
Common name: Pig
Scientific name: Sus scrofa
Distribution: Worldwide
Common name: Pig
Scientific name: Sus scrofa
Distribution: Worldwide
Pigs are very social animals who even snuggle up nose to nose while sleeping if kept in groups. They are very chatty, with a vocabulary of over 20 different sounds. Through high-pitched squeals, pigs can communicate fear, distress, and pain to other pigs, while low grunting signals content.
They also have exceptional senses. Pigs have evolved to have high-frequency hearing and they have an amazing sense of smell thanks to very sensitive noses, but they also see the world very differently from us. This is because their eyes are set on the sides of their head giving them a 310° panoramic view of the world around them.
Pigs don’t have functioning sweat glands, that’s why they love to wallow in mud during the day, to keep nice and cool. Mud also provides the added bonus of protection from the sun. It’s not a messy pig, just a sun-safe pig! But pigs are naturally very clean animals and when given the proper amount of space, will always poop well away from their feeding and sleeping areas.
They are also much faster than you might expect. An adult pig can run up to 18kph, meaning that they can run a whole kilometre in well under four minutes!
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