Piglets vs Piglets in the Hidden Milk Wars - BBC Earth

There are almost 800 million pigs in the world and you may not know them as well as you think. Pigs are highly intelligent, something we aim to prove on the farm. They are short-sighted but compensate with a highly developed sense of smell and they have even been trained as domestic pets. Contrary to popular belief, pigs are very clean. Their love of mud is just to keep cool because pigs have practically no sweat glands. That's right, you don't sweat like a pig either. And despite what you may have heard, pigs won't fly. To uncover the real secrets of this fascinating farm animal we're following Becky's 11 strong litter during its first 10 weeks of life. Much of that time will be spent feeding. It looks like a free-for-all because it is. But there's a hierarchy being established. And Becky's 14 teats are the battleground. Too far away, too small, just right. A wise choice, madam. The front teat produces the most milk. This piglet will be bigger and stronger than her siblings and a natural leader. These little suckers are just three days old but their early tussles will have lasting consequences. Once a pecking order has been established, each piglet will return to the same teat for every meal. It's a theory called teat fidelity. And to test it, we need a more established litter. So here's one we made earlier. This is Apple and her eight little pips. The piglets are five days old and we think they already know whose teat is whose. What we're going to do today is we're going to take Apple's piglets and we're going to number them one to eight and see if they do keep returning to the same teat. Apple rings the dinner bell with a loud grunt. After a short tussle, the piglets settle down, each to their own teat. Chris carefully extracts a piglet, numbers it, then pops it back on its chosen position. He repeats the process. Oh, don't wiggle so much. Until we have a perfect feeding line numbered from one to eight. After breakfast, it's the obligatory post-meal nap. The question is, will these sleeping cuties return to the same teat for their next meal? At this age, piglets feed every hour on the hour. And after 40 winks, they're hungry again. Incoming! After another two-minute tussle, they start feeding. And it's time for the crucial count. One, two, three, three, thank you, four, five, six, in you come number seven, and eight. The same piglets on the same teats, a model of mealtime etiquette. Mealtime over, it's time for another quick nap. After all, it's only 59 minutes until lunch.