Pigs are mammals with stocky bodies, flat snouts, small eyes and large ears. Pigs are in the Suidae family, which includes eight genera and 16 species.
Fast Facts about Pigs
1. A pig’s snout is an important tool for finding food in the ground and sensing the world around them.
2. You must have heard “As dirty as a pig” many times, yeah?. Despite their reputation, pigs are not dirty animals. They’re actually quite clean. The pig’s reputation as a filthy animal comes from its habit of rolling in mud to cool off. Pigs are very clean, keeping their toilet area far away from where they lie down and eat. Even newborn piglets will leave the nest to go to the toilet within hours of birth.
3. Pigs are also known as hogs or swine. Male pigs of any age are called boars; female pigs are called sows.
4. Pigs communicate constantly with one another; more than 20 vocalizations have been identified that pigs use in different situations, from wooing mates to saying, “I’m hungry!”
5. Pigs don’t “sweat like pigs”; they are actually unable to sweat.
6. Newborn piglets learn to run to their mothers’ voices and to recognize their own names. Mother pigs sing to their young while nursing.
7. A baby pig, or piglet, weighs about 1.5 kilograms at birth and will double its weight in just 7 days.
8. Pigs are omnivores meaning that they eat both plants and animals. Pigs are scavengers by nature and will eat nearly anything that they come across from plants and fruit to dead insects and tree bark.
9. Adult pigs can run at speeds of up to 11 miles an hour.
10. Lifespan of pig is 6-8 years.