Science Alert:

Pigs might not be able to fly, but they can play video games. In a new study, researchers from Purdue University in Indiana have shown that pigs can use a digital screen and joystick, operated by their snout, to move a cursor around for rewards.

This is a complex task. The animals need to understand the link between moving around a joystick and what's happening on a computer screen, and then link what's happening on the screen to getting a reward.

The four pigs tested were all able to do that to some extent, showing off their smarts.

As the researchers upped the difficulty in the task, sending them to new "levels", the pigs weren't ready to compete with the kids in Mario Kart just yet.

They couldn't even compete with the monkeys for which the task was originally designed. This may be because moving around a joystick with your snout is a lot harder than with opposable thumbs, or because the pigs are just not as good at the task as primates.

High score for Porky

This new study fits well with what we already know about pigs. They show remarkable intelligence in a number of complex cognitive tasks. They can, for instance, learn to respond differently to different sounds, and are masters at spatial learning tasks.

But there are limits to what they can do. Mirror use, for instance, is not something all pigs can master, and while they can use simple geometric shapes to decide what response to give, recognising other pigs from photographs proves too difficult.

This was surprising since other farm animals like sheep and cattle are able to recognise their sheep and cattle friends on photographs.

But why do we care that pigs can play in the video arcade, or learn to hunt for sweets in spatial learning tasks? After all, they aren't likely to find an Xbox on the average farm. This study is part of a growing area in animal welfare research, the study of farm animal cognition.

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