"GRUNTING" "'There are five-and-a-half million pigs in Britain.'" "What a great life." "'Yet what do we really know about them?" "'" "Yes!" "'I know pigs are intelligent.'" "I think she knows I'm talking about her." "'So, how much is really going on in a pig's head?" "'" "He's straightaway, bang on it." "'I'm going to do a series of experiments to find out.'" "That's incredible." "I've got friends who probably couldn't do it as quick!" "LAUGHTER" "'Pigs have been around for 40 million years.'" "Are these the SAS of the pig world?" "'So how much have they been changed by us?" "'There's far more to pigs than meets the eye.'" "Pigs are intelligent, they're sensitive and I guess that's why I love them." "But beneath the surface of every modern domesticated pig, there's a wild animal and it's that that influences everything they do." "'What I'm about to discover will make us look at pigs in a very different way.'" "Pigs mean a lot to me, not only as a farmer but also the connection I've with them as an animal." "You know, I find them fantastic." "When I look at these little eyes here, little pig eyes, with little eyelashes, you see something that reflects back to you that, I don't know, it sort of, it makes you feel like there's a person looking back." "Isn't that right, love?" "'Pigs are big business in the UK." "'We spend £9 billion a year on pork, so it pays to know what you're looking at.'" "Nice-looking pig, isn't it?" "For me looking at meat, I think we can use her for breeding but her offspring should take on the same traits." "I mean nice big hams, nice, nice and long for bacon." "So she's definitely one we'll go for then." "'There are 11 different rare breeds in the UK today." "'I can spot most of them." "'There's the Tamworth, the Oxford Sandy and Black, the Middle White and the Saddleback.'" "The whole place is buzzing." "It's amazing." "OVER PA: 210, 210 bid." "220, 220 bid, 220." "Waiting for you, sir." "30, 230, 230 bid, have another, at 230, 40, 240." "At 240." "Will you, at 240?" "Give me 250, 260." "Your turn to come in, then." "270." "There, at 270." "Our seller across there." "This time she goes." "Number 1." "It's amazing, it happens so quickly." "You've really got to know what you're doing." "I think I've bidded against myself twice, which is a big mistake, but I got what I want." "'This auction represents just a tiny part of the pig business." "'In Britain, we eat over 800,000 tons of pork and bacon 'every year and rare breeds contribute just a fraction of that.'" "It's lot 66." "And again." "At 60, 360." "380 bid." "At 380." "Well, you'll lose a good pig." "Going this time going at 380." "'At this sale, rare-breed pigs are fetching anywhere between £80 and £400.'" "There you are, lovely." "Now, I didn't get all the pigs I wanted but I ended up buying four beautiful pigs like this one, this lovely Berkshire." "Now she's going to be part of my breeding herd." "But when you sit down and really think about it, how much do we know about this animal?" "How much do we know about its secret behaviour?" "What does it share with its wild cousins and what does it share with us human beings?" "You know, I think it's about time I take a closer scientific look at the pig." "I'm here on Dartmoor," "I'm 1,400 feet up and on my way to a farm just down there, to meet the Hughes who keep rare-breed pigs." "I'm hoping to see some natural behaviour." "Now, I'm going to be here for eight days and I've got a list of experiments that I want to carry out." "Now some may work, some may not, so I've got a couple of people that are going to give me a hand." "'Philippa and Sebastian have worked with pigs for many years." "'They have about 300 Saddlebacks which they keep outside.'" "Pigs have always been part of a traditional mixed farm and do you think what I'm going to do with the pigs in terms of the experiments, do you expect to find anything new?" "Do you know everything about pigs, or do you think there's behaviour within your pigs you don't know about?" "We're fascinated, because some of the experiments you've described, I've my doubts whether they'll work." "'Sebastian and Philippa have agreed to help me set up the experiments." "'So, armed with a long list, they're going to get stuck in and rearrange the farmyard." "'While they do the heavy lifting, I'm off to meet the ancestor of these farm pigs." "'I'm heading to the Highlands in the far northwest of Scotland." "'Alladale is a 23,000-acre wilderness reserve owned by a millionaire conservationist." "'He's returning the land to its former glory 'and has introduced a small group of wild boar." "'In the Bronze Age, wild boar roamed the entire country 'but by the 17th century, they'd been hunted to extinction." "'Today, there are less than 1,000 across the whole of the UK." "'Here at Alladale, they're looked after by ranger David Clark.'" "How many wild boar do you have here?" "Well, we have about ten sows, one boar and a handful of piglets from the summer." "Yeah." "'David supplements their natural diet during the winter, so they come when they're called.'" "Come on, girls!" "'Pigs being pigs, a free meal is impossible to resist.'" "Now these are real tough animals." "These are the SAS of the pig world, are they?" "You could say that." "Cor, there's lots of them!" "Come on." "Look at that." "Cor, they're friendly, aren't they?" "One thing I noticed straightaway." "When I think of domestic pigs, when I think of my rare breeds, they've got nice curly tails, all these guys' tails are straight, aren't they?" "That's right." "That one there." "But it's kind of an indicator of what they're doing and thinking." "If they get alarmed, the tail goes straight up in the air, if they're not, it's just wagging about." "The difference in their coat is incredible." "That's just like a yard broom, it's so bristly and thick." "If you think of the archetypal