how smart are hogs?

[Lancer]

i know you guys probably have some great stories showing just how intelligent are adversaries really are; Let's hear what you've seen.
I'll start;
we were hunting an open field (450 acres) surrounded by woods and my bride was driving me and the kids around as i ran the light. I flashed by a solid black hog on the edge of the field maybe 50 yards out, had her stop the car and hit it with light again. It was propped up on a dirt berm on edge of grass maybe 2' high, front feet up/out in front of it facing to my left directly broadsided to me. i'm shining a white Go-lite on it and it never moved , i immediately think that poachers ( we have many) have killed it and posed it for pictures. I step out and heed natures call, all the while talking to the family about how the poachers are getting under my skin. As i get back in the car i grab my AR for a closer glance at the pig. As i'm checking it out it BLINKS, i put one in it's ear and it goes into death throes. Upon examination it had no wounds and looked to be in previously perfect health. I would have been PISSED had it not been there on my next pass by!! moral of story ; they are definitely smart enough to play dead/ hide in plain sight.

 

[FrankT]

that was funny, playing dead. They are smarter than almost anything else...I think the crow might beat them out.

 

[TEXASLAWMAN]

I hear the average hog is smarter than the average dog.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

I had a hog caught in a Hold-a-Hawg leg trap. I was trying to get a catch pole around her head to control her, she kept biting the rope and shaking it. I was getting a little tired and irritated with her, she was on a 10' chain so she had some room to move. Finally she backed up on the slight incline and laid down and gave out a big sigh, like she was tired and done fighting. So I did what all smart guys do, I walked up closer to her and tried slipping the noose over her head, hah! She sprung forward so fast, I slipped downhill on my knees but she got my left hand in her mouth and started shaking it like a gator. If you ever heard a hog crunching hard corn kernels like it was toast that is because they crunch quite hard I can say. I had motocross gloves on but she bit through my finger and busted my knuckle while I am pounding on her head with my right hand. When I got free I was mad, put some electrical tape around my hand to stop the blood and went back after her and finished getting her out alive. But I played that over and over and believe she intentionally sucked me in closer to get a hold of me.

 

[FrankT]

Dan, now that would have been a video for sure!

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

I'm thinking about a GoPro. Wonder if they are worth having?

 

[FrankT]

to get that video? priceless!

 

[Chopperdrvr]

This is hearsay, but a good friend of mine a few years ago told me a story he had witnessed where a whole group of hogs being kept in a pen by only a hot wire looked like they were conspiring to escape. He said one large sow tested the wire a few times letting out a squeal each time she touched the wire. After a few times testing the perimeter, she milled around with the others and they all formed up in a group. Pretty soon, they all started squealing and charged the fence in mass. They easily broke through and headed for the woods. He said that there was clearly an intelligent plan to break out and obvious communication among themselves as to how the plan was to be conducted.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

This is hearsay, but a good friend of mine a few years ago told me a story he had witnessed where a whole group of hogs being kept in a pen by only a hot wire looked like they were conspiring to escape. He said one large sow tested the wire a few times letting out a squeal each time she touched the wire. After a few times testing the perimeter, she milled around with the others and they all formed up in a group. Pretty soon, they all started squealing and charged the fence in mass. They easily broke through and headed for the woods. He said that there was clearly an intelligent plan to break out and obvious communication among themselves as to how the plan was to be conducted.

Did they leave a note?

 

[ZenArchery]

I hear the average hog is smarter than the average dog.

what he said...

 

[Afalex1]

Some of the hogs around me know the sound of my truck tires on pavement. If I drive by a certain property below the speed limit and lights off, they bolt. If I drive by lights on and doing the speed limit they look at the truck, but don't run. I have also watched them feed along the road while other vehicles drive by and they don't even flinch. We took my friends truck one night and tested it too. We drove by with the lights off below the speed limit and they didn't run. Dang hogs know the sound of cooper ATP tires on pavement!

I've seen several lone boars stand as still as a statue in the brush or a fence line. Sometimes they look like a hog shaped bush or just a blob because their outline is broken by trees and brush. I believe they are smarter then the average dog.

 

[Brian Shaffer]

I have come to decide that hunters often proclaim intended prey as "smart" anytime the prey doesn't stand broadside and wait to be shot.

Sometimes we think of wary animals as being smart, but then that makes paranoid people seem to be smart as well. ;)

Saw a recent episode of Pigman where he called some high fenced hogs stupid for not running. The hogs were probably just as intelligent as any other hogs, but no longer wary of people given how they were raised. So the notion of being 'smart' can be rather subjective.

