The Pig: A Natural History

By Richard Lutwyche

A comprehensive, richly illustrated introduction to the fascinating natural history of the pig, from prehistory to the present

At any given time, there are around one billion pigs in the world; that's one for every seven of us. And where would we be without them? Prolific, ubiquitous, smart, adaptable, and providers of high-quality protein, pigs have been our companions since neolithic times, when they obligingly domesticated themselves, coming in from the wild to root around our waste pits. But it's not all about the bacon; today, bred in micro sizes, the resourceful pig has developed a whole new career as a popular pet. And thanks to genome mapping, we now know that the pig shares many common physiological features with humans, spurring the use of pig tissue and organs in medical research and surgery. Beautifully designed and illustrated, The Pig provides a snout-to-tail natural history of this important species, from the prehistoric "hell pig" to today's placid porker, covering the pig's evolution and domestication, anatomy and biology, behavior, role in human life and culture, and breeds. The book also features an engrossing and visually stunning photographic gallery of some thirty popular breeds from around the world, with essential information about each. Filled with surprising facts and insights, The Pig will delight anyone who loves these animals and wants to understand them better.

• Provides a comprehensive, richly illustrated introduction to the pig's evolution and domestication, anatomy and biology, behavior, role in human life and culture, and breeds
  
• Features infographics, diagrams, and 250 stunning color photographs
  
• Includes a beautiful photographic directory to some 30 popular breeds from around the world, with essential information about each
  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780691195339

Book preview

The PIG

A Natural History

RICHARD LUTWYCHE

Introducing the Pig

CHAPTER 1

Evolution & Domestication

The Pig’s Forebears

The Family Tree

How Pigs Were Domesticated

Conquering the World

CHAPTER 2

Anatomy & Biology

Anatomy of a Pig

So Like a Human

Life Cycle

Reproduction

Specialized Snout

Tusks & Teeth

Other Senses

Thinking Like a Pig

Eating Like a Pig

Feet & Tails

Skin & Hair

CHAPTER 3

Behavior

Eating & Sleeping

Rooting & Burrowing

Glorious Mud

Courtship & Mating

Nest Building & Farrowing

Piglet Growth & Nursing

Communications & Vocalization

Aggression & Defense

Cognition

Pigs Behaving Badly

CHAPTER 4

Pigs & People

Subtle Influence on Humankind

Pigs in Literature & Movies

Pigs in Art

Familiar Sayings

Truffle Hunting

Sheep-pigs

Gun Pigs

Pigs in Harness

A Pig in the Pulpit

Contentious Pigs in Religion

Pigs as Pets

Industrial Pig Production

Extensive Systems

Everything Bar the Squeal

The Gourmet’s Delight

CHAPTER 5

The Breeds

Pigs in the Middle Ages

The Advent of Breeds

The Breeds

Pig Populations

The Future

Appendices

Name Your Pig

Glossary of Terms

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

The following pages contain a wealth of information about our subject, the pig. But whatever I have included here, rest assured that there is still much more to be learned. The recent archaeological work at Hallan Çemi in Turkey, for example, indicates that pigs may have been domesticated two millennia earlier than previously thought, while the various studies being carried out to establish the relative level of intelligence of the pig are also largely recent and ongoing. There is so much more yet to be discovered.

AN INDISPENSABLE ANIMAL

What we do know is that the pig is a highly complex and fascinating creature that has carved out a unique niche in its relationship with humankind. It is unlike most other animals that have been domesticated to be eaten: it is a scavenger rather than a grazer; it gives birth to multiple young as a standard—a sow can produce more than a hundred offspring in its lifetime; it breeds year-round; and it grows at a rapid rate. It is also a first-class producer of meat. In addition, we utilize parts of the animal in medicine, and pigs are potentially set to revolutionize the transplant industry. Without a doubt, there will be more and more ways in which pigs will help improve human health as our knowledge develops.

We are not about to discard our closest companion—the canine in his many guises—yet within these pages we will see that the pig can do, and has done, much the same job as dogs: sheep-pig, truffle hunter, setter and retriever, guard pig, provider of traction, drug detector, and, of course, devoted pet. All of these roles can sometimes be done better by a pig than by a hound, but someone will always look oddly at you if you promenade with your 660-pound (300-kg) sow, seeing it only as bacon sizzling in a pan.

Although we tend to value it only for its meat, the pig is an intelligent, adaptable creature that can do many things a dog can do.

Yet despite its usefulness, the pig is widely derided. It is described as fat, ugly, stupid, greedy, smelly, idle, gluttonous, slovenly, filthy, ignorant, and more. Over the last three or four generations in the Western world, we have lost contact with the pig, and as a result we are now the ignorant ones. When every home had a pig in a sty, every child had an intimate knowledge of how it lived, what it ate, how it grew, how it smelled, the noises it made, what made it content, what frightened it, how it died, and how it tasted. Families spent time gathering plants and nuts from the hedges for their prized porker, and indulged in rubbing its belly as it lay relaxing in a pile of straw.

