Science: Language of Oink

Ignoring the gibes of colleagues. Geneticist Glen McBride of Australia's University of Queensland perched for two years on the fences of pigpens. By listening to the oinks and grunts of teen-age swine (8 to 16-week age bracket), he hoped to fathom their social order, to learn how to make them more comfortable and faster growing. He failed, mostly because the young swine were made into hams and bacon before he got to know them well.

But he did learn the pig language.

McBride concluded that pigs have a vocabulary of at least ten easily...

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