How many teeth has a pig, and why does it wallow? These pig trivia questions fill four rounds, from the two homes of the first farm pigs to the order at the udder.
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Four rounds, from the Tigris to the teat order
Names, breeds and history follows pigs from the Near East and China to Cyprus, Chiloé and Oceania. Snout, senses and skin counts teeth and toes and explains a blown coat. Habits and wits hands a pig a joystick and plays it Bach. Sows and piglets builds a nest mound and listens to the grunts that time a feed.
Swine trivia questions for a fair or a farm club
A question, four choices, one tap: the card shows which is right, with a sentence of reason and the article it was checked in. A set ends after ten. Scored round is the twenty-question version, marked at the end.
Questions and answers
Why do pigs roll in mud?
To cool down. Pigs do not use sweat glands for cooling, so when it is warm they shed heat by wallowing in water or mud. Mud may also serve as a sunscreen or keep parasites away.
How smart are pigs?
Pigs are relatively intelligent, roughly on par with dogs. They can solve mazes, work with a simple language of symbols, recognize themselves in a mirror and use a joystick with the snout.
How long do pigs live?
At most about 27 years. In the wild, piglets stay with their mothers until they are some 12 to 14 weeks old.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article Pig, linked under every question. Pork and other products as food, farming and slaughter figures, diseases and medicine are left out.
Around which river basin of the Near East were pigs domesticated?Answer: The Tigris. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
From which region did the first domestic pigs reach Europe, at least 8,500 years ago?Answer: The Near East. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
In 16th-century Germany, pig skin was the most popular material for which craft?Answer: Bookbinding. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
In which Australian state have feral pigs caused substantial environmental damage?Answer: Queensland. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
On which Mediterranean island were there pigs more than 11,400 years ago, brought from the mainland?Answer: Cyprus. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Pigs brought by the Spanish to the Chiloé Archipelago throve on what, laid bare by its large tides?Answer: Shellfish and algae. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Pigs were domesticated twice in the Neolithic: in the Near East and in which other region?Answer: China. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What is pigskin leather called once it has been brushed?Answer: Suede. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What is the scientific name of the pig?Answer: Sus domesticus. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which breed of pig has a woolly coat?Answer: The Mangalitsa. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which English town is named for its association with swine?Answer: Swindon. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which is the smallest known breed of pig in the world?Answer: The Göttingen minipig. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which other name for the pig is the same in the singular and the plural?Answer: Swine. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which two other animals did the seafaring Austronesian peoples carry, with their pigs, to the islands of Oceania?Answer: Chickens and dogs. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Who gave the pig the scientific name Sus domesticus in 1777?Answer: Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Snout, senses and skin 13
Besides cooling, what may a coat of mud protect a pig from?Answer: Sunburn. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
The cone cells in a pig's eye are sensitive to which two colors?Answer: Blue and green. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How are the tusks of a male pig kept sharp?Answer: By grinding against each other. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How do pigs lose heat at higher temperatures?Answer: By wallowing in mud or water. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How does a pig work out where a sound is coming from?Answer: By moving its head. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How many hoofed toes does a pig have on each foot?Answer: Four. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How many teeth does an adult pig have?Answer: 44. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How wide is a pig's panoramic vision?Answer: About 310 degrees. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Pigs have 1,113 genes for smell receptors. Which animal, with 1,094, do they narrowly outnumber?Answer: The dog. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What does it mean when a bristled pig blows its coat?Answer: It sheds most of its longer, stiff hair. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What is the maximum life span of a pig?Answer: About 27 years. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What strengthens the long snout of a pig?Answer: A special prenasal bone and a disk of cartilage. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which organs of a pig are small for the size of its body?Answer: The lungs. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Habits and wits 10
How does a pig's pattern of feeding and sleeping differ from a ruminant's?Answer: It feeds for many hours, then sleeps for many hours. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
In one experiment pigs learned to link a military march with isolation and the music of which composer with food?Answer: Bach. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Pig behavior is described as lying between that of other even-toed hoofed mammals and that of which animals?Answer: Carnivores. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Pigs do not naturally form large herds. About how many adult sows live in a group?Answer: 8 to 10. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What do pigs primarily eat?Answer: Leaves, stems, roots, fruits and flowers. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What is rooting in pigs?Answer: Nudging the snout into something. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Where pigs are allowed to roam freely, about how far do they walk in a day?Answer: 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which game control can pigs be trained to work with the snout to pick a target on a screen?Answer: A joystick. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which of these have pigs solved in experimental tasks?Answer: Mazes. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Which sense do pigs use, rather than sight, to identify other pigs?Answer: Smell. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Sows and piglets 11
A rise in which hormone triggers a sow to begin building her nest?Answer: Prolactin. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
About how often does a sow nurse her piglets?Answer: Every 50 to 60 minutes. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
By the nineteenth century, how many litters a year did European pigs routinely bear?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
For about how long do wild piglets remain with their mothers?Answer: 12 to 14 weeks. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How does a sow signal the stages of nursing to her piglets?Answer: With series of grunts. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Nest-building is a trait pigs share with which group of animals?Answer: Carnivores. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Unlike other even-toed hoofed mammals, in which position does a sow give birth?Answer: Lying down. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What does a sow build of twigs, leaves and branches before she gives birth?Answer: A nest mound. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
What is the teat order of a litter of piglets?Answer: Each piglet keeps to its own teat or group of teats. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
When does a sow build her nest?Answer: In the last 24 hours before the birth. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
Why do newborn piglets fight for the front teats?Answer: They produce more milk. Source: Wikipedia: Pig
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Pig. On October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in that article before the question was kept. Left out on purpose: pork and every other pig product as food, production and slaughter figures, farming methods and farm welfare practices, pollution and public health, pests and diseases, medicine, mating, single record animals, and the rules of living faiths about pigs. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the animal, hard will stump most tables. Unofficial, and not advice on keeping, feeding or approaching an animal. Licence: own work