pink pig, that doesn't have any sort of fur on it at all, you know, it's just pink skin." "They've come a long way from being a wild animal like that to the domesticated pig we see today." "Oh, there's a lot of differences you can pick up on domestic pigs." "The nose as well, the length of the nose." "'This strange-looking creature is called diacodexis." "'It's a distant ancestor of all pigs." "'The size of a rabbit, it's the earliest-known even-toed hoofed mammal." "'Evolution then drove one branch of this family to the camels." "'Another branch to the whales." "'And this one, after many strange stops and starts, turned into the wild boar." "'9,000 years ago, we stared to domesticate them." "'The journey from wild boar to farm pig began." "'The skull broadened, heightened and shortened 'as we selectively bred them for their meat and docile characteristics." "'A group of wild boar is called a sounder." "'The Alladale sounder is led by this female." "'She's one of the oldest and dominates the other nine sows 'by using her size and her strength." "'This sow is nursing five piglets." "'However, they may not all be hers." "'Wild boar are known to share maternal duties." "'They'll nurse or suckle each other's piglets, 'leaving the mother free to forage so she can build up her strength." "'The stripes on the piglet's back are for camouflage." "'If there was any danger, 'the stripes would help conceal them within the heather." "'They lose the stripes at about three-to-four months old." "'They'll have less need for them because by then they'll be too big to hide in the vegetation." "'There's only one male wild boar at Alladale." "'He lives a solitary life." "'And like all males, he only visits the sounder to mate." "'The sounder's social structure is one of the reasons 'why they were successfully domesticated." "'It's thought that following a leader and knowing who's boss 'meant they were quickly able to switch their allegiance." "'We've lived happily side by side ever since.'" "This is one of my lovely Gloucester Old Spot sows and one thing that's absolutely amazing is this nose down here." "That gives them a sense of smell that's 2,000 times better than ours." "It's the only place that they really sweat and you can imagine, phew, they can pick up smells that are deep down in the ground." "They can pick up almost a picture of their environment around them in smell." "Hello, lovely." "Right, I think we can start." "Where do you want it laid, Jimmy?" "Just across here, that's nice and sort of dryish." "'Time for experiment number one." "'The yard's clear and the pigs are standing by." "'I want to see if that powerful snout is all its cracked up to be.'" "So the idea, Sebastian, is that I'm going to create, a little bit of paddock." "Like laying carpet." "Where's the end?" "It's like we're going to play bowls!" "JIMMY CHUCKLES" "'The next part is to bury some different food types 'and see if there's any discrimination going on.'" "If we put apple under here..." "Yep." "If we did this strip as apple." "Strip of apple." "We did a little one of onions, maybe some chestnuts." "Yeah." "And then maybe some raisins." "Then we see which they go for and which they don't." "Onions." "All right, I don't want any crying, Sebastian." "I'd imagine the onions are something that the pigs wouldn't really go for." "So you'd expect them to ignore this patch." "Chestnuts." "'And to give us a clear idea of where the different foods are," "'Henry, Sebastian's son, is putting down some markers." "'Now let's see what happens.'" "What's his name?" "He's your breeding boar, isn't he?" "Vesuvius." "All our male boars or bulls are named after volcanoes." "THEY LAUGH" "You know, we've had Popocatepetl, called Pop." "Stromboli and..." "Great." "So what do you call the females then?" "The females are all named Norma, if they're fierce, after my mother-in-law." "Have you got a lot of Normas?" "We have a couple of Normas." "And a real one as well." "What does the mother in law think about that?" "Did you tell her?" "I think she smiles, as any mother-in-law does, at their son-in-law." "She smiles and humours me." "That's a good one." "Old Norma." "So is this a Norma here?" "No, I think this one is too peaceful." "Norma would be up here at the fence." "After you." "Come on, fella." "Come on, that's it." "Come on, love." "Come on." "Come on, girl." "Run and get the pig boards from the stable." "Come on." "Come on, pig, pig, pig." "Right, let's see what happens." "He's not digging deep." "He's rolling it very gently back to get at the food, so he's straightaway, bang on it." "It's as if he knows exactly what he's doing." "Their sense of smell is 2,000 times better than ours." "I mean, it's so sensitive." "And that nose, it's used as a tool of precision." "Look at that!" "Look how she's rolling it!" "Rolling it." "Better than us laying it!" "JIMMY LAUGHS" "'There are as many tactile receptors in a pig's snout 'as there are in human hands." "'Their sense of touch is just as sophisticated as ours." "'And their sense of taste and smell 'is how they experience and explore their world.'" "Straight on the apple." "Yep." "Turfed it over, ate the apple." "They've passed the onion, started eating raisins." "They've looked at the onion, not interested, but there's some preference." "He's tasted the onion and he's spat it out, look!" "You're right." "He may be wanting to do his breath!" "He's taken the onion and went, "Ew, I don't like that."" "You notice, every one they've gone for has a marker." "Yep." "So they haven't turned over the turf with no food underneath." "This one, she hasn't touched because there's no food underneath." "This one she hasn't touched because there's no food underneath, but the apple, the chestnuts and the raisins, she's turned over." "'What they're going for time after time are high-energy, sugary foods