While almost every farm has them, not many people know a lot about pigs. Below we compiled 30 fun and interesting facts about pigs that will get you up to date on everything that you should know about them.

1. Pigs constantly communicate with one another.

2. Newborn piglets recognize their own names and even learn to run to their mothers’ voices. This is because the mothers’ sing to their young while they’re still nursing.

3. Pigs snuggle very close to each other and prefer to sleep nose to nose. Like humans, they also dream.

4. In their natural habitat, pigs can spend hours playing, exploring, and even sunbathing.

5. Pigs have a very good sense of direction and are easily able to find their own way home from very far distances.

6. Pigs don’t eat quickly, they prefer to eat slowly and savor their food.

7. Contrary to popular belief, pigs are actually clean animals. If they’re given sufficient space, they will be careful not to soil the area where they sleep or eat.

8. Pigs don’t sweat, they prefer to roll around in water or mud to keep cool.

9. Pigs are very smart animals. They are extremely curious about their environment and are known to being smarter than young human children.

10. Wild pigs play an important role in managing ecosystems and maintaining biodiversity. Their rooting and disturbing of the soil, creates areas for new plant colonisation.

11. Pigs are very peaceful animals and they rarely show aggression. The only time they do show aggression is when a mother with her young is provoked or threatened.

12. Winston Churchill once famously said about pigs, “Dogs look up to man. Cats look down to man. Pigs look us straight in the eye and see an equal.”

13. Pigs have an amazing sense of smell. The large round disk of cartilage at the tip of their snout is connected to the muscle that gives it extra flexibility and strength for rooting in the ground.

14. An adult pig can run up to 11 miles per hour.

15. Pigs have 15,000 taste buds, while humans have 9,000.

16. The pig is the last of the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac. It’s seen to represent fortune, honesty, happiness and virility.

17. There are currently about 2 billion pigs on the planet.

18. Pigs drink up to 14 gallons of water every single day.

19. Pigs have 4 toes on each foot but they only walk on 2.

20. Pigs live on every single continent in the world, except Antarctica.

21. People with allergies sometimes have pigs as pets due to them not having any hair or fur, and they do not shed.

22. China has the most domesticated pigs in the world. The United States comes in second.

23. In Denmark, there are twice as many pigs as there are people.

24. Pigs are easily trained to walk on a leash, use a litter box and even do tricks.

25. A pig’s squeal can be as loud as 115 decibels, which is 3 decibels higher than the sound of a supersonic airliner.

26. Pigs will eat pretty much anything, including human bones. In 2012, a farmer in Oregon, America, was eaten by pigs after having a heart attack and falling into their enclosure. By the time he was found, only his dentures were left.

27. Pigs are actually very similar to humans and their genetic makeup is very close to ours. Because of this, stem cells from pigs are used by scientists and researchers to find cures for human diseases.

28. To track the cells once they’ve been injected, Chinese geneticists have crossed a pig with a jellyfish, producing piglets whose tongues and trotters glow fluorescent green in UV light.

29. On the Bahaman Island of Big Major Cay, a population of wild aquatic pigs rules the island, and many have taken to swimming out to boats that can be found offshore, in the hopes of being fed by the tourists.

30. Until the very end of the 20th century, in Bhutan, they would feed pigs cannabis.