Entities › Animals and other organisms › Mammals
Domestic pig
Sus scrofa domesticus
Pigs learn what a mirror shows and use it to find food.
- Neurons
- 2.22 billion measured · whole brain, one domestic pigJelsing J, Nielsen R, Olsen AK, Grand N, Hemmingsen R, Pakkenberg B (2006) The postnatal development of neocortical neurons and glial cells in the Gottingen minipig and the domestic pig brain. J Exp Biol 209(8):1454-1462. doi:10.1242/jeb.02141. Whole brain: Kazu RS, Maldonado J, Mota B, Manger PR, Herculano-Houzel S (2014) Cellular scaling rules for the brain of Artiodactyla include a highly folded cortex with few neurons. Front Neuroanat 8:128. doi:10.3389/fnana.2014.00128.
- In the cerebral cortex (or bird pallium)
- 432 million in the neocortex (stereology); 293 million by fractionatorJelsing J, Nielsen R, Olsen AK, Grand N, Hemmingsen R, Pakkenberg B (2006) The postnatal development of neocortical neurons and glial cells in the Gottingen minipig and the domestic pig brain. J Exp Biol 209(8):1454-1462. doi:10.1242/jeb.02141. Whole brain: Kazu RS, Maldonado J, Mota B, Manger PR, Herculano-Houzel S (2014) Cellular scaling rules for the brain of Artiodactyla include a highly folded cortex with few neurons. Front Neuroanat 8:128. doi:10.3389/fnana.2014.00128.
Evidence
- Pigs learn what a mirror image stands for, and use it to find food.Broom DM, Sena H, Moynihan KL (2009) Pigs learn what a mirror image represents and use it to obtain information. Anim Behav 78(5):1037-1041. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2009.07.027.
The New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024) finds strong scientific support for conscious experience in mammals and birds.