Producer
RONNIE GODEANU

Art Director
SABINA DALEY

Designers
LENNY DROZNER
KAREN MATTSON
RADIK SHVARTS

Pagebuilding
BRIAN SANTALONE

Production Artist
RUIYAN XU

Writer
KAREN DE SEVE

Technical Director
BRIAN LEE

Content Consultant
GIANNA SAVOIE

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Carmen DiRienzo, Vice President and Managing Director, Corporate Affairs.

Television Credits

Produced & Directed by
LIZZIE GREEN

Photography
CHRIS OPENSHAW
IAN SALVAGE
ANDREW SHILLABEER
KEN OAKE
MIKE FOX

Additional Photography
LAURENT CHARBONNIER
ALAIN COMPOST
DAVID THOMPSON
STEPHEN ROBINSON
THOMAS FITZ
SEAN O’DRISCOLL

Location Sound
RUDI BUCKLE
JIMMY LECA

Voice of Piglet
TOM CLARKE-HILL

Film Editor
NIKKI OLDROYD

Writer
BARRY PAINE

Dubbing Editor
JULIE MITCHELL

Music
NICK HOOPER

Post Production Manager
DOMINIC WESTON

Dubbing Mixer
GRAHAM WILD

Videotape Editor
TIM BOLT

Production Coordinator
MARIA ROCHE

Production Team
LIL CRANFIELD
PETER VENN
JOHN GREEN
ALAYNE MCLAREN

Scientific Consultant
WILLIAM OLIVER

Archive Footage
IONA ANTIQUES LONDON

Design and Art Direction
BURREL DURRANT HIFLE DESIGN AND DIRECTION LTD.

Special Thanks to:
THE EARL OF CRANBROOK
DR. JOHN WALTON
ROY BAILY
BORNEO ADVENTURE TRAVEL
NANGA SUMPA LONGHOUSE
PETER BRIDGEWATER
TREVOR SMITH’S ANIMAL WORLD
And
“PIGLET”

Executive Producer
MICHAEL ROSENBERG

For NATURE

Science Editor
JANET HESS

Coordinating Producer
JANICE YOUNG

Associate Producers
JESSICA SIEGEL
CAROLINE CORNEY

Researchers
HILDY RUBIN
SUSANE LEE

Production Assistant
JILL CLARKE

Production Secretary
KEVIN DOYLE

Manager
EILEEN FRAHER

Production Manager
JOHN SCHWALLY

Editor
PATRICK GAMBUTI, JR.

On-Line Editor
BARRY GLINER

Sound Mixer
ED CAMPBELL

Host Sequence Directed by
FRED KAUFMAN

Filmed by
MICHAEL BARRY

In Mystic, Connecticut

Special thanks to
THE MILLARAS PIGGERY

Executive Editor
GEORGE PAGE

Executive Producer
FRED KAUFMAN

A Co-Production of Partridge Films Ltd. And Thirteen/WNET

This program was produced by Thirteen/WNET New York, which is solely responsible for its content.

National Committee on Potbellied Pigs
http://www.ncopp.com/
Information on breeding, showing, owning, and selling.

Swine Breeds
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/swine
A comprehensive list of pig breeds, from American landrace to Yorkshire.

Pigs in (Cyber) Space
http://www.syddware.com/SyddZoo/PetZoo/Piggies
Links to pig Web sites.

Pigs, a Sanctuary
http://www.pigs.org
A center for abandoned pigs, with information on adoption and contributing to the cause.

The Chacoan Peccary
http://library.sandiegozoo.org/Fact%20Sheets/peccary_chacoan/PECCARY.HTM
A page of information about this animal from the San Diego Zoo.

Books

Horwitz, Richard P. HOG TIES: WHAT PIGS TELL US ABOUT AMERICA. University of Minnesota Press, August 2002.

Malcolmson, Robert and Stephanos Mastoris. THE ENGLISH PIG: A HISTORY. Hambledon Press, April 1999.

Pukite, John. A FIELD GUIDE TO PIGS. Falcon Publishing Company, September 1999.

Sonder, Ben. PIGS & WILD BOARS: A PORTRAIT OF THE ANIMAL WORLD. Todtri Productions Ltd, November 1998.

In the wild, there is only one skin-care product available to pigs: mud. A good coating helps protect any swine species from sunburn and bug bites. And since a pig has no sweat glands, mud also draws heat out through the skin, helping to regulate the pig’s body temperature on hot days. The need for mud is universal throughout the pig species of the world, but other characteristics remain unique.

Take the babirusa, an endangered pig species. Found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the male has an unusual set of tusks, the result of his canine teeth curling upwards and piercing his snout. No one knows why babirusa developed these strange tusks, and they appear to serve no purpose — in fact, if the pig does not wear his tusks down or lose them in combat, they will eventually grow long enough to pierce his skull and kill him. Indonesians thought this animal’s bizarre tusks looked so much like a deer’s antlers that they named it “babirusa,” which means “pig-deer.”

A Bornean bearded pig.

Another facial adaptation for the pig is a beard. On the Indonesian island of Borneo, just north of Sulawesi, bearded pigs spend their days snout to the ground, sniffing out fruits that fall from the lush rainforest canopy. In the process, these pigs provide an essential gardening service for the forest. As they dig, their noses till the soil, creating furrows for fruit seeds that drop to the ground as they eat. Their work helps to regenerate tree growth in the rainforest.

One odd-looking pig species has tufts of hair dangling from its ears. The tassel-eared red river hog, or potamochere, lives in central Africa. Both males and females have these ear tassels, which scientists theorize the hogs may shake to threaten predators. Red river hogs take advantage of the forest clearings where elephants dig for water, running up to drink once the elephants have left.

