Pigs are smart
The Merck Veterinary Manual calls pigs highly intelligent and often under-stimulated. In a Purdue University study, pigs learned to steer a cursor on a screen with a joystick, using their snouts.
The snout
Pigs find buried food by smell and dig it up with the tough front edge of the snout, which is called rooting. The tip of the snout, the rooting disk, is packed with touch receptors, like a human hand.
Why pigs roll in mud
Pigs have few working sweat glands, so they cannot sweat to cool off. Wallowing in mud or water is their main way to cool down, and the mud also protects their skin from sunburn.
Pigs are clean
Despite the mud, pigs are clean animals. Given room, they keep the place where they lie down apart from the place where they relieve themselves. When they are crowded, that separation breaks down.
What pigs eat
Pigs are omnivores. Wild pigs eat leaves, seeds, roots, fungi, fallen fruit, grass, insects, birds' eggs, lizards and even small mammals.
How long pigs live
It depends on the pig and the care. University of California extension puts the average at 6 to 10 years, and up to about 16 for pigs kept in a home. The Merck Veterinary Manual gives potbellied pigs 8 to 25 years, with 10 to 15 common in healthy pigs. Most sources land around 10 to 15 years, and some pigs reach their 20s.
Domesticated twice
Pigs were domesticated about 10,000 years ago, separately in the Near East and in China.
The pigs at Kaleidoscope Desert
The pigs here, Big Pig, Brad Pigg, Chris P. Bacon, Clem, Jennifer Hammiston and Scaredy Pig among them, roam the grounds with the goats, the emus, the zebra and the rest of the residents.
Kaleidoscope Desert is a nonprofit art and animal sanctuary on 7.5 acres in Morongo Valley, California, 15 minutes from Joshua Tree and 20 minutes from Palm Springs, where more than 100 animals roam free among the art.
You meet them on the Sanctuary Tour, a guided walk of about 90 minutes that runs daily, with someone who knows every resident by name and their stories. The animals come over on their own terms. Every visit is for adults, 18 and over.
100% of proceeds go to the animals: their rescue, their care, and the sanctuary they live in. Kaleidoscope Desert Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Social and talkative
Wild pigs live in groups called sounders, usually four to six related sows. Researchers have identified more than 20 distinct pig calls, grunts included, and a University of Copenhagen study found that pig calls are shorter in good situations and turn to screams and squeals in bad ones.