Praise be to the pig

But here I say the Turks were much mistaken,
Who, hating hogs, yet wished to save their bacon

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Intelligence research was done with pigs in the 1990s. One of the experiments was to train the pigs to move the cursor on a video screen with their snouts. When the pigs used the cursors again, they were able to distinguish between the scribbles they already knew, and the scribbles they were seeing for the first time. The pigs learned this skill as fast as the chimpanzees.

All species of pig are smarter than dogs, and capable of abstract representation. “They can hold an icon in their mind, and remember it at a later date,” says Professor Stanley Curtis of Penn State University, who discovered that pigs dominate at video games with joy sticks. Curtis goes on to say, “Pigs are able to focus with an intensity I have never seen in a chimp.”

Other tests were done where the pigs were taught the meaning of simple words and phrases. Several years later, the instructions were repeated, and the pigs still remembered what to do. The same thing was done with different objects placed in front of them. They were taught to jump over, sit by, or retrieve the item. Three years later, they could distinguish between the items.

The studies also showed:

• Pigs lead complex social lives that behaviorists once believed to be true only of primates.
• Mother pigs sing to their piglets while they are nursing.
• They excel at video games that would be hard for a young child, and sometimes better than the primates.
• Pigs dream.
• Pigs have a good sense of direction, and can find their way home from long distances.
• They learn from watching one another.
• Pigs outsmart each other. One will often follow another pig to food before grabbing it away from him, and the pig who was tricked will change behaviors to reduce how many times it is tricked.

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A cat will look down to a man. A dog will look up to a man. But a pig will look you straight in the eye and see his equal

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Calliope said:

Poor piggy.

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Timmy said:

Is that real? Pig flu would be the least of your concerns if you stumbled across that in the bush.

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Timmy said:

Is that real? Pig flu would be the least of your concerns if you stumbled across that in the bush.

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