like apples, raisins and chestnuts." "'Foraging is hard work and they need foods like this to give them energy." "'It shows that pigs are highly discerning, if they have a choice." "'Why eat onions when you can eat something that's sweet and gives you energy?" "'" "One of my favourite things, chestnuts, I think." "Do you find that if you feed chestnuts to your pigs, it changes the flavour of the pork?" "Yes, I think it does." "It certainly makes the fat richer and deeper." "And the pigs love them." "It does them good." "Unfortunately, one can't just feed pigs chestnuts." "A lovely, nutty quality to the meat..." "But then, you say you feed, you know, root crops and bits and pieces," "I think anything other than just ordinary pig food, which you can feed pigs, does them good." "Yeah." "It's the icing on the cake and then you turn them into lovely delicious sausages." "Yeah.." "Right, lovely..." "Ah, here we go." "Tell you what, smells nice." "Takes second place to chestnuts." "Pork and chive ones, those are my favourites." "Lovely sausages." "I like the pork and chive." "This is what all the hard work of keeping the pigs, this is what they're kept for." "Mmm." "'Pigs have always been a vital part of the British diet." "'In 1937, there were estimated to be over four million pigs in Britain, 'a high point that wasn't to last." "'The Second World War meant feeding pigs became a problem." "'Imported pig food was a luxury we could no longer afford." "'Pig clubs were the answer." "An army of volunteers that banded 'together in small cooperatives to buy, feed and look after them." "'Pig-keeping became a popular cause to support during this time of supreme national emergency." "'Even George VI took a keen interest." "'The Small Pig Keepers' Council was formed 'and weighed in with a national campaign, exhorting the country 'to donate their scrap foods and kitchen waste.'" "# No bacon for breakfast?" "Let us make haste" "# Then back to the farmer they race" "# There's valuable vittles in waste" "# The marrow cannot be mistaken" "# Just look at the prizes she's taken" "# So that's how you'll all save your bacon. #" "'Despite the devotion of the clubs, by the end of the war 'the pig population had declined by an astounding 60%.'" "Up you go." "Come on." "Good girls." "'Philippa and I farm several traditional breeds." "'They're rare now, but during the Second World War, they would have been familiar sight.'" "Let's go and meet Prince Charming." "Yeah, find the main man." "There you go." "Right, let's just see what happens." "He can smell them straightaway, can't he?" "He starts licking his lips, chomping and frothing round the mouth." "GRUNTING" "And the noise he makes, he instantly wants to smell them, doesn't he." "Yeah." "He should be letting off all sorts of sex signals and sex scents." "'Vesuvius isn't frothing at the mouth for the fun of it." "'His saliva is full of pheromones which should be exciting the sow." "'And nudging her belly isn't random." "'It's one of the courtship rituals that helps her produce more eggs, so that more can be fertilised.'" "There he goes, puts his nose under, almost lifts her up in some instances." "'But she must stand still or Vesuvius can't mount her.'" "Here we go." "Oh, he nearly went for it!" "She's not going to stand." "She's not going to stand." "You've got to hand it to him, he's fairly persistent, isn't he?" "'No wonder these pigs are still rare breeds!" "'Research has shown that the pheromone given off by a virile boar is the same chemical compound, 'androstenone, as given off by truffles." "'A little drop of truffle oil should do the trick." "'It's like Old Spice for boars." "'The girls love it." "Apparently.'" "Little bit of truffle oil." "Let's see if it gets the sows going." "Are we confusing you, darling?" "Mmm?" "Are we?" "Are we confusing you?" "They haven't really responded to that, have they?" "I've put a nice little blob on his backside." "Erm, it is potent stuff, but I think probably, it's quite cold, foggy." "They've gone straight to bed." "They're not, they're not that impressed with you." "'This volcano isn't going to erupt today." "'Nothing is left to chance on big farms." "'This is one of the most successful pig-breeding businesses in the UK." "'Stephen Curtis has been breeding pigs for 40 years." "'This shed contains some of the finest sperm donors in the country." "'Sadly, there's no fraternising with the ladies here.'" "So this is the bachelor house, this is where all the male pigs are kept, all the boars." "Yep." "This is the boar stud house." "This is his mounting stool." "Right, so he thinks he's going to mate with a sow." "Yep." "And you'll collect the semen off him." "He gets himself comfortable..." "He's grabbing his todger." "He's grabbing his todger, yep." "And he'll start to..." "He'll start to what?" "That looks a bit..." "If you don't mind me saying..." "He'll start to get excited, out comes his penis, the end's like a corkscrew." "Yep." "And so he's gripping it in the..." "With his hand." "The boar pig starts to ejaculate." "This ejaculation will continue for a minute or two." "So is that like the world's longest ejaculation?" "Well, it's certainly longer than mine!" "Yeah!" "It's going for ages!" "Yeah." "That's, er, collected there in that cup and then taken to the lab and probably get enough doses from there to cover 15 sows." "Unbelievable." "Yeah." "Whereas that one collection if we were using natural mating, that would be just one sow mated." "And there you are, you see." "If you look at the cup here..." "Whoa!" "JIMMY LAUGHS" "That isn't a small coffee cup, is it?" "No." "So there's about that much in there." "Look, he's..." "Look!" "Yeah." "He's not finished with it yet." "This breed's very virile, you know." "Look at him!" "You wouldn't want to fall over in there, would you?" "And tremendous fertility." "That semen