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Sus (genus)

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This article is about the broader pig genus. For the most familiar species, see Domestic pig.
For other uses, see Sus (genus) (disambiguation).
Shoat redirects here; for the sheep/goat hybrid, see geep.
Sus redirects here; for the town in France, see Sus.

Template:Taxobox begin Template:Taxobox image Template:Taxobox begin placement Template:Taxobox regnum entry Template:Taxobox phylum entry Template:Taxobox classis entry Template:Taxobox ordo entry Template:Taxobox familia entry Template:Taxobox genus entry
Linnaeus, 1758 Template:Taxobox end placement Template:Taxobox section subdivision Sus barbatus
Sus bucculentus
Sus cebifrons
Sus celebensis
Sus domesticus
Sus heureni
Sus philippensis
Sus salvanius
Sus scrofa
Sus timoriensis
Sus verrucosus Template:Taxobox end

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.

Pigs are one of the most intelligent mammals, and some, such as the Asian pot-bellied pig, are kept as pets. Pigs are reportedly more intelligent and more trainable than dogs and cats.

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

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

Happy domestic pigs

Several different words in English identify different types of pigs:

  • Boar - Adult male pig
  • Sow - Adult female pig
  • Piglet or farrow - Juvenile pig
  • Shoat - Young pig between 100 to 180 lb (50 to 90 kg)
  • Gilt - Immature female pig
  • Barrow - Castrated male pig
  • Hog - Synonym for "wild pig" in the United States; in its original sense it means a castrated boar.
  • Swine - Synonym for "pigs" (plural)

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 it 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
  • 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.
  • Magical transformation of humans into pigs has been used as a key plot device in fantasy storytelling - from the Ancient Greek epic Odysseus, in which the hero's ship's crew is turned into pigs by Circe; to Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away (2001) in which the heroine's parents are turned into pigs.
  • 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.
  • "Pig" (slang) is a word used to refer to one's friend or buddy, similar to the slang dog or dawg. "Pig" is more commonly used when a female is addressing a friend, usually female, as many females find the term dog or dawg derrogatory. Use of this term originated in Northern California (Millbrae, California to be exact), but has spread to Southern California.
  • Muslims are forbidden to consume animal blood by The Koran, and thus pork. But the wider cultural assumption that pigs are 'unclean' ("rijis") and offensive animals to depict in visual art and sculpture, appears to be a widespread folk myth with no foundation in Koranic scripture. Inayat Bunglawala, Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain commented in the press [1] in 2003 that: "there is absolutely no scriptural authority for this view. It is a misunderstanding of the Koranic instruction that Muslims may not eat pork."
  • Pig iron is so named because the molten newly-smelted iron was once poured into molds resembling rows of suckling pigs.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Pigs feature heavily in the artwork and stage shows of the rock band Pink Floyd.

See also

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