I don’t know where I’ve heard it before, but it has always stuck in my mind that pigs are as intelligent as two year old babies. Is that true?
Also, do ferrets really go around your house (if they’re free) and take shiny objects like keys and hide them?
Sigh. I hate these “is X as smart as X year old kids” comparisons. Look, there is no easy way to quantify animal intelligence. Yes, pigs are pretty smart for an animal. Yes, they can do some tasks that 2 y.o. can’t do. On the other hand, there are tasks that 2 y.o. are capable of doing and pigs are not. For every test showing pigs are smarter than X y.o. I can construct another test that show otherwise… No way to compare, really.
And ferrets, yes, some of them do like hoarding items. Such behavior is actually quite common - I’ve seen pet rats, hamsters, dogs, magpies and parrots doing things like that, and also heard about many other animals (including ferrets) collecting various (sometimes shiny, sometimes not) objects.
In terms of language, I think few pigs can keep up. I’ve known two-year-old humans who spoke in (mostly) complete sentences and could carry on extended conversations with adults.
If you are asking about that Arnold pig on green acres versus a 2 year old from a trash family down the street, then yes, pigs are smarter than dumb trash kids. OTOH, pigs are exceptionally lazy and lack ambition and also a good sense of personal hygiene. They are like that pretty intelligent kid down the street who just lays on the couch all day and never makes an effort for personal betterment. They say that pigs are smarter than dogs but a good dog will try and even be eager if you send him to school. He will probably come home with a diploma and a few gold stickers, It is rare for a pig to do that. Pigs also have untreated weight issues and they don’t seem to care at all. They are like a 300 pound single mother of 6 that lays around the house all day eating bon bons. I like pigs but I can’t respect them for who they are. Some are funny, many are smart, and some are cute but they lack personal responsibility and ambition.
Yes. They like to collect things. A friend of mine had several, and every now and then when housecleaning she’d discover a stash-place one of them had established. Not just shiny stuff, either. The little boogers would swipe anything that caught their attention. I was at her house once and we moved a dresser only to find a ferret cache that had in it, besides a whole heap of the usual (loose socks and scarves and sheets of paper) the following:
a big hunk from a loaf of bread baked a week earlier
several Bic lighters
two $20 bills
an unopened bar of soap 
an eighth of pot (still in its baggy, so the weasel hadn’t been smoking it)
a paperback copy of *The Man In The High Castle *by Philip K. Dick
a wooden candle holder
the candle that had been in it
a necklace
Mine didn’t, but they were usually well supervised when loose, which probably contributed greatly to them being the oldest ferrets our vet had ever treated (ferrets are as curious as cats, but much less cautious). They did rip the insoles out of every shoe they could get their paws on, though, and like collecting it’s a pretty common ferret behavior. I think one of their natural prey smelled like dirty feet.
I think pigs are smarter than two year olds. After all, when was the last time you saw a two year old make bacon?
Without getting into whether intelligence is what we think it is, exists at all as originally formulated, or for that matter whether what is measured by intelligence tests is the characteristic that the testing folks say it is, etc, — “intelligence” is supposed to be the capacity for learning and reasoning things out.
A two year old human therefore is traditionally considered to possess the same intelligence as she or he will possess 20 years later. You don’t get more intelligent as you get older, you get wiser or more learned.
Now now, don’t be spreading lies about one of my favorite farm animals. The pig is one of the cleanest animals out there, and yes they are smart, who can say if they are smarter then a year old? I think they a smarter then some adults I’ve met thoough, and in spite of what Shagnasty says, more ambitous too.Cite