will be very good quality." "'In the lab, the semen is divided up into bags, each containing 'over two-and-a-half billion individual sperm." "'The sows are then artificially inseminated." "'The system works so well that 10% of all the pig meat 'eaten in the UK originates from here." "'Pig breeding on such a large scale started to take off in Britain 'after the Second World War." "'In 1949, a breed called the Landrace arrived from Sweden." "'It produced large litters and the piglets gained weight rapidly." "'It looked like this could be the perfect factory pig." "'It wasn't long before appetites changed, and buyers now wanted pigs with larger muscles." "'They were after less fat and more lean meat." "'In 1964, a very unusual pig was introduced to the UK - 'the Pietrain." "'A walking lean meat machine, with shoulders big enough to feed several families, 'a back long enough for many a breakfast and a backside that could feed an army." "'But there was a problem - it had a genetic defect 'that caused it to drop down dead whenever it got too stressed.'" "'However, the high-grade lean meat of the Pietrain was too good to lose." "'It was cross-bred, and farmers came a little bit closer to the ideal pig." "'THAT is some hog." "GRUNTING" "'Working with pigs every day," "'I have often wondered what all those grunts actually mean." "'Katie Palmer has a masters in zoology and is an expert in pig grunts." "'She claims to have learnt their language 'and is quite sure she can pass on her pig-whispering skills to me." "'But, I have my doubts.'" "So you're telling me you can talk pig?" "I have been asked to have a go and I have done it." "Right, this is something, I've got to see this." "SHE LAUGHS" "So with your expertise, can we go in to this pen now and maybe have a chat with them?" "Yeah, we can have a go." "Shall we have a walk in and let 'em get used to us?" "Yep." "C'mon, guys!" "HE WHISTLES" "'According to Katie, pigs make at least 15 different grunts.'" "Are there any sort of words I should know?" "Are there any pig words?" "Yeah." "Actually you mentioned one to me earlier on that we could pick up on." "The greeting one is good one." "Yeah." "When I walk into a pen," "I either say, "Hello, lovely," or I'll go..." "HE GRUNTS" "Yes." "You want to be confident with your grunts." "Sharp, short?" "SHORT, OK." "Not too sharp." "So more sort of..." "CLIPPED, QUIET GRUNTS" "It sounds like..." "It's just a happy, "Hi."" "I can't do that." "You can." "HE MAKES BARELY AUDIBLE GRUNTS" "No, I can't do that." "It's like asking a question." "No, I physically can't do that." "I can go..." "HE GRUNTS LOUDLY" "That's all I can do." "Are the intervals important?" "They are." "Can I do it rapidly?" "No." "If do it rapidly, particularly with some of the individuals, you can change it from a greeting, a happy greeting, to quite excited, and you're getting into a mating call." "Definitely." "That's something I want to avoid." "There's a difference between "hello" and..." "SAUCILY: .."hello"." "And at the pitch you were doing yours, if you start doing that faster, that's like a boar coming on to a lady." "Which is probably why the ladies like you." "So every time they see me, they're not thinking, "Here comes Jim with the food,"" "they're thinking, "Here comes Jim, trying it on."" "So I'm like an old lech turning up rather than some..." "'Right." "Better be on my best behaviour then.'" "Come on, then." "See what happens." "PIGS GRUNT How do you do the "hello" one again?" "SHE GRUNTS" "Well, that's working." "PIGS GRUNT" "HE GRUNTS" "Look at this!" "HE GRUNTS" "Got a whole gaggle of them." "They're interested in what we're doing." "They're hiding behind us and they're listening, aren't they?" "They are listening." "They're interested in what we're doing." "They're finding it a bit weird, a little bit scary." "I would." "If I was sitting in the office and a pig started speaking human, I'd think, "Hang on, what's going on?"" "Actually, I'd put it in a circus." "HE GRUNTS" "See the smelling?" "Smelling the air." "HE GRUNTS" "It's looking, it's looking." "HE GRUNTS" "That's it." "That's what you want." "Come right in to smell your breath." "So I said the right thing?" "You did." "'Jimmy Doolittle or what?" "!" "'" "You see they're more interested in my boots, aren't they?" "Yeah, cos the boots, they smell great." "And one thing I notice about pigs is, one, they investigate with their nose." "And the second, after that, it's their teeth." "You know, they can crack open an almond easily, but yet they can pick up a feather." "Yeah." "Suck your finger." "Ow!" "Ow!" "Being eaten alive!" "They've got that disc on their nose, which can move in different directions, similar to an elephant's trunk, although a lot shorter." "They're pulling my jacket and they're getting on my nerves so, if I did the alarm call, they should clear off?" "Hopefully." "GRUNTS DEEPLY AND AGGRESSIVELY" "Yeah." "Sort of." "Now the communication of my pigs here, these are domestic pigs..." "Is there any difference between the amount of words or phrases my pigs have compared to something like a wild boar?" "Definitely." "The domestic pigs have adapted their communication." "There's..." "I mean, it is recorded that they will produce certain sounds and certain series of sounds only in the presence of people." "So they are using sounds just to communicate with us, it's like they've made up their own language." "That is amazing to think that domestic pigs have developed phrases to deal with us!" "Jeez!" "I mean, that really shows the close relationship we have as a species with the pig." "Yeah." "'I know we have this close relationship, but I'm often reminded 'that just beneath the surface of their skin is a wild animal." "'Back at the barn, I notice that one of the little piglets 'is a wild boar cross with stripes just like they have in the wild." "'Lucy