Children are still exposed to pigs, but, unfortunately, usually only virtual ones. Generations have grown up with them in children’s stories, such as Beatrix Potter’s Pigling Bland and Pig-wig, A. A. Milne’s Piglet, Podgy from the Rupert Bear books, or the fabled three little pigs; in television characters, such as Pinky and Perky, Peppa Pig, and Miss Piggy of Muppets fame; or perhaps on the big screen in the form of Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web, or Babe, who showed us how pigs could herd sheep. In short, nearly all of us have grown up with a heroic hog or two around.

However, the depiction of pigs in the arts is not only aimed at children. In Chapter 4, we look at poetry and prose in which the pig stars, and paintings and sculptures where the glorious flowing lines of a majestic pig are caught for all to admire and appreciate.

It is only in recent generations that we have lost intimate knowledge of pigs, because at one time every home would have had its own animal.

A MATTER OF TASTE

Ten thousand years ago, we took the wild boar and molded it to our needs. We largely took away its aggressive nature and tamed it to suit our many and varied purposes. Today, it provides us not only with huge volumes of food, but some of the most varied, most delicious, and most sumptuous dishes known. There are chefs who can take a cut from a pig and turn it into something so exquisite and wonderful as to delight the senses far beyond the mere satisfaction of filling the stomach.

You do not need to spend a fortune in a gourmet restaurant to experience the delights of the swine. Stay at home with a fresh loaf of white bread, some butter, and some slices of good-quality bacon—preferably dry-cured, with a good level of white fat adhering to the pink meat, and smoked or unsmoked according to your taste. Take your frying pan, or your broiler if you prefer, and gently cook the cured slices to your preferred state—delicate or crispy. Butter two thick-cut slices of crusty bread, then lay the hot bacon on one, add a few drops of fat from the pan, and your preferred condiment—mine is a spicy mustard but others prefer ketchup or another savory sauce. Finally, lay the second slice of bread on top and apply pressure. You now have something of sheer, unmitigated delight to eat at any time of day in your own home, provided at a modest cost and in little time.

Slices of bacon were the West's first fast food.

POLITICAL PIG QUOTES

President Harry S. Truman was a politician who understood hogs.

Pigs are so ubiquitous that they have become part of our everyday language. In Chapter 4, we look at some common pig-related sayings and how they came about—often, the original derivation has been lost in the mists of time, although the meaning is still readily understood. To illustrate this, here are a few quotes from politicians that we can all relate to:

The British politician and Prime Minister Winston Churchill is said to have used the expression "Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." If he did, he was quoting an old folk saying from Gloucestershire in England, but it epitomizes what people who know pigs feel about them, and Churchill was an enthusiastic pig keeper.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman is reported to have said, "No man should be allowed to be President who does not understand hogs."

Before Truman, President Abraham Lincoln said, "A pig won’t believe anything he can’t see."

More recently, President Ronald Reagan invoked our subject with the phrase "It’s like embracing a pig" when explaining the need to raise taxes.

On the other side of the pond, British Prime Minister John Major came up with the phrase "Trying to cut red tape is like wrestling with a greasy pig."

Of course, I am obviously a fan of the pig, but there are many people around the world who do not regard it in the same way. In Chapter 4, I look at religions that ban the consumption of pork and why these beliefs may have come about. Whatever our respective feelings for swine, they are sincerely held and must be respected.

Putting aside exceptional pigs, such as those trained to perform circus tricks or draw a plow, the main reason for keeping the domesticated creature is undoubtedly to provide us with food. As the most important supplier of protein in the form of meat, the pig must be respected and appreciated by human beings around the world. It is a fact that millions of pigs die every year for our pleasure. While I have no problem with this as such, I do have a major difficulty with the way in which the mass market is supplied, because industrial-scale pig production does not respect the basic rights of the animal to live a dignified life. There must be a better way, and I hope that this book will leave readers with a clearer understanding of what a remarkable animal the pig is, and that intensive production methods can be changed to accommodate a decent way of life for the creature. I’m not so naive to think that there is the space and facilities to farm a billion pigs a year extensively to help feed the world—factory farming is a fact of life and will be with us for years to come. However, we do need to open up the industry to better scrutiny, and also face up to the fact that the pig deserves better from us.

Almost every part of a pig can be used to make the many dishes using pig meat, which different cultures have developed over thousands of years.

So, if you can afford it—and the price is not just the money in your wallet, but also the life of an intelligent animal—boycott the produce on supermarket shelves and make a little effort to support extensive farmers. Buy direct, at a farmers’ market, or online, and be sure to choose your supplier not by its fancy name or packaging, but by its provenance. Yes, you will have to pay more, but you will enjoy the increased quality of the meat you eat—and if you have it a little less often, your expenditure will not rise. Hit the big suppliers in the pocket and they will start to change. You have the power—use it!

Higher welfare free-range pork products don’t just mean a tastier meal but tend to use meat from pigs reared according to high ethical standards.

CHAPTER 1

Evolution & Domestication

The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica) we see throughout the Western world today is generally considered a subspecies of the wild boar (S. scrofa), which ranged not only through Europe but additionally into the Middle East and North Africa. Domestic breeds also received an infusion of genes from pigs (S. vittatus) from Southeast Asia, which were transported to Europe on merchant ships from China and Thailand in the eighteenth century.

