I recognize that curly tail!
That’s a pigtail!
Pigs are animals you might meet on a farm
or out in the wild.
They are very intelligent, and are thought
to be as smart (or maybe even smarter) than
cats and dogs.
Pigs are omnivores.
This means they’ll eat ANYTHING.
Omni means everything, and vore means eating.
Put them together to get: OMNIVORE.
On a small family farm, pigs are usually fed
the scraps from the family’s kitchen.
But on a large scale farm, pigs typically
eat a special mix of corn and soybeans, with
some extra vitamins and minerals added to
help them grow big and strong.
In the wild, pigs eat mostly plants and sometimes
bugs.
They eat grass and other leafy greens, and
also dig for roots.
In the Autumn, wild pigs like to eat acorns
and other nuts.
We sometimes use “pig” as an insult, to
mean someone is very messy.
But pigs are actually quite clean!
OK, it’s true, sometimes they like to roll
in the mud.
But if you give them enough room to live in,
pigs know that they shouldn’t go to the
bathroom close to where they eat or rest.
That’s pretty smart!
One remarkable group of wild boars living
in Switzerland has been seen washing the dirt
off their food in a creek before they eat
it!
Those are some nice table manners!
Pigs are very social.
They like to cuddle together, and will even
sleep snout to snout.
Pigs talk to each other constantly, and can
make over 20 different sounds.
Newborn piglets recognize their mother’s
voice, and will run right to them.
By the time they are 2 weeks old, pigs can
recognize their names.
We told you they were smart!
One of the most familiar sounds pigs make
is the squeal.
Pig squeals can get as loud as 115 decibels!
{pause for loud squeal} Wow!
I guess they have something pretty important
to say!
Pigs are also known as hogs or swine.
An old fashioned name for a farmer that takes
care of pigs is a swineherd.
Can you see where that name came from?
Swine + herd.
SWINEHERD.
That name isn’t used very much anymore.
Nowadays, we call them pig farmers.
Back to pig names.
Male pigs are called boars
Female pigs are called sows
And Baby pigs are called piglets
A group of baby pigs is known as a litter
or a farrow
Sows can give birth to a litter of piglets
twice a year.
They usually have about 12 piglets in each
litter.
Piglets usually weigh about 1 kg at birth.
Mother pigs nurse their young for 3-5 weeks.
Remember, pigs are mammals like us.
A funny thing happens - piglets always line
up to nurse in the same order.
Their mother’s milk must be very nutritious,
because piglets can double their weight in
one week.
A piglet that has been weaned is called a
shoat.
Now the little pig can eat regular food.
Yum yum yum.
After a year or two, most pigs are full-grown
and can get up to 350 kg.
Domesticated pigs, that is.
Farmers have bred domestic pigs to grow very
large - larger than the biggest wild pig.
The largest wild pig is called the Giant Forest
Hog, and it gets up to 275 kilos.
It lives in Africa.
The smallest wild pig is called the Pygmy
Hog and it weighs under 12 kilos.
It lives in India.
Pigs live all over the world.
Everywhere that people explored, they brought
pigs with them.
This means there are now pig farmers everywhere
people live.
Ever seen a pig wearing glasses?
Pigs have poor eyesight.
But to make up for it, they have an excellent
sense of smell - about 2000 times more sensitive
than a human’s.
Some pigs are trained to use their keen sense
of smell to search for truffles.
Truffles are a special kind of delicious fungus
that grows under the ground, like an underground
mushroom.
Some people prefer to train dogs for this
job, however, because the pigs often eat the
truffles.
Pigs use their long snout to dig into the
ground, looking for food.
Their snout has a long bone in it and a circle
of cartilage at the end.
You have cartilage in your nose, too!
Give your nose a wiggle.
Feel that?
If you push the end of your nose up, it looks
more like a pig’s nose!
That’s not all we have in common with pigs!
Like us, pigs dream.
And did you know that pigs are the only other
animal that gets a sunburn?
Human skin is very similar to pig skin.
One difference is that pigs don’t have many
sweat glands, so to cool off they like to
wallow in the mud.
That might be why pigs have a reputation for
being messy.
But actually, they’re being very smart.
The mud acts like a sunblock!
Elephants do this, too.
Here’s something else we have in common
that’s not so nice - Pigs can catch the
flu!
Poor little piggies.
The similarities might end there.
We have 5 toes on our feet.
Pigs have 4 toes, each with its own hoof.
They actually only stand on the front two
toes, however.
These kinds of feet are called “cloven hooves.”
Compare that with horses hooves, which are
uncloven.
The little split in their hooves lets pigs
have better balance on uneven terrain.
Adult pigs can run up to 17 kilometers per
hour, and are thought to have a pretty good
sense of direction!
Huh.
I wonder where he’s going.
The official Scientific name for pigs is Sus
Scrofa Scrofa.
Domestic pigs are sometimes called Sus Domesticus
to make it clear we’re not talking about
the wild boars.
Wild pigs have big tusks.
Pigs use these to dig for food and to fight
with each other (and fight off predators)
Farmers usually remove these tusks from domestic
pigs so they can’t hurt people or other
pigs.
Domestic pigs that are well taken care of
can live on average 15-20 years, depending
on the breed.
Wild pigs usually only live between 4-8 years,
but then they have a more dangerous life and
have to be on the lookout for various predators,
depending on where they live.
Humans are the greatest predator of wild pigs,
but many other carnivores also target these
animals as prey.
Predators of wild pigs include bears,
mountain
lions,
alligators,
leopards,
panthers,
tigers,
crocodiles,
lions,
and hyenas.
We’re leaving out a lot.
Pigs don’t have it easy out in the wild.
Some wild pigs are endangered, but domesticated
pigs are not.
In fact, the domestic pig has one of the biggest
populations of mammals on earth - around a
billion pigs!
There are even special miniature pigs people
keep as pets.
Because pigs have been domesticated for so
long, they have been part of human culture
for a very long time.
Pigs appear in a lot of traditional folklore,
including as one of the 12 animals making
up the Chinese Zodiac.
2019 is the Year of the Pig!
And 12 years later, it will be the Year of
the Pig again!
Pigs also mean good luck to some cultures.
For instance, in Germany, people commonly
give each other a candy pig on New Year’s
Eve to wish you good luck in the coming year.
Pigs are so familiar to us, they are often
used in nursery rhymes and stories to teach
a moral lesson.
Did you ever hear the story of the three little
pigs?
We’ll include a link so you can listen to
it now!
Have you ever a met a pig in person?
Do you think a pig would make a good pet?
Let us know in the comments below - we want
to know what you think!
Now let’s watch another video about animals
from Socratica Kids.
Which animal do you want to hear about next?
You get to pick!
