AnimalsPigs are intelligent animals with an excellent sense of smell. They have few sweat glands, so they roll in mud to cool down and to protect their skin from the sun.
Quick facts
- Scientific name
- Sus domesticus
- Group
- Mammals
- Diet
- Omnivore (eats plants and animals)
- Lives in
- Worldwide, with people
- Habitat
- Farms
- A young one is called
- piglet
- A group is called
- drove or herd
- Conservation status
- Domestic animal
How it is classified
Scientists sort living things into groups within groups. Reading down, each step is a smaller group, ending with the species itself.
- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Chordata
- Class Mammalia
- Order Artiodactyla
- Family Suidae
- Genus Sus
- Species Sus domesticus
Other members of the family Suidae on this site: wild boar.
More distant relatives in the order Artiodactyla: Bactrian camel, blackbuck, chital, cow, dromedary camel, gaur, giraffe, goat, hippopotamus, moose, nilgai, reindeer.
Scientists do not always agree on names. The GBIF list files this animal under the name Sus scrofa.
Classification follows the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Other reference works arrange some groups differently. How classification works.
Is it in danger?
The pig is a domestic animal, kept and bred by people. Domestic animals are not assessed for the Red List of threatened species.