is about to give birth.'" "She should be any day." "Well, she's due on the 5th." "'She's been pregnant now for three months, three weeks and three days.'" "Let's see what she thinks of these." "Now obviously, pigs are descended from wild boar, so bracken should be quite familiar to them." "There we go, how's about that?" "'She's preparing a nest, something that pretty much no other hooved animal does.'" "Hopefully she's going to start to pick through this and build a nest." "Nice bit of dry straw in there as well." "'Using her mouth and her snout, Lucy is building up a mound of straw.'" "She's got..." "Now she's got a choice." "I know which I'd choose." "You'd go for the straw!" "I'd go for the straw!" "She might put the straw in the middle, bracken around the outside and the twigs for a bit of protection?" "Yeah." "At least she's got all sorts to build with." "Yep." "'When the mound is big enough, she will push out the middle 'to create a deep, protective hollow in which she can comfortably lie down.'" "Right, shall we leave her and let her get used to her new pen?" "'Ranger David Clark showed me just how deep Lucy's nest-building instincts really are.'" "There we are, look at that." "She's created a nest." "She's pulled everything from the surrounding area, just brought it all in." "It's quite deep as well." "I mean, if you get in here and crouch down, you can imagine..." "Yeah." "When it's wet..." "The wind will be coming from that side generally." "Under a tree as well, look." "So you've got a nice bit of protection, but what makes me laugh is that they've gone to all this effort, and just down there..." "They've got their hut." "Their huts that you've put up." "They've ignored that and built this instead." "Just heard that Lucy, our sow, is just about to give birth, so I'm going to go and check it out." "'The piglets have a highly-developed sense of smell, 'so will go straight for the milky draw of the teats." "'They'll also feel their way around the sow, 'following the direction of her hair, which changes and points down to the teats 'as the piglets get closer.'" "It never ceases to amaze me, you know, what great mothers pigs are and what time they take to prepare for the birth and the care of the piglets afterwards." "When you see a piglet drop off the teat, or it looks like it's in danger or Mum might be squashing it, you really want to get in and help out." "But you don't need to, because nine times out of ten, she does it perfectly well on her own." "But look at them all scrabbling away and now they're all dry, all their eyes are open, all they're thinking about is, "Right, I need some milk."" "So they've plugged in." "And it's lovely to see them, because once they feed away and they're contented, they become really relaxed, and you see the piglets fall asleep as they're feeding and they just drop off the teat." "'But this is a dangerous time." "The temperature difference between the womb and the barn 'is about 20 degrees, and they are born 'with virtually no ability to regulate their body temperature." "'Over the next few days, I'm going to be helped 'by one of the leading experts in pig behaviour, Dr Suzanne Held.'" "They look quite content now, don't they?" "Yeah, nice bunch of piglets." "'She's here to supervise our next series of experiments and observations.'" "I think now's a good time to see if they're going to lose their body heat." "And I've got this bit of kit." "So we'll be able to see their body temperature and the heat that they're losing." "'By using a thermal-imaging camera," "'I can visually compare the differences 'between the mother and her piglets." "'Some of them are beginning to shiver.'" "So look at the pile of piglets there." "So you can see, they're still, they're pink, so they're letting off a lot of heat, aren't they?" "And if you look at their mum, well she's blue and yellow." "So blue is fairly cold, but that shows she's insulated." "Yes." "Look at her teats, they're letting off a lot of heat, they're hot." "'The shivering helps the piglets stay warm." "'The fact that pigs aren't good at regulating 'their own body temperatures has led to some popular myths." "'First off, pigs don't sweat." "'They have a small sweat gland on the ends of their snouts, but that's all." "'It's why they love wallowing in cooling mud." "Water evaporates off, but mud sticks." "'It prevents them getting sunburn and keeps the flies and parasites off." "'Wallowing also gave rise to the myth that pigs are dirty." "'Cleanliness is a habit they get into young." "'Just look at this little one from Lucy's litter." "'She's only 24 hours old, and her instincts are already telling her 'to leave the warmth of the teats and urinate away from the nest, 'an instinct so deeply ingrained, it lasts a lifetime.'" "Good boy." "Steady boy." "Good lad." "Steady." "Steady, steady." "Steady, steady." "'This boar has a bad leg, but despite his injury, 'he's still determined to urinate well away from his bed.'" "I think he's been saving that for a while." "Yep." "I don't think he wants to get up, that's the thing." "No." "Peeing for Britain, mate!" "Nine lovely little piglets, and the birth was really quite quick, and they all popped out one after the other, just like peas in a pod, then straight in to suckling." "'In the first hour that they are born, they will try every teat to find their preferred one." "'The teats near Lucy's head tend give the best quality and quantity of milk." "'But this little piglet, born in the second half of the litter 'and getting a teat towards the back, means she's more likely to die." "'Suckling may seem like chaos, but within a few days, something miraculous happens." "'It seems that the piglets develop something called teat fidelity." "'So for our next experiment, we're going to see just how faithful to their chosen teats they really are." "'Sows can get