Pigs are capable of social graces if they are given the chance. Pig fights are common and violent events frequent in the sty, but they aren't an inevitable part of pig culture.
The finer points of pig etiquette were revealed during a session of the British Association yesterday. Scientists now think that pigs may have complex social skills and are quite capable of using brain rather than brawn to settle disputes. Understanding the hidden depths of pigs and other farmyard animals can make farms more civilised, peaceful and productive, researchers believe.
Pigs introduced into a new group for the first time are bullied like a new kid at school.
"First they investigate each other and the pen, and then there is an outbreak of fighting," said Dr Mike Mendl, of the department of clinical and veterinary science at the University of Bristol. Biting and pushing causes cuts, lameness and even death, resulting in unhappy animals and losses of £15 million to the farming industry, he stated.
New research showed that the key to ending the fighting was to understand the personalities of the pigs.
"Some pigs are much more willing to fight that others," said Mendl. Pigs used certain clues, such as smell, to work out how aggressive the other pigs in the group were. If pigs with the same level of aggressiveness were put together, fighting was certain to follow, but when aggressive pigs were mixed with passive ones, they formed into a hierarchy without fighting.
In mixed groups, passive pigs could lose out, especially at feeding time, but they employed certain tricks to protect their share. Pigs followed each other to find food, but once it was found the aggressive pigs tended to muscle the small pigs out of the way. However, small pigs "can understand that the competitive pig is trying to get food from them", said Mendl, and they quickly learned to sneak around and eat only if the other pig had its back turned.
Chickens were another animal with "hidden depths", according to Prof Christine Nicol, also from the University of Bristol. Her aim was to determine whether chickens really were the "bird-brains of the animal kingdom", she said.
She trained a group of "demonstrator" chickens to get food by touching a button. She then allowed naïve "student" chickens to watch the demonstrators doing their trick. When the students were allowed to try it for themselves, they quickly picked up this skill. Cockerels proved to be bad teachers, however, as they took longer to learn tasks and the chickens generally ignored them anyway.
The chickens' skill of learning by watching was an important one for mother hens to teach their chicks. This education was necessary so that the chicks would know what to eat, but it was also important for preserving farmer income. Chickens were more than happy to lunch on one another and anti-social cannibalistic behaviour could spread quickly through a flock.