What do pigs use their snout for

Their intelligence ranks higher than dogs and even some primates. In their natural state, pigs are very clean animals. They keep their toilets far from their living or feeding area. They are much more tolerant of colder temperatures that heat. Pigs are very social animals. The disc is made of cartilage and is covered with skin that has a high density of tactile receptors.

The nose is also strengthened by the prenasal bone, and can dig right into soil, moving rocks and roots out of the way with ease. In addition to excavating, the nose can detect odors up to 7 miles away, and also scents hidden deep within the ground.

Pigs may smell something tasty 3 feet deep, and dig it up in a matter of minutes. The ability of pigs to smell through soil encouraged the Israeli military to try to train them to sniff out landmines.

The project failed, and the pigs were replaced by giant African pouched rats. Amazingly, truffles produce a scent that mimics the sex hormones of a boar, so female pigs are used to find them.

Smelling like something that a pig wants to find insures the truffles survival, because they need to be eaten by the pig and then spread about in the pigs feces to reproduce. This is a process called mycophagy. But lady pigs aren't the only ones that find the scent of truffles intoxicating, it is said to be an aphrodisiac for people too.

In the last few decades, dogs have started to replace pigs in the task of truffle hunting, because the pigs were quite reluctant to give up what they found. Pigs are so driven to dig around and search their surroundings that they can get depressed without a stimulating environment.

Farmers provide them with straw to shovel through which reduces their stress levels and provides them with hours of interesting activity. Pigs are extremely vocal while they root about, and have a vast vocabulary of snorts, grunts and squeals. Mothers have specific calls for piglets, pigs make special noises when being fed, while resting together, or while waiting to come in or go outside.

They communicate with eachother constantly, and may call to eachother across distances of miles if separated. The squeal of a pig is said to be almost as loud as a jet engine, and people who work with them in large quantities sometimes wear ear protection to prevent hearing loss.

Pigs are social animals that live in groups called sounders. A sounder is made up of several mother pigs and their offspring, which may stay with the sounder for life, or in the case of males, will leave in a few years to live alone or in a bachelor group. Adult males, called boars, generally join the sounder for a few days at a time when females are in season.

Female pigs, called sows, or gilts if they are under a year old and have not been bred, have an estrus cycle of about 25 days, and are capable of having 2 complete litters a year. Most large hoofed mammals, like horses, cows, and deer, have only one offspring, sometimes twins, but pigs have large litters of piglets, averaging between 6 and The female is pregnant for about days and gives birth, also called "farrowing", lying down, in a nest that she prepares a day before.

Piglets are precocious, born with eyes open, stand and walk within minutes, and may leave the family to relieve themselves in the appropriate corner at just a few hours old. Piglets have "assigned teating" - the first teat they start with will be the one that they always use, and they will fight to get back to it.

This is an advantage to piglets at the first 3 or 4 rows of teats, because they actually have the most milk. There are almost always one or two runts in the litter, and they may be pushed aside by their siblings, which may make their condition worse.

Caregivers must regularly remove runt piglets and bottle feed them to insure they survive. One of the most common causes of piglet death is being crushed by the mother. Sows can weigh many hundreds of pounds, and pigs are not very agile, so bumpers are provided in domestic pig farrowing pens to prevent these losses. Pigs mature very quickly, can be weaned anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks, and grow at enormous rates, many large breeds reaching over pounds in just their first year of life.

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So kick off your shoes, roll around in the mud, and let out your best OINK! Orlando is here with some cool facts about these amazing animals.

Image via Pixabay.