very aggressive when someone threatens their litter." "'So I need to be careful." "'When Lucy is distracted, we're going to spray the piglets 'in different colours to help us keep a track of them." "Well done." "Well done." "Well done." "She's quite protective, isn't she?" "But luckily enough, she's hungry enough that she's eating that side and we can get in..." "Come on, little ones. ..take the piglets out..." "Here you go." "..and mark them." "Well done, Jimmy." "Right." "I'm not going in." "There we go." "You've done well, it's like some sort of modern art." "Yeah." "Sort of Jackson Pollocks on some of them!" "It's all about speed, not accuracy!" "I think you'll be able to tell them apart when they come to suckle." "'It's two days since Suzanne and I sprayed the piglets." "'The colours have helped us keep track of which one is on which teat." "'Lucy's milk will only flow for 20 seconds every hour." "'With such a brief opportunity to get this precious milk, 'a free-for-all amongst the piglets would be madness.'" "Right, what I'm looking for is the teat preference, and the order that the piglets should go in - first should be Purple, then it should be Yellow, and then Blue, Black, and so on." "'As feeding time approaches, the piglets are already lining up." "'Purple, the piglet who's been playing in the bottom of the nest, 'spots that Lucy is about to lie down.'" "Purple, Yellow that's good." "'Her teat is the closest to Lucy's head, the prime spot." "'But when Lucy lies down, she find herself in the wrong place." "'Determined to get back to number one, 'she scrambles over her sister and pushes her aside." "'Having the best teat will give Purple the edge." "'She'll put on more weight and her chances of growing up 'to be top pig grow by the hour.'" "But what's interesting, every time, first up, it's always Purple and it's always Yellow." "They're always on the first two teats." "And as I say that, he's looking up at me!" "HE CHUCKLES" "'Lucy's litter are lucky." "'There are ten teats and nine piglets, enough to go round." "'They have all got a very good chance of survival." "'But what happens if there are more piglets than teats?" "'Stephen Curtis's pigs can produce some of the biggest litters in the UK." "'Some of his sows give birth to as many as 18 piglets.'" "So, this is your special pig, isn't it?" "What's the name of the breed that you've developed?" "This is the Meidam." "The Meidam." "And one thing I do notice about it there's a huge amount of piglets here." "Yeah." "She's had 16 born alive, but, it isn't just a question of having a large litter." "One of the key factors is, you've got to have plenty of teats to feed the piglets." "It's no good having 16 piglets and only 10 teats." "Yeah." "We've got 16 piglets and 16 teats, and so the whole family's happy." "And so your breed has an extra couple of teats compared to most other breeds in the UK?" "That's right." "She has two to four more teats." "Erm, we get the larger litter." "She yields more milk." "Yeah." "I mean, she's an absolute storybook animal." "She's your dream pig!" "Dream pig, yeah." "But she's taken 20 years." "20 years of work." "20 years of selection." "'Stephen began his breeding programme with a Chinese domestic pig called the Meishan." "'This beast produces lots of piglets, lots of teats and has a high milk yield." "'But it doesn't produce great meat." "'So Stephen first crossed the Meishan with a traditional Yorkshire breed, 'the Large White, renowned for the quality of its meat." "'Then he crossed it again with the Landrace, famed for its strapping size." "'The result was the Meidam." "'This sow has lots of piglets, nurtures her young and, Stephen claims, is the ultimate super-pig." "'Back on the farm, the next experiment is ready to go." "'Sebastian has built a maze for pigs.'" "Now, it does sound a bit crazy to build a maze to put pigs in!" "Well, it's one of the more unusual things I've been asked to do, I think!" "Build a maze for pigs?" "For pigs!" "Bit nuts, really." "But really what I want to show is that pigs have evolved to search out their food, so they really need to map their environment and also have sort of spatial awareness." "Right." "Cos they're clever creatures." "They are clever." "Because I want them to be able to come through here, know every nook and cranny and go to exactly where the food should be." "'For the last week, Sebastian's favourite young pigs have been trained to find food in the maze.'" "Hello, guys!" "'Again, the brains behind the operation is Dr Suzanne Held.'" "Now, the pigs are here, the maze is built." "What is the purpose behind this maze?" "The first thing we can show is that pigs can remember really well where food is hidden, which is useful for them when they go foraging in the wild." "'So we're going to see if this little pig with the green spot 'can remember her route through the maze." "'She's been trained over the past week to always find her food in the same bucket, in the same place." "'She's ready to go." "There are five buckets and this is the one with food in it." "'It's been 20 hours since she was last in the maze." "'We're about to find out just how good her memory is.'" "What do you think about this?" "I don't think it's going to work at all." "One, the conditions are against you, the whole thing's a sea of mud." "Secondly, little pigs in a maze?" "I shall be amazed if it works." "'Will she remember the way and go straight to the food?" "'" "Let's go." "Ready?" "Off you go, Green." "Off you go, Green." "Off you go." "'Out of the gate, she heads straight." "'Then left, round the corner..." "'Right, and then right again." "'The most direct route to the food.'" "That's incredible!" "'So this little pig, just four months old, 'has memorised her route, 'with no hesitation, repetition or deviation.'" "I think I'd better bury my head in the mud, hadn't