Nov 13, 2024
Humans have a lot in common with pigs. We share 98% of our DNA. We’re omnivores. We’re two of the only animals that can get sunburned. And we can both get emotional from time to time. But figuring out what a pig is trying to say has been a problem in the past. Scientists think they have an AI solution.
Using artificial intelligence (AI), a research team in Europe has developed an algorithm that claims to translate what pigs are feeling.
"Emotions of animals are central to their welfare, but we don't measure it much on farms," Elodie Mandel-Briefer told Reuters. She is a behavioral biologist at the University of Copenhagen and a co-leader of the research team.
Mandel-Briefer’s team recorded thousands of hours of pig sounds. They also logged the experiences that each pig had while making the noises. They recorded pigs waking up, eating their favorite foods, being scared, and even facing threats. They wanted to see how pigs “spoke” through the experiences. They then fed the noises through AI. It then worked to detect patterns in all those grunts, snorts, and squeals.
The program revealed that pigs have a complex emotional vocabulary. Short grunts tend to equal positive emotions. But calling them “happiness” or “joy” might be putting a bit too much human spin on things. Longer grunts suggest discomfort. The higher the pitch, the greater the stress the pig is feeling. That could be from fright or pain. And all of it could be valuable info for a farmer hoping to keep his pigpen healthy.
"Once we have the tool working, farmers can have an app on their phone that can translate what their pigs are saying in terms of emotions," Mandel-Briefer told Reuters.
Reflect: What do you think we might learn if we could understand the emotions of animals better?
Gif of pigs from GIPHY.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
This resource is a searchable database with images, graphs, and interactive maps that provide detailed information about nearly 150,000 species.
The Power of Seaweed: How Can Kelp Capture Carbon?
This video explains how fast-growing kelp combats climate change by capturing and storing large amounts of carbon, but that ocean acidification, pollution, and warmer waters are making it harder for kelp to grow.
Will the Ocean Ever Run Out of Fish?
This resource describes the current state of fish populations in the oceans and the industrial fishing practices that have lead to the critical state of fish stocks globally.
News brought to you by
