Pigs

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Pigs

A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives. Pigs are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and animals, and are highly social and intelligent animals. Older pigs will consume three to five gallons of water per day. With around 1 billion individuals alive at any time, the domesticated pig is one of the most numerous large mammals on the planet.

A typical pig has a large head with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone and by a disk of cartilage at the tip. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is a very acute sense organ.