I?" "How about that, Sebastian?" "Never underestimate your pigs!" "Suzanne." "Yeah, no surprise there." "She didn't go round the back, she wasn't moving all over the place." "Straight over to her food." "Yes." "One clever pig." "'Now it's time to up the stakes." "Red pig has been given a much tougher task.'" "'She's seen the maze before and she's seen the same buckets before." "'But every time she's been in, we've randomly changed the location of her food." "'So she has no idea where her food will be when she enters the maze.'" "Right, OK." "I'll get Red out." "Come on!" "'So the trick here is whether she can negotiate the maze methodically." "'Can she find the food in the most efficient way possible, 'without ever doubling back on herself?" "'" "Go on, out you go." "Go on, out, out." "JIMMY WHISTLES" "Let's see." "See where it goes." "She's gone round, straight to that bucket there, nothing in it." "Round she goes." "Checks the other bucket, nothing in it." "Number three bucket." "Decided there isn't anything there." "Yep, found them." "It shows how focused they are on their foraging task." "Yeah." "And there are different ways she can do it." "She can either sample the buckets, each one once, which is the most efficient way." "Or she could do it revisiting buckets which is not quite so efficient." "But she was very good, she only visited each bucket once." "'Their ability to create a mental map of an area helps them remember 'where their food is, a throwback to their wild foraging past.'" "Good girl." "There you go." "Well done, Red." "Sebastian, what do you think of that?" "It looks like I've been proved wrong yet again, doesn't it?" "You've got very intelligent pigs up here on the moor." "Well, next week they'll be doing sudoku, I reckon." "Yep." "'But if you think Sebastian's pigs are smart, just take a look at these." "'On this intensive farm, food is delivered via computer." "'Each pig is fitted with a unique electronic collar which identifies it to the central computer." "'The collar knows which pig is which." "'This ensures that, when a pig approaches a feeder..." "BEEPING" "'..the computer releases its one balanced meal of the day." "'But pigs love their food." "'Yet despite how many times they try, the computer won't give them any more." "'However, some have learnt how to beat the system." "'Some sows can't bear wearing their collars." "'Others see the potential of a discarded collar." "'And here comes the clever bit." "'All they have to do is pick it up and get a free meal." "BEEPING" "'The sows on this farm learnt that a lost collar would always bring second helpings.'" "Now regardless if they're modern commercial hybrids or traditional breeds of pigs like these ones here, one thing that the maze test and the collars show is that all pigs are intelligent enough to learn and follow human rules, as long as there's something in it for them." "C'mon, then." "Come on!" "'For an animal to be successfully domesticated, it helps that 'they're intelligent, they're social and they can learn fast." "'But one thing I'd really love to know about pigs is, do they know who they are?" "'Could they look in a mirror and think, "That's me."'" "Right, who have we got here?" "This is Alistair." "'I once conducted a test to show at what age humans learn to recognise themselves in a mirror." "'Alistair is 13 months old." "'We sneaked some red lipstick onto his cheek and put him in front of the mirror." "'Little Alistair clearly sees an image of a baby 'but does he know if it's his own image or that of another baby?" "'" "Who is that?" "Who is that?" "Is that another baby, Alistair?" "Is that another baby or is that you?" "Who is it?" "You going off to find him?" "!" "'Alistair looks round the back of the mirror, as if to search for a new friend, 'and he never touches the red mark on his cheek, because he thinks it's on the other child's face." "'He doesn't recognise the child in the mirror as himself." "'Next up for the lipstick test is two-year-old Euan.'" "Ha ha, yeah!" "You can see, can't you!" "'So Euan has now developed self-awareness, 'a strong sense of "me"." "'So what chance does a farmyard animal have in test like this?" "'" "So, Donald, every good experiment needs a control, doesn't it?" "That's right." "We've got our mirror here, and we're going to show a whole range of different farm animals the mirror to see if they recognise themselves or if they think it's another animal, and go round the back." "'Professor Donald Broom from Cambridge University 'is a leading expert in animal awareness and welfare.'" "Right, Sebastian, bring on the donkeys." "Come on." "Have a look in the mirror." "Have a look in the mirror." "Who's that?" "Now..." "What a good looking chap." "I think the donkey's seeing another donkey, but it's pretty calm about it." "'Next up, ferrets.'" "I think it's seeing that there's a ferret there, so it's confusing, so let's investigate that and go and walk behind." "Not thinking, "That could be me."" "But it's thinking, "That's another ferret."" "Can you look in the mirror?" "Looking at you." "I think she's a bit disturbed by what she sees." "I think she's avoiding looking in there because, "What's that?"" "It's something foreign and it's another..." "Especially with those ears." "Beautiful ears!" "You're on my farm." "Don't be rude about my dog." "If I looked at those big ears, I'd go, "Oh, my God."" "Some people find her very attractive!" "'Only a select group of animals, including great apes, dolphins and elephants 'have ever been scientifically proven to recognise themselves in a mirror.'" "If I look into a mirror, I can tell that's me." "Now can pigs do that when they look into a mirror?" "Every human child is told what's in a mirror from an extremely early age." "So we, we learn it from a combination of information from parents and what we see." "If a pig looks