Scientists have decoded the language of pigs.
Scientists have decoded the language of pigs
Experts have studied recordings of more than 7,000 grunts to work out their meaning and are able to match each sound to emotions such as being happy, excited, scared or stressed.
It is hoped that the method can be developed into an app to help farmers to recognise how their pigs are feeling.
The scientists recorded the pigs' sounds in various situations, such as being reunited with family, fights between young and playing with toys.
The team designed a computer algorithm to decode each action and found that short grunts signified happiness while lots of vocalisations showed when a pig was scared or upset.
Dr. Elodie Briefer, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, said: "There are clear differences in pig calls when we look at positive and negative situations.
"By training an algorithm to recognise these sounds, we can classify 92 per cent of the calls to the correct emotion."