After years of monitoring piglet behaviour, a Dutch researcher has found that when there’s no curve in the tail, there’s trouble ahead.
by NORMAN DUNN
One scientist who’s spent more time than most observing piglet tails – and whether they’re curly, in continuous movement, straight along the back or down between the legs – is Johan Zonderland.
He’s a member of the Animal Sciences Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and he and his team have discovered that the way a piglet holds its tail indicates whether it’s bored or not. And (as every hog farmer knows) when a piglet is bored, that’s when fighting and biting starts in the pen.