There is some argument about when swine were first domesticated. Prehistoric remains of domestic pigs show a shortening of the lachrymal bone (running down the front of the face to the snout) and changes in the molar teeth in comparison with their wild progenitors. Pigs with such features have been found in Jericho in modern-day Palestine dating back to around 7000 BCE. Some experts believe that similar pig remains found at Hallan Çemi in Turkey predate the Jericho bones by another 2,000 years; in this case, pigs may possibly have been domesticated before sheep. Using DNA analysis, some subsequent research places the earliest domestication both in East Anatolia in Turkey and separately in China 9,000–10,000 years ago. Either way, the pig has been around humankind for a long time.

Neolithic cultures introduced pigs to Europe from the Middle East. The first recognized types, whose remains were found in the nineteenth century in Switzerland, were given the name Turbary pigs. Because these were relatively small compared to wild boars, they were originally believed to be the result of crosses with smaller Asian swine species. However, in his A History of Domesticated Animals (1969), Friedrich Zeuner states his belief that they were pure domesticated descendants of the wild boar and that no other genes were involved.

19 million years ago

The Hyotherium species—ancestors of the modern pig—exist in Asia during the Miocene epoch.

Hyotherium

2.6 million years ago

The wild boar (Sus scrofa) appears in Europe toward the start of the Pleistocene epoch.

Wild boar

ca. 11,000–9000 BCE

Pigs are first domesticated in central Asia, southern Turkey, and Palestine, then begin to spread into Europe.

ca. 1720–1850 CE

Domesticated pigs were improved with genes from Asian types carried on merchant ships.

Domesticated pig

The domesticated pig in Europe was originally descended from the wild boar (Sus scrofa), although breeding from the eighteenth century onward introduced aspects of the Asian pig.

Wild boars are just one of the most recent members of the Suidae family. It was once thought that pigs were descended from entelodonts, boarlike creatures that stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall at the shoulder and roamed North America, Eurasia, and parts of Africa between the Eocene and Miocene periods (45 million to 19 million years ago). However, modern analysis shows that hippopotamuses are, in fact, more closely related to these prehistoric animals.

Instead, pigs are descended from Hyotherium species, smaller creatures that lived in swamps or close to water in the same parts of the world as the wild boar. And, like wild boar, these animals were omnivorous, eating plants and carrion. They roamed their territory during the Miocene period around 19 million years ago and are reckoned to be the forebears of all modern-day domestic pigs and their wild cousins. The first evidence of the arrival of the wild boar in Europe appears toward the start of the Pleistocene.

Wild pigs never ventured into the hottest or coldest parts of the planet on their own volition, instead sticking fairly closely to the temperate zones. This was due to their sparse coat of hairs and bristles, which gave little protection against extremes of cold, and their lack of sweat glands, which made them unsuited to coping with the hottest climates.

Later in the chapter, we will look in more detail at how the introduction of pigs from Asia affected the appearance of domestic pigs. Up until the eighteenth century, when Asian pigs first arrived in Europe, domestic pigs were fairly lackluster variations on the wild boar, with long snouts and slab-sided bodies on long legs. The influence of Asian pigs can be seen today, particularly in breeds such as the Middle White, with its short legs, rounded body, and squashed face. To see a breed closer in character to the wild boar, examine the Tamworth, which has longer legs, a red coat, a leaner frame, and a long snout.

Mammals are divided into 19 groups, of which wild boar and domestic pigs belong in the order of even-toed ungulates. Ungulate basically means hooved, and the group includes the majority of domesticated species, including cattle, sheep, and goats, as well as certain wild animals, such as giraffes and hippopotamuses. Only the pig species and hippopotamus are nonruminants, having just one stomach. Odd-toed ungulates include horses and rhinoceroses.

THE PIG FAMILY TREE

FAMILY

SUIDAE

GENERA AND SPECIES

POTAMOCHOERUS

Red river hog (P. porcus) and bush pig (P. larvatus), from Africa

Potamochoerus porcus

SUS

Wild boar (S. scrofa; including domestic pig subspecies, S. scrofa domestica) and pygmy hog (S. salvanius), from Europe and India; and Philippine warty pig (S. philippensis), Visayan warty pig (S. cebifrons), Sulawesi warty pig (S. celebensis), Javan warty pig (S. verrucosus), and bearded pig (S. barbatus), from Asiatic islands

PHACOCHOERUS

Desert warthog (P. aethiopicus) and common warthog (P. africanus), from Africa

HYLOCHOERUS

Giant forest hog (H. meinertzhageni), from Africa

Hylochoerus meinertzhageni

BABYROUSA

Babirusa (B. babyrussa), from Indonesia

FAMILY

TAYASSUIDAE

GENERA AND SPECIES

PECARI

Collared peccary (P. tajacu), from Southwest of the United States, South America, and Trinidad

Pecari tajacu

CATAGONUS

Chacoan peccary (C. wagneri), from South America

Catagonus wagneri

TAYASSU

White-lipped peccary (T. pecari), from Central and South America

Tayassu pecari

It is not hard