The peccary is not a pig, but a relative that shares the pig’s sensitive snout. The rarest of the peccary species, the Chacoan peccary, is found in Bolivia’s Gran Chaco National Park. Here, giant thorn bushes tower over a dry ground. Only a handful of these peccaries exist in this rugged habitat. Their more successful cousins — the white-lipped peccary and the collared peccary — live in other tropical regions in Latin America.

More and more Americans are keeping pet pigs. As potbellied pigs Maynard and Cecil demonstrate on The Joy of Pigs, some pigs are more welcome in the house than in the barn. These two have the run of their owner’s Beverly Hills home, and are just like any other household pet — if a little rounder.

Originally intended for display in zoos, potbellied pigs were first imported into the United States from Vietnam in 1985. They became a craze, and prices skyrocketed. Today, the fad has faded, but despite the fact that they can grow to weigh 300 pounds or more if overfed, potbellied pigs still maintain their popularity as pets. In order to compete with other pet markets, pig sellers may lie, telling potential buyers that a diminutive potbellied piglet will top out at a full-grown weight of only 25 pounds. Within a few months, the new owners discover that their pet porker has ballooned way past that limit and, unless checked, is heading for a weight 12 times the one they were told! This gives a whole new meaning to “bringing home the bacon.”

Maynard enjoys the lap of luxury.

But if an owner keeps a close watch on a pig’s eating habits, a potbellied pig should end up weighing no more than a relatively sane 100 to 150 pounds. Pig breeders are now trying to create smaller versions of potbellied pigs, about the size of small dogs, called “miniature pigs” or “micro-pigs.” More suitable for apartment living, these pigs should be less of a burden to owners, who often are not prepared for a pig’s girth, eating habits, and sometimes unmanageable behavior.

Some owners do become disenchanted with their pets and abandon them at shelters. That’s where Suzie Parkinson and her ranch, L’il Orphan Hammies, come into the picture. As you see in The Joy of Pigs, Parkinson lives on her Solvang, California, ranch with more than 50 porcine companions she has rescued from shelters. Many of them are pigs who grew from babyhood to become gigantic, ravenous hogs — natural for a pig, but more than some owners bargained for in a pet. The National Committee on Potbellied Pigs provides information to potential owners. Anyone interested in adopting a potbellied pig should understand the challenges, as well as the joys, of keeping this unusual, endearing animal as a pet. Like dogs, pet pigs must go out for walks; like cats, they can learn to use a litter box. They enjoy a good scratch or a fun game of fetch, and can easily be trained. In addition, they generally get along well with other domestic animals.

Pigs are instinctively wary of being picked up: in the wild, predators capture them from above and lift them through the air. However, many do enjoy lap visits and cuddling. Pigs are clean pets who will stay tidy if they are bathed and groomed. To keep them cool in hot weather, owners should provide lots of clean water for them to splash and wallow in — unless you’d rather keep a mud puddle around.

Do you sweat like a pig? Chances are you don’t, especially if you can wring out your shirt at the end of a hot day. Contrary to popular belief, pigs are unable to sweat; instead, they wallow in mud to cool down. Their mucky appearance gives pigs an undeserved reputation for slovenliness. In fact, pigs are some of the cleanest animals around, refusing to excrete anywhere near their living or eating areas when given a choice.

Pigs are misunderstood in many ways. Many people think of them as portly and stupid, but the NATURE program The Joy of Pigs shows us how intelligent pigs really are. (They are naturally lean, too, unless they are overfed by humans.) Pigs are smarter than any other domestic animal. Their ability to solve problems, like the pig I.Q. test on The Joy of Pigs, is well-documented, and they are considered by animal experts to be more trainable than dogs or cats.

Piglet, “host” of THE JOY OF PIGS.

Pigs are difficult to classify. In popular culture, they appear as everything from sweet simpletons (CHARLOTTE’S WEB) to wicked tyrants (ANIMAL FARM) to brave heroes (BABE). To pig farmers, the animal is a commodity. To truffle harvesters, pigs are reliable hunters whose keen sense of smell locates these pricey fungi. To scientists, pigs are unique as one of the only large mammals that exists, in one form or another, in every part of the world.

Every continent bears the imprint of the pig’s feet — preferably in a nice mud puddle. Red river hogs in West Africa, bearded pigs in Borneo, pig-like peccaries in Bolivia, and outlandishly tusked Indonesian babirusa all enjoy similar lifestyles of food, water, and a good roll in the dirt. These pigs’ European ancestors became some of the first domesticated animals thousands of years ago. Wherever humans have ventured, they have brought pigs along with them. Colonists carried pigs with them to distant lands, proliferating pig farming throughout the world.

In the United States, raising hogs is big business. In 1997 alone, United States hog farmers raised more than 58 million head to support growing demands for pork. But the popularity of pigs as pets is growing, and many Americans now keep pigs in their homes. So when dinner’s served in those homes, it’s made for a pig, not from one!

NATURE’s The Joy of Pigs explores the extraordinary variety and success of these often misunderstood mammals.

Pigs may be in vogue today among filmmakers and Beverly Hills society matrons, who stroll around with potbellied porkers while shopping on Rodeo Drive. But this ubiquitous animal has been around since before the Ice Age — and in some parts of the world, pigs have been treated like stars for centuries.

The surprising allure of this creature in all its astonishing varieties is the subject of The Joy of Pigs The program guides viewers around the globe for a look at exotic wild pigs and an exploration of the different roles that domesticated pigs play in human societies.

To order a copy of The Joy of Pigs, please visit the NATURE Shop.
Online content for The Joy of Pigs was originally posted November 1996.