If you’ve ever been to a farm, you may have learned a little. However, you might still have questions about these mammals. Fortunately, this list of fun facts can act as a guide. Plus, you can even see how you compare to pigs.
Pigs are incredibly intelligent. Some have indicated that they are as smart as dogs.
Due to that fact, many people have chosen to go beyond the concept of looking at pigs as a food source, but now keep them as house pets.
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Pig Facts for Kids
- A mother pig is called a sow
- Baby Pigs are called ‘piglets’.
- A pig is a mammal
- Pigs are intelligent animals.
- There are around 675 million pigs in the world
- People use pigs for meat, such as Bacon, Pork, and ham.
- A pig’s snout is used to search and root for food
- They are incredibly social creatures that form bonds with pigs and people.
- They love laying down in close contact with each other.
- Unlike the typical image, pigs are actually very clean. They make sure that their eating areas are completely separate from their toilet areas and even newborn babies will leave their nest to use the toilet only hours after they have been born.
- Pigs are mostly peace-loving animals and the only time you might see any aggressive behavior is if a mother pig thinks her babies are being threatened.
- Pigs have an incredible sense of smell.
- Their snouts have a large round disk that is made of cartilage at the very end.
- It is connected with muscles that allow it the ability to move so it can have the strength to root around in the ground.
What Do Pigs Look Like?
Pigs have stocky bodies and short legs. They have flat snouts. Typically, their eyes are small, and their ears are large. They’re typically depicted as pink creatures in TV shows and movies, but pigs are usually black, yellow, or brown. Some pigs are pink, though.
At birth, baby pigs usually weigh around 2.5 pounds, which is much smaller than the average human baby. The average size of a human baby is six pounds nine ounces.
Within one week of birth, a pig doubles his or her weight. A human baby usually triples in weight his or her first year of life.
An average pig may reach up to 300 to 700 pounds. The average adult human is less than 200 pounds in weight.
What Special Features Do Pigs Have?
A pig’s vision is poor. However, what they lack in vision, they make up for in smell. Pigs have an excellent sense of smell!
Their nostrils are highly sensitive to touch, which allows them to use their noses to look for food.
What’s Inside of a Pig? How Many Stomachs Do They Have?
While a pig doesn’t look much like you, except for maybe when you’re eating spaghetti, the internal structure of a pig is similar to yours. For instance, a pig has veins and arteries that direct the flow of blood throughout his or her body. This ensures the pig’s organs, tissue, and cells receive oxygen and nutrients. A pig’s heart is similar in shape, function, and structure to that of a human heart as well.
Human lungs have five lobes, three lobes on one side and two on the other. Pig lungs, on the other hand, both have multiple lobes on each half. However, the reason for their lungs is the same as yours — to allow the animal to breathe in oxygen and release carbon dioxide.
Just like you — a pig has a digestive tract. A pig’s digestive system is surprisingly similar to yours, despite the big size of the pig’s belly. In fact, a pig has only one compartment to his or her stomach, just like you. However, a pig’s liver has five lobes, while the liver only has four lobes. Pigs have both a large and small intestine, the same as you. However, the pig’s large intestines are spiral, and yours aren’t.
Pigs also have kidneys, a bladder, bile ducts, and a spleen, which are all found in humans too.
A pig’s reproductive system is similar to that of humans as well.
What Do Pigs Like to Do?
If you’ve ever gone to see farm animals, you may notice that they have limited space. They tend to sleep most of their days away. However, whenever pigs aren’t domesticated pigs or are given a great deal of room to run, they tend to sleep less than eight hours a day. This is slightly less than what the average human adult is supposed to sleep.
Generally, pigs spend around 32 percent of their day sleeping. Keep in mind that your average house cat or dog usually sleeps over half of their day away, so this means a pig is awake much more than you or your typical house pet.
Pigs love to bask in the sun. Surprisingly, they even like soft music. You might even be surprised to know that a pig will play ball with you.
What Do You Call the Different Types of Pigs?
Pigs get special names based on their gender. For instance, people may call a male pig a boar, but this term is often given to any type of wild pig of any gender. A gilt is a female pig who has never had babies, while you call a mother pig a sow. Baby pigs are known as piglets.
What Do Pigs Fear?
A female pig or a male pig may get scared at times, just like humans. While you may be scared to sing on stage, a pig has different fears. For instance, a loud noise could scare a pig. A pig will feel threatened when anything is chasing him or her. A pig could also get scared of a strange type of animal or even another pig.
If you are ever in contact with a pig, you want to approach him or her calmly. Never make sudden movements or loud noises. You also want to pay attention to their reactions. A scared pig may run wildly, make loud noises, and may even jump over or under obstacles to get away from what he or she fears. You want to make sure a pig is as calm as possible with you. Their little hearts, along with their massive body weight, can make stress unusually hard for them to handle.
Where Do Pigs Live?
Some pigs live outside in the wild, while others live outside in enclosures. Some people even make pigs their house pets. However, you’ll most likely see pigs on a farm. When they’re on a farm, they live in enclosures known as styes. These styes usually have a fence around them and have a bare dirt or mud floor.
Are Pigs Really As Dirty as They Look?
Pigs get a reputation for being dirty since they play in the mud. However, when your mother says your room looks like a pigsty, it’s not actually true. Surprisingly, pigs are one of the cleanest of animals.
Pigs and their homes are relatively clean. In fact, they’re one of the animals that won’t excrete waste in their living or eating quarters unless they absolutely have no choice.
While you might find their mud bath’s gross, they’re just trying to keep cool when they immerse themselves in the mud. They have no sweat glands, and the mud decreases their body temperatures. Sometimes, pigs will wallow in the mud for fun as well. Wild pigs may wallow in the mud to remove lice and ticks.
Surprisingly, pigs are one of the cleanest of animals.
Other Facts
Pigs that are wild pigs play an important ecological role. In their search for food, they root around in the ground, moving the soil which encourages new plant growth.
Pigs also spread the seeds of the fruit, which gives new fruit the chance to grow.
Cultures around the world eat the meat of pigs.
However, there are some diseases that are contained in pig meat that can be very harmful to humans and certain religions consider it wrong to eat the meat of pigs.
There have been many stories throughout history about pigs saving people’s lives.
It is believed that their bond with humans, combined with their intelligence, allows them the chance to do these feats.
In the Chinese zodiac, the Pig is the twelfth symbol and represents honesty, fortune, virility, and happiness.
A pig’s heart is so similar to a human heart that surgeons will often use various parts of the heart as a replacement in heart surgery. The pig heart valve is the one that is used the most.
