Perfunctory pigs and pups with personality

Do pet pigs like us? Calling your dog your fur baby might not be all fluff, according to a study from the ethology department at Eötvös Loránd University ( Sci. Rep. 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-63529-3 ). The scientists used a “strange situation test” in which a pet, their owner, and a stranger interact in a testing room to determine whether dogs are attached to their caregivers like babies are. The pet they compared the dogs to might surprise you: pigs. Though less common companions, these squealing household members function in the family in a way similar to woofers—even more so than their feline acquaintances. More dependent than cats , pigs seek contact with humans like dogs do, which is why they make a good comparison for dogs, the study’s authors say. But are the curly-tailed creatures attached? The team considered several components of animal attachment: attached pets treat their keepers as