11. Swine Behaviour Flashcards
5 characteristic wild boar/feral pig behaviours
- Woodland animals
- Forage for food
- eat roots and leaves
- omnivores (act as scavengers - Periods of rest and activity
- dirunal; active during the day and sleep at night - Wallow to keep cool
- only sweat from their snout - Live in family groups and form a social hierarchy
- matriarchal herd of several females and their offspring
- males are not permanently associated with these herds and often live in bachelor groups
Pig vision
- panoramic
- binocular
- focus
- some colour vision
- panoramic range: 310
- binocular vision: 35-50
- not able to focus well
Pig smell and hearing
Well developed sense of smell
- used to locate underground truffles in Europe
- used to identify conspecifics
Hearing also well-developed
- used for communication in all social activities
- used along with pheromones to alarm others to aversive stimuli
Peaks of activity
Two peaks of activity per day
- One in the early morning, the other in the evening
- Usually rest once dusk has fallen
3 attributes of social organization in pigs
- Domestic pigs may be kept together with littermates throughout their lives or grouped with strange pigs of similar size and age
- Pigs can remember up to 30 different individuals
- rarely in congregate groups over 20 (when given the choice) - 2 types of social organization in domestic pigs:
- teat order
- dominance hierarchy
What are the 2 types of social organization in domestic pigs?
- Teat order
- Dominance hierarchy
What 3 things draw piglets to the teats within a few hours of birth?
- udder heat gradient
- olfactory cues
- hair pattern
What is important when it comes to teat order?
Anterior versus posterior teats are important
- amount of milk flow differs
- anterior teats preferred; claimed by more dominant, larger, earlier born piglets
- most fighting between young piglets occurs around the teat
Dominance hierarchy in pigs
- Established in groups of weaned pigs
- Unacquainted pigs mixed together for the first time, fight to establish a ranking in the group
- Simple linear hierarchy
- Dominance influences productivity
- Individuals recognized by sight and smell
How does fighting occur in pigs?
Fighting occurs mouth-to-neck with strong thrusts sideways and upwards
- Fighting begins immediately and drops-off after about an hour
- Some evidence that within large groups, a pig will only fight with about 6-7 other pigs
What behaviour is indicative of pigs being within their thermoneutral zone?
Thigmotactic behaviour
- laying next to each other or next to a pen
- if stacked or huddling, they are cold
Are pigs susceptible to hot and cold conditions?
Pigs are susceptible to hot conditions
- Rate of sweating is very low (sweat only on the disk of the snout); this is why they wet wallow in the wild
- Inadequate thermoregulatory compensation by respiratory evaporative loss
Young pigs are sensitive to cold
- Behaviour feature retained through the pig’s life is the stimulus to HUDDLE with littermates
- Nest building activity in the natural state provides shelter from environmental extremes
What will induce early puberty in gilts?
Presence of a boar
What will influence the level of sexual activity of a boar?
The social environment of the boar during rearing
- If raised individually with no visual contact with females despite smell and sound, have reduced copulation frequency and short average duration of ejaculation compared to boars reared in groups
When will a sow start nest building?
About 6 hours prior to farrowing
- hollows out a depression and lines it with straw, grass, sticks, or other material
- even in the farrowing crate, a sow will show similar behaviours
