are located on the outside of its face, it allows them to have a broader range of vision than normal.

Pigs are not particular about what they eat. They can easily eat barks of trees, insects, rotting carcasses of animals, garbage and any kind of refuse. They are also cannibalistic in nature and have no qualms about consuming another pig.

The average lifespan of a pig is fifteen years. But pigs are susceptible to respiratory disorders like pneumonia and bronchitis due to the small size of their lungs.

All pigs have 4 toes on their feet, but they use just 2 toes while they are walking.

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