Believe it or not, scientists are training pigs to play games better than you

The pigs also expressed interest in the praise they received for their success in the game.

Scientists recently used a simple game to demonstrate that pigs can be smarter than other animals like dogs and even chimpanzees. Watching a pig play a game is not something many people might think they would do with their time, but anything is possible. A study conducted by Purdue University in the UK deals with exactly that. Game pig testing to find out exactly how smart our pig friends are. Turns out, they’re pretty smart.

Specifically in the test, the pigs were placed in front of a screen with a joystick and a food dispenser. Since pigs have a long-range vision, the screen is placed further away than humans. Some blue walls appear on the screen and the pig is responsible for moving the dot to one of those walls with the joystick. If successful, the pig will receive a well-deserved reward for its efforts.

The researchers were able to change the number of walls the pigs had to aim for. Three-month-old pigs Hamlett and Omelette were the team’s picks, playing better than many of the other pigs. In addition, there are two other pigs named Ebony and Ivory that can also master this simple game when all four can overcome many walls.

Scientists used to think that dogs and chimpanzees were the most intelligent mammals in the animal kingdom after humans. However, one dog was tasked with playing the same simple game as the pigs, but the dog still needed help getting those rewards back, and that was after a year of practice. The researchers even revealed that four pigs trained to play the game even finished faster than some chimpanzees facing the same challenge.

Pictures are for illustrative purposes only

The pigs also seemed to enjoy the praise they received for their success in the game as much as they enjoyed receiving rewards for winning. It is thought that pigs can perform even better when using a touch screen than a joystick. Someone call Apple and ask them to design a responsive touchscreen specifically for a pig’s snout, not a human fingertip.