Very interesting. I've read the facts before but found some that I had forgotten, it's a really good article of yours
@Wiebke and the link to brain sizes is interesting.
Here's a link to one very very clever piggy:
(most impressive)
Ace's Amazing Tricks
Thing is out of my 9 piggies I recon two of them would/would have been happy and amenable to want to learn to do tricks.
Sunrise: She taught herself a game of 'push the hidey off the settee and wait for it to be replaced and then push it off again' game. She invented it, she enjoyed it, and I could have probably taken that a step further with some reward-encouragement to do so on command, plus perhaps other things too.
Shadow - I don't think she would have done.
Cloud - she liked to jump onto my lap, she liked to sit on my slippers, she liked to nose-boop me - perhaps could have stretched those things to something else.
Snowball - she was clever enough to wheek not just for food but when she knew I was microwaving her snuggle-safe, which she loved. Perhaps she could have learned other things.
Penny - bold and friendly, but very much one to do her own thing. Possibly trainable, but she is very easily distracted, seems to have a short attention span.
Freddie - it took him around a year to learn the word 'treat, when everyone else learned it very quickly. His word he associated with food is his name. He now associated both words with food. He obviously can learn, I'm not convinced he is a fast learner though.
Oreo - too shy and nervous, but very food oriented. She was sweet, very sweet, but not a confident piggy, I don't think she would have enjoyed anyone trying to teach her many things, though she did teach me to give her treats by nudging my hand. She trained me and perhaps herself at the same time.
Rosie - Out of all my pigs Rosie is the one who likes me for food only, and will purposefully get right out of the way if I am near her for anything else, such as replacing soiled bedding. She is smart in her own way and guards her food, and will scoff her's quickly and then go looking elsewhere for more, and hide and scoff that too. Wiley I suppose, but she would not want to be trained, she is not a people-pig.
Ruby. Ah Ruby-Roo, now she may be a good candidate. Very much a people-pig and very interested in everything. She and I - we have that extra bond. It's not that I love any others less, it's more that she wants to bond with people.
I realise that training and independent problem solving are not always the same thing, but they both involve working something out, making observations and making associations, and memory, all of which involve intellect. On top of that personality plays a part. A nervous and mistrusting pig may learn to do things a certain way to it's advantage, in a way that keeps it safe or ensures it gets the food etc. A people-pig, and one who is curious and bold like Ruby, may relish learning things from their human and being rewarded for doing so...
I am wondering what types of problem-solving the researches did, and if they selected bold people-pigs or any pig for their tests of skill.
It is certainly clear from our pets that they learn from us. They learn association of words and tone, for example, to know when we are talking to them, and when we are about to give them food. They learn to know what actions mean what - so me putting on a plastic glove will mean poop-picking-up time or cage cleaning. It does not mean I'm about to pick them up, and all but Rosie realise this. They learn sounds and routines and signals from another species - us, that they wouldn't in the wild, so they have perhaps a different intelligence to that of their wild counterparts
As I say though, I know tricks and problem solving are not necessarily the same.
I don't believe in pushing anything to learn something that they don't want to learn. I think that's important, but I recon Ruby and Sunrise may / would have the right personality, boldness and curiosity to want to learn.
Our Dougal was like that