Pigs and Intelligence

Is there a reason that pigs are intelligent, while many other domesticated farm animals are dumb as dirt?

What do you mean by “reason”? Are you thinking that farm animals, in general, are selected for their stupidity, and someone decided that pigs would be the exception? Pigs were domesticated because they can eat our garbage, plus they taste good. They just happen to be smart too.

I, for one, would assume that without natural selective pressure, intelligence would fall by the wayside after domestication.

Domesticated turkeys, for example, are much dumber than their wild cousins.

It is odd that hogs have retained their intelligence. (Or else, maybe they were even smarter when wild!)

**NEIL: ** Well, I don’t mind being a pig, cause, for your information, pigs are really intelligent, actually.

RICK: Oh, so they are, are they? Well, tell me, Neil. Who invented the internal combustion engine? Was it Porky the Pig? No, it was Lincoln Rawls, wasn’t it?! And the Theory of Relativity. Was Pythagoras a pig? No, he was a Greek, wasn’t he? So tell me, Neil. You’re the expert. What’s the major piggie contribution to civilization?.. It’s bacon, isn’t it? Bacon and rolling around in the mud. Look out, Michaelangelo, here comes the new piggie Renaissance!

Up until recently, many farmers raised pigs by essentially letting them roam around the farm eating whatever they could find. So pigs had to maintain a certain amount of their natural intelligence unlike other livestock.

Bacon gave you science! Time you start showing some respect towards porcinity.