Directly from birth, pigs have a pick order. De strongest pigs are the ones that get born first. They get the best place at their mothers utters, which are the ones at the front. In that way, they get the best teat and subsequently the most milk. This makes them stronger and obtain a dominant position over their brothers and sisters.

In a group of pigs, there is a clear pick order, like we just described. Interestingly, the leader of the group doesn’t have to be a boar (man), which is the case with a lot of different species. If a sow baby is born, and she is the one who gets to the best teat, she may well become the leader of the pack. It is just a question of who gets born first. Very emancipating!

Pigs are, in contrast to humans and a lot of different species, very clean regarding their feces. They immediately understand that you should not soil the place where you live and sleep. There are even projects in which the pigs are trained to use certain spots in de barn, where they have put a specifically designed ‘pig toilet’. If the pigs learn that they can use one spot for urinating and another spot for their poo, the farmer can prevent the urine and manure touching. This leads to a substantial reduction of the emission of ammonia. So what the origin is of the expression ‘As dirty as a pig’, we have no idea. 

Something you might not know, is that pigs don’t have the ability to sweat. If a pig does sweat, it means it is very sick. The reasons why pigs roll in mud, is not because they wish to get dirty, but because they need the mud to cool them off. Hence, if the temperatures are low outside, you won’t see pigs taking a mud bath.

A pig is capable to walk within a few minutes after it is born. With that, pigs are quite ahead, both literally and figuratively, compared to, for example, dogs and cats.

You may know this already, but pigs are really smart animals. In fact, they are one of the ten most intelligent animals on earth. A pig is capable of recognizing its own reflection in the mirror, which shows a level of intelligence that we only see in a small amount of animals.

Have you ever heard about a pig that makes art? Well, now you have. There is a pig, appropriately called Pig-casso, who paints, while holding the paint brush in its mouth, the most impressive abstract artworks. Many people will be jealous of his artistic mind!

Pigs, like humans, are omnivores, which means they eat practically anything. They like meat, but they do not need it to stay healthy. Not only in their taste, but also in their organs, pigs resemble humans. That is why some of their organs, or better said, parts of their organs, are used in humans. For example, there are a substantial amount of people walking around with a pigs heart valve in their body. There is a chance that in a couple of years, the kidneys and hearts of pigs will be transplanted into humans too. 

Pigs do not like wetness and cold. They always find a warm, dry and draft free spot to sleep. When it rains, they absolutely decline to go outside. De most kinds of pigs have minimal hairs that give them almost no warmth. Interestingly, when pigs do go outside more, their hair gets thicker and rougher. 

A pig is the ultimate circular animal. Pigs can convert our food scraps to a piece of meat. They very contently eat our food scraps, with which they keep it from our landfills. From those food scraps, the pig grows to a pig that provides us meat. Very efficient!