Fascinating Fun Facts About Pigs

Pigs are omnivores (eat both plants and meat), they are also highly social and intelligent animals. With around 1 billion pigs alive at any time, the domesticated pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet. The ancestor of the domesticated pig is the wild boar, which is also one of the most numerous and widespread large mammals in nature.  Adult domestic pigs can weigh between 50 and 350 kg (110 and 770 lb). Domestic pigs will seek the company of each other and often will huddle to maintain physical contact with each other. Domestic pigs are also very intelligent and can be trained to perform numerous tasks and tricks.

 

 

* Baby pigs appear very greedy when they are competing for food from their mothers. For this reason the words “pig” and “hog” have become associated with greedy behavior.

* Pigs have a well developed sense of smell. They can find things underground and have been used to find truffles, a French delicacy, or to sniff out drugs in service to policemen.

* Soldier pigs have gone to war. On battlefields, they have used their sensitive snouts as mine sniffers.

* A mature pig has 44 teeth. The canine teeth, called tusks, grow continuously and are sharpened by the lowers and uppers rubbing against each other.

* Scientists believe that pigs are one of the most intelligent animals, ranking close behind apes and dolphins

* China has the world's largest population of domestic pigs

* The average sow gives birth to 8 to 12 pigs at a time

* An average pig eats five pounds of feed each day, or a ton of food every year

* A pig's squeal can be as loud as 115 decibels, 3 decibels higher than the sound of a supersonic airliner

* An average American consumes 51 lbs of pork each year

* Pigs do not have sweat glands and pale pigs risk sunburn, hence they roll in mud to keep themselves cool

* A number of pigs together is called a herd

* A piece of lead used in a ship's ballast is called a hog

* One of the smaller molds used for casting iron is called a hog Curling Hog

* A curling rock that is not thrown far enough to get over the hog line, is called a hog

* A pig raised for meat is called a hog

* A broom for scraping the underside of a ship is called a hog Curling Hog

* A large railway locomotive is called a hog

* A Harley Davidson motorcycle is called a hog

* In the UK, a sixpenny coin was called a hog

* Pork is the world's most widely-eaten meat

* In Denmark there are twice as many pigs as people

* There are approximately 840 million hogs on farms throughout the world

* On average, pigs live for about 15 yearsMiss Piggy

* The largest pig on record was a Poland-China hog named Big Bill, who weighed 2,552 lbs [1157.4 kg] owned by Burford Butler of Jackson, Tennessee, USA in the year 1933

* Here is the feisty starlet girlfriend of Kermit the Frog from the Muppets - Miss Piggy

* Pigs do not have functional sweat glands. They use water or mud for the purpose of staying cool in hot weather

* Pigs do not prefer to sit in mud. Infact, they prefer cleanliness much more than other animals. They use the mud only as a coolant in summers, that too out of necessity.

* Mud also provides the pigs protection against flies and parasites, apart from being used as a form of sunscreen, which protects their skin from sunburn.

* A female pig is called a sow, while the male is called boar. The baby of a pig is called piglet.

* Pigs have such a well developed sense of smell that they can easily find things underground.

* Many experts consider pigs to be more trainable than dogs or cats.

* Even though pigs have four toes on each hoof, they walk on only two of the toes. This makes them look as if they are tiptoeing.

* The largest litter of piglets ever born included 37 piglets, out of which 36 were born alive and 33 survived.

* A full grown pig can drink up to 14 gallons of water a day.

* Domesticated pigs are used as sources of food, leather and similar products.

* Pigs have four toes on each foot and each toe ends in a hoof. They only walk on the two middle toes on each foot so they look as if they are on their tiptoes.

* Did you know a pig can run a 7-minute mile?

* The Orgin of  the Nickname Uncle Sam in the United States - Great Trivia Question
During the War of 1812, a New York pork packer named Uncle Sam Wilson shipped a boatload of several hundred barrels of pork to U.S. troops. Each barrel was stamped "U.S." on the docks. The "U.S." stood for "Uncle Sam" whose shipment seemed large enough to feed the entire army. This is how "Uncle Sam" came to represent the U.S. Government.  Source

* The saying "living high on the hog" started among enlisted men in the U.S. Army who received shoulder and leg cuts of pork while officers received the top loin cuts. “Living high on the hog" came to mean living well.

* Have you ever heard the saying, "Don’t buy a pig in a poke?" In 17th century England, it was a common trick to try to give away a cat to an unsuspecting shopper buying a suckling (young) pig. When he opened the poke (sack), he "let the cat out of the bag," and found he had been cheated.

Places named after the pig:

 

* Boarhills, Scotland

* Hog Island, Florida

* Hog Island, Grenada

* Hog Island, Guyana

* Hog Island, Michigan

* Hog Island, Virginia

* Hog Point, Virginia

* Hog Head, Ireland

* Pig Point, Virginia

* Bay of Pigs , Cuba

* Sow River, England

* Babe Island, Guam (not really after Babe, the Gallant Pig)

“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals” - Sir Winston Churchill

"No man should be allowed to be President who does not understand hogs." - President Harry Truman

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig

http://www.thepigsite.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_farming

http://littlepigfarm.com/raising-a-little-pig