Year Of The Pig
Which farm animal can give to the public as much entertainment and pleasure as the pig ? This animal is weird : It is ill-mannered, groans and snorts noisily while rummaging through its juicy dirty litter, but we can't but feel love for this moving animal. There were dozens of pigs of all breeds at the Agriculture Fair and this area of the farm-animals building was a favorite of the visitors.
not the common practice today...Here are a few observation on our friends the pigs that I found on a farm website from New Zealand (lifestylefarmer.com) :
Pigs are very social animals that prefer to live in small groups.
They are very clean animals and don't defecate in their eating/lying area. Piglets learn their toilet habits from their dam. As pets they can be house trained!
Pigs prefer brush or light woodland rather than open range where they feel more vulnerable to predators.
Their bodies are designed for pushing through brush relying on scent rather than vision. They have a very well developed sense of hearing and communicate with a wide range of vocalization calls.
Pigs forage and root for food and will eat a wide range of vegetable and animal products, including carrion.
Pigs are very sensitive to extremes of climate. Pigs have no sweat glands, no thick hair cover and they rely on fat cover for insulation.
Because they are sensitive to temperature and have sweat glands in their skin, pigs huddle together to keep warm and wallow to keep cool.
In temperate climates pigs have diurnal habits but in hot climates they are more nocturnal. If they have been hunted they will confine their activities to darkness.Pigs are very curious animals, and very adaptable and smart, so they learn quickly. They love to investigate situations with a very sensitive nose and strong neck muscles.
They have a very acute sense of smell and they use it in recognition of other pigs, and in teat location by suckling piglets.
Pigs have a highly developed eye that sees colour, but vision can be restricted by their floppy ears.
They have acute hearing and loud unfamiliar noises easily panic them.
Pigs have clear taste preferences. Suckling pigs are attracted by sweet creep feeds and mature pigs show a preference for apple flavors.
Pigs use a wide range of sounds to communicate. Young piglets squeak, grunt, bark and squeal, and older pigs use various grunts and squeals to indicate hunger, thirst, alarm, fear, terror, affection, calling piglets to feed, courtship and many more.
Pig squeals can reach 112 decibels and can damage human hearing.
Any noise if spoken softly to pigs will aid friendship with pigs.
Pigs loved to scratch and be scratched, but surprisingly don’t do a lot of mutual grooming.
Sows on heat seek out a male. Mating is a prolonged affair compared to other farm animals.
Sows are nest builders and produce litters, individual piglets being very specific to which teat they suckle. There is close body contact during suckling.
of course. "Concours de Cri du Cochon" in french are quite popular in the countryside. The performance is more difficult than it seems and the winners deserve their prizes (pork products of course...). The fun is also to look at the real pigs to watch for any hint of them being impressed by the sounds [pic on the left]... The contestants usually wear the appropriate dress and mask to emphasize their oinking and groaning. One of these french pig-squealing champion gained an unexpected worldwide fame a year ago or so, when jihadists used his picture and inserted it in the caricature affair to stir up riots....
