NY TIMES: Studies show pigs are smart; plotting revenge on humans for loving all dat bacon

inothernews:

In the current issue of Animal Behaviour, researchers present evidence that domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and will use their understanding of reflected images to scope out their surroundings and find their food. The researchers cannot yet say whether the animals realize that the eyes in the mirror are their own, or whether pigs might rank with apes, dolphins and other species that have passed the famed “mirror self-recognition test” thought to be a marker of self-awareness and advanced intelligence.

…The finding is just one in a series of recent discoveries from the nascent study of pig cognition. Other researchers have found that pigs are brilliant at remembering where food stores are cached and how big each stash is relative to the rest. They’ve shown that Pig A can almost instantly learn to follow Pig B when the second pig shows signs of knowing where good food is stored, and that Pig B will try to deceive the pursuing pig and throw it off the trail so that Pig B can hog its food in peace.

Didn’t you read Oryx and Crake? It’s all there.

Notes

  1. bananaboattimes reblogged this from inothernews
  2. hereblog reblogged this from inothernews and added:
    In the current issue of Animal Behaviour, researchers present evidence that domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors...
  3. markcoatney reblogged this from inothernews and added:
    Didn’t you read Oryx and Crake? It’s all there.
  4. sixbucks reblogged this from inothernews and added:
    Everybody should read The Good, Good Pig.
  5. inothernews posted this