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Pigs Got Game
Pig Illustration by Gary Hanna
Scientists have long known that pigs are intelligent, but it turns out that they’re also pretty good at video games. Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana recently trained four pigs—Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony, and Ivory—to steer an arcade-style joystick with their snouts in order to play a simple game. They received food rewards, but even when the food dispenser broke, the pigs continued to play. The study is part of a growing area of research that focuses on understanding farm animal cognition, providing important insight into how they perceive and respond to the world. The researchers say it’s “no small feat” that the pigs were able to understand the correlation between the stick and the game. “That pigs can do this to any degree should give us pause as to what else they are capable of learning,” says lead author Candace Croney, “and how such learning may impact them.”