into a mirror it's almost certainly never seen that before, so it would have to learn what's there." "And that will take a certain amount of time, if they can do it." "'Well, that's a challenge then!" "'Right, now for our final experiment." "'In the barn, we've set up a small pen with a mirror in it." "'We're now going see what happens when we introduce a piglet." "'Will it behave like all the other farm animals and think it's seeing a different pig?" "'" "So, if I get the first pig, whose name is Alfie, and this pig hasn't seen the mirror before." "So let's just get Alfie out." "Come on, Alfie, come on." "Right..." "'Hmm." "It's not looking good.'" "It looked straight at it." "It looked in it and then he ran round the back." "Pig that's never seen a mirror, looks in the mirror and thinks," ""That's another pig," and has gone round the back." "Yes." "He's not running off and hiding, he's standing by the mirror, because he feels there's another pig there." "Yes. when pigs are confronted with a mirror and they've had a few minutes to adapt, they sometimes lie down next to the reflection." "Really?" "It's comforting, I think." "Yeah." "'Time for stage two." "'We've had a chance to let two little piglets, Dorothy and Percy, get used to the mirror." "'Will they now be able recognise themselves?" "'And how will we prove it?" "'A pig with trotters can't rub a mark off its face like a child." "'The plan is to place some food on the other side of the barrier." "'The only way the pig can find the food is by using the reflection in the mirror." "'So will Dorothy and Percy be able to work that out?" "'" "So I'm the pig." "I'm going to be coming out of here." "Yes." "Bowl..." "No." "It needs to be a little bit closer." "Great." "OK." "That's it." "Brilliant." "Right." "Release the pigs!" "'Dorothy's straight out of the gate.'" "Look at that." "That was amazing." "The first pig, straightaway, saw the food." "This one can see the other pig eating..." "Yes." "..and it's perturbing him." "Isn't that extraordinary?" "God, that was so quick, wasn't it?" "'As Dorothy left the holding pen and went to the mirror, 'she took a step closer and looked into it." "'She obviously understood she was looking at a reflection, 'because she turned to find the food behind her." "'But I wonder if Dorothy knows that the pig in the mirror was herself 'because she certainly knows what the reflection is." "'Young Percy's slow uptake just proves that pigs are individuals, 'some more intelligent than others.'" "That pig had never done that before." "It didn't know where the food was beforehand." "The only way it could have done it is by working out, by looking in the mirror, that that's where it is and it went there and did it." "I've got friends that couldn't do that as quick!" "The experiments to me have been done under farm conditions, you know, rain, mud, wind." "Your mirror test is not on a level playing field, it's on straw and everything." "And yet actually the results, I think - you judge " "I think they've been first class." "I think they've been amazing." "The turf test we did in windy rain." "Just bits of turf laid in a pigsty and it still came out perfect." "What I think is really interesting for somebody who's kept pigs all your life, and I've got lots and lots of pigs and I associate a lot of my life with pigs, erm, we're learning behaviour that we haven't really looked at before," "we know that our animals are intelligent and there's certain behaviours that we do pick up on, but there's a whole raft of different behaviours that I hadn't even thought of before." "They need to be clever to adapt to the peculiar situations we put them into." "We're using their brain in a lot of what we do, and the welfare of the animals is better where they're able to use their brain." "If we can give them a situation where they can use their own brain and control their own environment, then the welfare of that individual is better, as it is for us." "Do you think the general public wants to know how..." "Do you think they want to divorce their bacon and their sausage from an intelligent animal?" "If they begin to realise how intelligent a pig is, do you think they're going to want to know?" "When surveys are done asking people that kind of question," ""If you find that these animals are cleverer than you thought, then how do you react?"" "there are a few people who react by saying, "I won't eat them."" "But the majority of people say, "Well, I'll carry on eating them," ""but we must make sure we give them a decent environment to live in."" "We must make sure that we do provide for their needs." "If their needs are complex, we need to provide for complex needs." "I think that's the commonest reaction people have." "That's interesting, yeah." "'I've enjoyed my time here on Dartmoor with Sebastian and Philippa." "'But it will be good to get home.'" "Hello, love." "Here we are, look." "Hello." "There's a good girl." "Now this is the Berkshire that I bought at the sale." "Now, at the sale, she was all lovely and shiny, but here, she's got her working clothes on, so she's been out rolling in the mud." "She's bigger." "She's put on a bit of weight, and the main thing is, she's got used to the other pigs." "She's got a partner and she's settled in well." "She's feeding well, and hopefully she'll produce a good litter later on this year." "Do you know what's really great is actually watching somebody else's pigs..." "The pigs that we saw in Dartmoor were fascinating because I've got my own pigs," "I do know how clever they are, but you get a bit blase when you're working around them every day." "And watching those animals go through those experiments," "I suppose it makes me look at my pigs in a different light now." "Eh?" "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd" "E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk"