Pig Ecology

Three qualities made pigs so successful in the New World: their extraordinary adaptability, their fecundity, and their intelligence. The pig’s natural habitat is varied, consisting mostly of forests and moors, but also open land thickets, brush and grasslands, dry savannas, and rain forests. Having no sweat glands, pigs need shaded areas, water, or wet mud to cool off. Like humans, they are omnivores, eating wide varieties of vegetable material, from roots and fungi to bulbs, nuts—especially acorns—and even leaves. Animal proteins in the pig diet include insects and larvae, worms, eggs, frogs, mice, snakes, young birds, and carrion. Contrary to popular lore, pigs are picky if voracious eaters (they must eat frequently because they have small stomachs), and only in dire circumstances do they eat garbage. The pig’s nose is a highly sensitive food finder. The pig’s sense of smell is so keen that it can find delicacies hidden under the earth and readily root them up, truffles being the most famous of their finds. Brought to the New World where there were only a few predators to hunt them—wolves, some larger cats, and humans—pigs adapted rapidly to the propitious environments. In the warmer South with its greater biomass, its water, and its pine and deciduous forests, pigs flourished. That pork is a traditional staple of the regional diet is not surprising. Even in the North, with cold winters, pigs also did well. Their remarkable foraging abilities and herd societies allowed them to survive and increase.