Page 60 - World of Animals - Issue #39

Pigs of the world

Domestic pigs can be found
all over the world, with the
exception of Antarctica

Domestic pig

Think they’re just filthy farm animals? Few

creatures match the cerebral skills of the domestic pig

The best known and most widespread domestic pigs are highly intelligent. Their
swine of all, domestic pigs are among cleverness rivals that of dogs, and they
the most numerous large mammals in can even be taught to perform tricks. On
the world, with approximately one billion a more practical level, the savvy animals
of them trotting around at any one time. use their brainpower to help them forage
These familiar farmyard animals are the for food and form social bonds.
descendants of wild boars, although Dirtiness is often associated with
nowadays they are considered their own domestic pigs, but their wallowing serves
species (Sus domesticus). an important purpose. They use mud as
Despite their reputation for being a natural sunscreen, protecting their skin

clumsy, lazy and generally oafish, against UV rays, and to keep cool.
Wild boar

These heavyweight hogs from Southeast Asia can
now be found snuffling all over the world

The original ancestor of the
Wild boars are found throughout domestic pig, wild boars date back
parts of Europe, Asia and North
Africa, although their range is to the Early Pleistocene, around
spreading 1.8 million years ago. Although
they originate from Southeast
Asia, the mammals can now be
found all over the world. There
are 16 subspecies of wild boar,
with small anatomical differences
depending on where they come
from (boars from arid regions tend
to be smaller than those with access to food and water). One
characteristic of all wild boars is that they have a massive, plow-
like head that acts as a shovel, upturning tricky terrain and rocks.
“They have a massive, plow-like

head that acts as a shovel”

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