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Revision as of 05:19, 26 March 2006

This article is about the broader pig genus. For the most familiar species, see domestic pig. For other senses of this term, see pig (disambiguation).
Sus redirects here; for the town in France, see Sus.
Swine redirects here; it is also the German name for the Świna river.

Pig
Domestic sow with piglet
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Artiodactyla
Family:
Suidae
Genus:
Sus

Species

Sus barbatus
Sus bucculentus
Sus cebifrons
Sus celebensis
Sus domesticus
Sus heureni
Sus philippensis
Sus salvanius
Sus scrofa
Sus timoriensis
Sus verrucosus

Pigs are ungulates native to Eurasia collectively grouped under the genus Sus within the Suidae family. They have been domesticated and raised as livestock by some peoples for meat (called pork) as well as for leather. Their bristly hairs are also traditionally used for brushes. Wild pigs continue to fill these functions in certain parts of the world.

Pigs are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and animals. On a small farm, or in a large household, they can be fed kitchen scraps as part or all of their diet. In the wild, they are foraging animals. Pigs that are allowed to forage may be watched by swineherds. Because of their foraging abilities and excellent sense of smell, they are used to find truffles in many European countries. They are also fattened to be eaten as ham and other types of meat, such as bacon.

Pigs are unusually trainable animals, and some, such as the Asian pot-bellied pig, are kept as pets.

A litter of piglets typically contains between 6 and 12 animals. Occasionally, in captivity, pigs may eat their own young.

Pigs lack sweat glands, thus they must have access to water or mud to cool themselves during hot weather. They also use mud as a form of sunscreen to protect their skin from sunburn.

Pig species

Pigs in extensive growing

Hybrid swine

Domestic Tamworth pigs are often crossed with wild boar to create "Iron Age Pigs" that resemble early domestic pigs. The piglets have stripes or blotches like young boar. "Iron Age Pigs" are a common attraction at farm parks. The hybrids are tamer than wild boar, but less tractable than domestic swine and generally become specialist pork sausages. Other domestic breeds of pig have been crossed with wild boar to produce a leaner meat for the specialist meat trade.

Various domestic pigs have been crossed with American wild hogs to produce compact, hairy hog-like hybrids.

In "The Variation Of Animals And Plants Under Domestication" Charles Darwin wrote: The European wild boar and the Chinese domesticated pig are almost certainly specifically distinct: Sir F. Darwin crossed a sow of the latter breed with a wild Alpine boar which had become extremely tame, but the young, though having half-domesticated blood in their veins, were "extremely wild in confinement, and would not eat swill like common English pigs

Pig vocabulary

Domestic pigs

Several different words in English identify different types of pigs:

  • Boar - An adult male pig
  • Sow - An adult female pig
  • Piglet/farrow - A juvenile pig
  • Shoat - A young pig between 100 to 180 lb (50 to 90 kg)
  • Gilt - An immature female pig
  • Barrow - A castrated male pig
  • Hog - a domestic or wild adult swine, especially one raised for slaughter because they fatten quickly; in its original sense it means a castrated boar.
  • Swine - Synonym for "pigs" (plural) A terrible person, a cruel person (slang)

As food

Meat from pigs is called pork (coming from the Latin words "porcinus" and "porcus"). Their trotters are often sold as the jelly-like dish of pig's feet. Hog jowls are a popular soul food. The American pig-raising industry calls pork a "white meat" (like poultry) implying it is healthier than "red meat" like beef. Both Islam and Judaism forbid the eating of pork in any form, considering the pig to be an unclean animal: no form of pig meat can be kosher or halal (see taboo food and drink)

Cultural references to pigs

A Bearded Pig

Religious references

  • In ancient Greece, a sow was an appropriate sacrifice to Demeter and had been her favorite animal since she had been the Great Goddess of archaic times. Initiates at the Eleusinian Mysteries began by sacrificing a pig.
  • Jews are also forbidden to consume pork by the laws of Kashrut.
  • In the Gospels, Jesus performs a miracle by causing demons who possess a man to enter a herd of swine who then run off a cliff and drown.

Pigs and people

File:Arkansasrazorback.jpg
The razorback is the mascot of the University of Arkansas
  • A number of schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) and universities have adopted pig or pig-related mascots. The most notable of which are the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, whose mascot, the razorback (Sus scrofa) makes them the only university or major sports team in the United States with a porcine mascot.
  • Magical transformation of humans into pigs has been used as a key plot device in fantasy storytelling - for example the Ancient Greek epic Odysseus, in which the hero's ship's crew is turned into pigs by Circe.
  • The idiomatic phrase "when pigs fly" refers to something that is unlikely to ever happen. Though its origins are much older, its popularity is reinforced by such popular references as in the Lewis Carroll poem The Walrus and the Carpenter.
  • The English language abounds with unflattering references and idioms involving pigs. Pigs are commonly associated with greed ("as greedy as a pig"), obesity, gluttony ("to pig out") and sloth ("a lazy pig"). Likewise, a hog is someone or something that monopolizes time, resources, or processes, e.g. a road hog or server hog. Pigs are also associated with dirtiness ("this room is a pigsty"); the latter probably comes from their habit of wallowing in mud. The perennially soot-covered character in the Peanuts comic strip is named Pig-Pen.
  • "In a pig's eye" is a rhyming slang expression meaning, "That's not true." "Pig's eye" rhymes with, "lie."
  • "Sweating like a Pig" to indicate sweating heavily. This is incorrect, as pigs don't have sweat glands.
  • The noise that a pig makes is usually represented as "oink" in the English language but in many different ways in other languages – for instance, chrum (Polish), hunk (Albanian), hulu (Mandarin Chinese), nøff (Norwegian) and so on. See oink for a fuller list.
  • American footballs were originally made from pig skin and are often called pigskins.
  • The familiar piggybank got its name and shape as a result of a pun on the word pygg, a type of clay commonly used to produce household items in the 18th Century.
  • Pig iron is so named because the molten newly-smelted iron was once poured into molds resembling rows of suckling pigs.
  • A type of barrel called a "hog's head" appears often in the writings of Mark Twain.
  • A "hogshead" is a large volume of liquid.

Music and art

  • Pigs feature heavily in the artwork and stage shows of the rock band Pink Floyd.
  • Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals featured three songs about pigs, in symbolic, Orwell referencing form. See the article for a wider analysis.
  • On the popular American television show The Simpsons, Homer Simpson frequently displays a strong affection for pork-related products. In "Lisa the Vegetarian," when his daughter, Lisa, informs him that bacon, ham, and pork chops come from the same animal, he laughs and sarcastically replies, "Yeah, right Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal."

See also

Wikispecies has information related to Sus.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sus domesticus.
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