So hogs are smarter than dogs and not as smart as chimps (from what I have read). On various scales, dogs are seen to be about comparable to a 2 year old child, chimps about like a 4 year old and hogs are more like a 3 year old, give or take, not that any of the egg heads have figured out non-biased ways to assess IQ in animals. Sometimes animals do well on one type of IQ test, but don't do well on another type. So coming up with relevant tests is difficult. This is an ongoing problem for human IQ tests as well.

What is funny to consider is how hogs with the approximate IQ of a 3 year old can outsmart hunters with an average IQ 2-3 times higher and with decades of experience. Which one is really smarter? After some unsuccessful hunts, I am not always sure...

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

I'm with you Brian on that subject of IQ. There is no real IQ test, unless it were to be subject to the specific animal in a specific environment. It is about survival for animals. What allows them to survive in a given environment. I have worked with and trained birds, big parrots, small parrots. I have trained dogs, donkeys, horses and cats to do what I wanted them to do. They all react according to what is best for them. Birds can have very good memories which allows them to survive in difficult situations. Dogs will do anything for a treat of some sort. Large animals respond to affection and food to get what they want. I use a hogs survival skills as their weakness also. They will lay still rather than run especially when the sun is up or temperatures are high. I have killed many hogs at less that 10 feet because of this. How many spouses have been trained by their partner to do what they want to make life easier on themselves. lol. Survival.

 

[Lancer]

I'm thinking about a GoPro. Wonder if they are worth having?

Yes in my opinion the Go-Pro is well worth the money, i love how professional the video looks even for an amateur like myself. i haven't used mine on my gun yet but i do have a mount.

 

[Lancer]

I hear the average hog is smarter than the average dog.

i've had some dogs that really brought down the canine average.

 

[FrankT]

I like the comparison of chimps hogs then dogs, I know women are inbetween but we always leave that out...so obviously we are the smartest of them all...MEN!

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Frank, I am not touching your comment...out of sake of personal safety.

There is no real IQ test, unless it were to be subject to the specific animal in a specific environment.

Heard talk on opossums years ago. Somebody asked if opossums were stupid as the often get hit by cars. The expert giving the talk provided a very good answer, Dan, that corresponds well with what you said. The speaker noted that after 75 million years, opossums are very good at being opossums. They have survived longer than any other type of mammal. They have been as smart as they need to be to survive for so long. So in one respect, they are very smart, but they don't test well.

To paraphrase a quote on robotics, "It isn't that hogs are that smart, but that people are that naive" and maybe egotistical. After all, no hunter wants to admit to being outsmarted by a dumb animal. As adults, we all consider ourselves significantly smarter than 3 year old children, right?

Hogs are very good at being hogs. They aren't good with cell phones, Gore-Tex, and haven't a clue about ballistic tables. The better a hunter understands how hogs live and survive, the more the hunter can exploit the hog's shortcomings. The less the hunter understands about hogs, the smarter the hogs appear to be.

 

[Chopperdrvr]

The less the hunter understands about hogs, the smarter the hogs appear to be.

If that's the case I think hogs are freaking geniuses.

 

[Afalex1]

To put a different twist on this we have limits. What I mean is the hunter is confined to property boundaries, laws, and desire. If we were starving and didn't have to worry about laws or property lines I think we would all be a lot more successful.

There are many times I watch hogs 500 yards away and can't shoot them. Or hogs run out of my shooting range and I don't follow after them. If we didn't have to worry about the confines society puts on us we could be more successful. If I didn't have to work and other obligations my success would greatly rise.

We have a lot of short comings because we play by self inflicted rules.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

To put a different twist on this we have limits. What I mean is the hunter is confined to property boundaries, laws, and desire. If we were starving and didn't have to worry about laws or property lines I think we would all be a lot more successful.

There are many times I watch hogs 500 yards away and can't shoot them. Or hogs run out of my shooting range and I don't follow after them. If we didn't have to worry about the confines society puts on us we could be more successful. If I didn't have to work and other obligations my success would greatly rise.

We have a lot of short comings because we play by self inflicted rules.

Yea, those limits keep the playing field fair I do believe! This old lady asked me the other day if I had a drone to take out those pesky hogs...well, that got me to thinking....what if. Better not go there huh, same reason you can't fly and hunt same day in Alaska and else where. Level playing field keeps it fun and exciting.