--- title: "Domestic pig · Animals and other organisms · Entities · Simulation Hypothesis" url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/entities/pig description: "Pigs learn what a mirror shows and use it to find food." license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)" --- [Entities](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/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 pig Jelsing 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 fractionator Jelsing 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](https://sites.google.com/nyu.edu/nydeclaration/declaration) (2024) finds strong scientific support for conscious experience in mammals and birds. Assess it against the published criteria