Scientists have developed a way of decoding the feelings of pigs through their grunts, oinks and squeals. They hope to improve animal welfare.
Biologists studied over 7,000 recordings from 411 pigs, and put them into 19 different categories.
"We show that it's possible to figure out the emotions of the pigs according to their noises," says Elodie Briefer at the University of Copenhagen.
Elodie says positive feelings are expressed in short grunts, while negative feelings are expressed with longer sounds.
The new tool will allow farmers to check the mental health of their pigs.
If a pig's negative squeals increase, the farmer will be alerted that something is wrong, and can check.
