In a potential animal welfare-monitoring breath, the scientists say they’ve converted a pig’s grunt into emotion for the first time, the scientists say.
The researchers trained an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm using 7,414 pig sound recordings collected at all stages of the life of 411 pigs, including slaughter.
The algorithm could potentially be used to create an application for pig farmers that determines whether the animals are happy simply by the noise they make.
With enough data to train the algorithm, the technique could also be used to better understand the emotions of other mammals, experts say.
Using thousands of acoustic recordings collected throughout the life of pigs, from birth to death, an international team of researchers is the first in the world to be able to translate the grunts of pigs into real emotions in a variety of conditions and at different stages of life.
This image shows the classification of pig calls by “valency and context” based on an algorithm. Triangles denote negative vocalizations, circles denote positive ones.
Typical signs of positive and negative emotions in pigs
Typical signs of negative emotions in pigs include:
– standing still
– Emitting a lot of vocalizations
– Trying to escape
Typical signs of positive emotions in pigs include:
– Exploring their environment
– Tilt your ears forward
The study was led by the University of Copenhagen, ETH Zurich and the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE).
“We trained an algorithm to decipher the grunting of a pig,” says study author Dr. Elodie Brifer from the University of Copenhagen.
“Now we need someone who wants to turn the algorithm into an application that farmers can use to improve the welfare of their animals.”
The researchers say the algorithm can decipher whether an individual pig is experiencing positive emotions (“happy” or “excited”), negative ones (“scared” or “stressed”), or something in between.
Recordings of both commercial and experimental scenarios were collected, involving both positive and negative emotions, from birth to death.
Positive situations included, for example, situations where piglets suckle milk from their mothers or when they are reunited with their family after being separated.
Emotionally negative situations included missed feedings, brief social isolation, piglets fighting, mother crushing piglets, castration, handling, and waiting at the slaughterhouse.
In the experimental stables, the researchers also created various simulation scenarios for pigs designed to evoke “finer emotions” in the middle of the spectrum.
These include an arena with toys or food and a corresponding arena without any incentives.
In the experimental stables, the researchers also created different scenarios for the pigs, designed to evoke more subtle emotions than just “happy” and “sad.”
Today, it is generally accepted that the mental health of livestock is important to their overall well-being. However, today’s animal welfare focuses primarily on the physical health of livestock.
2021: SCIENTISTS TEACH PIGS TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES
Scientists have demonstrated that pigs are able to learn how to play simple video games, showing that animals are more smart than thought.
In 2021, American researchers taught pigs how to manipulate their snouts with a joystick, moving the cursor on the screen to reach one of four target walls.
Each pig demonstrated some conceptual understanding of the game and the relationship between joystick movement and the cursor.
More: Experts teach pigs how to play video games
The researchers also placed new and unfamiliar objects in the arena that the pigs could interact with.
Along the way, the pigs’ calls, behavior and heart rate were monitored and recorded whenever possible.
The researchers then analyzed the audio recordings to distinguish positive situations and emotions from negative ones.
As already found out in Past Researchpigs have more high frequency calls (such as screams and squeals) in negative situations.
At the same time, low-frequency calls (such as barking and grunting) were encountered both in situations where the pigs experienced positive and negative emotions.
After analyzing the audio files even more closely, the team discovered a new pattern that further revealed what the pigs were experiencing in certain situations.
“There are clear differences in pig calls when we look at positive and negative situations,” said Dr. Briefer.
“In positive situations, the calls are much shorter, with little fluctuation in amplitude. In particular, the lowing starts high and gradually decreases in frequency.
The researchers trained an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm using 7,414 pig sound recordings collected at all stages of the life of 411 pigs, including slaughter.
“By training the algorithm to recognize these sounds, we can classify 92% of the calls to the correct emotions.”
While it is generally accepted that the mental health of livestock is important to their overall welfare, animal welfare today focuses primarily on the physical health of livestock.
The researchers hope their algorithm could pave the way for a new platform for farmers to monitor the psychological well-being of their animals.
The results were published today in Scientific reports.
HAPPY PIGS GET MORE! GRINDING AND SCREECHING HELP TO SHOW THE PIGS’ PERSONALITY AND HOW THEY CONTAIN THEIR BLANKS
In 2018, scientists found that there’s more to pig pig than meets the eye: happier piglets make more noise than grumpy ones.
Scientists from the Universities of Lincoln and Belfast studied 72 young male and female piglets.
Half of the pigs were placed in spacious, “enriched” pens with straw bedding.
The other half were housed in more compact “empty” pens with a partially slatted concrete floor, meeting British welfare standards.
To test the identity of the pig, the researchers ran two tests.
In one of them, pigs were put in a pen for five minutes with objects they had never encountered before, such as a large white bucket or an orange traffic cone.
Their behaviour, including their grumbling, was then measured.
Two weeks later, the tests were repeated to see if the behavior of the pigs was consistent.
The study found that pigs with more “active” personality types, who were more eager to explore their environment, made more grunts than “reactive” animals.
It was also found that male pigs kept in lower quality conditions produced less grunts than those kept in pens with improved conditions.
Dr. Lisa Collins, Animal Health, Behavior and Welfare Epidemiology Specialist at Lincoln University’s School of Life Sciences, said: “The domestic pig is a highly social and vocal species that uses acoustic cues in a variety of ways; maintain contact with other group members during foraging, parent-offspring communication, or signaling if they are upset.
“The sounds they make convey a wide range of information, such as the emotional, motivational and physiological state of the animal. For example, a screech is made when pigs feel fear, and can either alert others to their situation or inspire confidence.
“Grumbling occurs in all contexts, but is typical for foraging so that other members of the group know where they are.”