The National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung is holding a special exhibition on pigs to mark the lunar Year of the Pig, which starts on Tuesday next week.
The exhibition aims to teach and dispel common misconceptions about hogs, such as that pigs are inherently dirty and unintelligent animals, the museum said.
Pigs are widely perceived as being “stupid,” but they are actually highly capable animals, museum deputy director Lo Wei-che (羅偉哲) said, citing pigs’ sense of smell, which he said is as good as that of dogs.
Photo: Su Meng-chuan, Taipei Times
Research has also shown that pigs can find their way through a maze and can memorize simple patterns, he said.
Furthermore, pigs are thought to be dirty, because they enjoy rolling around in the mud, Lo said.
“They do this because they lack sweat glands. Water in the mud evaporates and helps them cool down,” he said.
The exhibition includes a section on African swine fever to address growing public concerns over the disease.
African swine fever was not a serious concern in Asia before, because it was largely restricted to Africa and eastern Europe, curator Yang Chung-hsin (楊中信) said.
However, the virus has since spread to Asia via China. There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease and infected animals have a 100 percent mortality rate, he said.
Authorities are seizing meat products from epidemic areas at the border, but the public must be alert to the issue, Yang added.
Another section of the exhibition focuses on the social and cultural impacts of pigs, from the history of the pig as a Chinese zodiac animal to popular stories such as the character Zhu Bajie (豬八戒) in Journey to the West and the tale of the Three Little Pigs.
It also looks at the “divine pig” used in Hakka religious and cultural ceremonies, the tale of Chinese philosopher Zengzi (曾子) slaying a pig and record-breaking pigs from around the world, including records of the oldest pig, which lived 23 years; the heaviest pig, which weighed 1,157kg; and the most fertile pig, which bore 37 piglets in one litter.
Archeologists have uncovered evidence of hog raising in China’s Henan Province dating back at least 8,000 years, demonstrating the importance of pigs to human civilization, Yang said.
This importance is encapsulated in the Chinese character for “home” (jia, 家), which is formed by placing the radical for “swine” (shi, 豕) under that for “roof” (mian, 宀), he said.
The show runs until June 9.
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