Pig Trivia Challenge

The Domestic Pig: A Summary

• The domestic pig is an omnivorous, even-toed, hoofed mammal that is farmed primarily for meat production, called pork. They are also kept as pets.

• Pigs have a large head with a long snout that is used to dig for food. They have 44 teeth, with the rear teeth adapted for crushing. They have four hoofed toes on each foot, with the two larger central toes bearing most of the weight.

• Pigs have a bristled sparse hair covering on their skin, although woolly-coated breeds exist. They possess both apocrine and eccrine sweat glands, but do not use thermal sweat glands in cooling. Pigs lose heat by wallowing in mud or water via evaporative cooling.

• The genome of the pig has been sequenced and contains about 22,342 protein-coding genes.

• Pigs were domesticated from wild boar in the Near East in the Tigris Basin and separately in China beginning 8,000 years ago. Pigs were introduced to Europe from the Near East, stimulating the domestication of local European wild boar.

• The domesticated pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet, with around 1 billion individuals alive at any time.

• Female pigs reach sexual maturity at 3-12 months of age and come into estrus every 18-24 days. The gestation period averages 112-120 days.

• Pigs seek out the company of other pigs and often huddle to maintain physical contact. They live in groups of about 8-10 adult sows, some young individuals, and some single males.

• Pigs are omnivorous and highly versatile in their feeding behavior. They primarily eat leaves, stems, roots, fruits, and flowers. They play an important role in regions where pig toilets are employed.

• Pigs are highly intelligent animals, on par with dogs, and have demonstrated the ability to move a cursor on a video screen with their snouts and understand what is happening onscreen.

• Rooting is an instinctual behavior in pigs that is characterized by a pig nudging its snout into something. Nest-building is another behavioral characteristic of pigs that they share with carnivores.

• Nest-building behavior is an important part of the process of pre and post-partum maternal behavior. The sow will separate from the group and seek a suitable nest site with some shelter from rain and wind that has well-drained soil.The Fascinating World of Pigs: Nursing and Suckling Behaviour, Teat Order, Senses, Breeds, and More

• Pigs display complex nursing and suckling behaviour, with piglets stimulating milk let-down and competing for position at the udder.

• Dominance hierarchies can be formed at a very early age, with piglets fighting to develop a teat order as the anterior teats produce a greater quantity of milk.

• Pigs have panoramic vision, well-developed sense of smell, and good hearing, which they use for communication and identification.

• Many breeds of pig exist, with different colors, shapes, and sizes, and three breeds are critically rare.

• Pigs are mainly farmed for their meat, with other food products made from them including pork sausage, bacon, ham, and pork rinds.

• Pigs are raised outdoors in yards or fields in some developing and developed nations, and in large-scale intensive pig farms in industrialized nations.

• Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs have made popular pets in the United States, but they can be strong-willed and independent pets.

• Pigs require regular trimming of the hooves, and male pigs may grow large tusks.

• Pigs are used in biomedical research today for their similarities to human beings, and are the best non-human candidates for organ donation to humans.

• The risk of cross-species disease transmission from pigs to humans during organ donation is low, but rejection of the xenograft can occur.

• Pig cells have been engineered to inactivate viruses and eliminated infection from the pig to human cells in culture.

• In traditional Irish folklore, pigs are seen as a thing of bad luck and should not be mentioned by fishermen.