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I chose Smithfield's website as a good example of Swine representation because they are all about being responsible. Their slogan is, "Good Food, Responsibly". Which is what the swine world needs are good advocates and producers who are responsible with their practices.

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Smithfield Foods, Inc. Meat Products | Smithfield Foods Company USA

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Millions of people trust our brands for their great taste, outstanding quality & value! Visit our website to learn about Smithfield Foods products & operations.

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Dr. Temple Grandin: A expert in many species of livestock but for pigs she has taken into consideration their natural behaviors into increasing production. She has focused on GOOD management and proper handling. Her work has increased the amount of proper handling by five times over.

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#16 Three Negative Effects of Stressful Handling Procedures on Swine

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#16 Three Negative Effects of Stressful Handling Procedures on Swine

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*Weight Loss
*Dehydration
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Ingestive behaviors in pigs can very rapidly change their growth, life, and health. In this photo you see piglets nursing from the sow. An example of an ingestive behavior would be when they stop eating. When they or the sow for example stop eating, that is the first sign of an ingestive behavior or cue that they are becoming ill.

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#13 Chemical and Tactile Communications between Pigs

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#13 Chemical and Tactile Communications between Pigs

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*Chemical Communications
Pigs often will use chemical communication when understanding the reproductive status and the herd dominance levels all by chemical "Signals".

*Tactile Communications
Refers to the way we communicate through touching or the sense of touching. Pigs will do this in the form of rubbing heads with other pigs, laying together to keep warm/establish a herd.

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/behavioral-biology/animal-behavior/a/animal-communication

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#12 A Visual and Auditory way Swine Communicate 

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#12 A Visual and Auditory way Swine Communicate 

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Pigs will more often use the form of Auditory communication vs. visual. Although one way they do use visual methods would be by their body language. Pigs will "Oink" or "Grunt" for many reasons. If they are happy to see you, especially if you have food, but also to communicate with the herd or those around them.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/07/pigs-dogs-pets-communication/

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In the swine species there is not much they cannot learn. As far as it goes for pigs, they are pretty darn smart, almost to smart for their own good. When it comes to preventatives that may get in their way of learning, there is not to much they do not or cannot learn. They have a high motivation level for rewards and to explore. Of course they can only do as much as they are capable of. They learn where to go the bathroom, and thrive from routines which they learn. They also have learned to use their snout for uprooting plants and searching for food. Such as below, they are learning to use their snouts.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3040303/
In this article, they are discussing how operant conditioning can be research and applied to swine when accessing their learning ability and memory.
*For example, I have noticed this in our own herd. One being feeding time, when we come to their runs mid afternoon or early evening with a bucket they will come barking out of their shelters because they know they are about to be fed. Which to me displays the behaviors of operant conditioning.

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#9 Neonatal behaviors of newborn piglets

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#9 Neonatal behaviors of newborn piglets

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*Searching for a teat
*Nestling with litter mates
*Sniffing/going up to the sow

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#8 Maternal behaviors following birth of piglets

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#8 Maternal behaviors following birth of piglets

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Sows are often times not very maternal anymore since we have transitioned into primarily only using crates. Although this farrowing season we had a two year old gilt that was too wide shouldered to fit in the crate so we did an unorthodox method and had her farrow in a pen. Unfortunately she had a very hard delivery and I had to pull seven of her babies.  Which was even more nerve racking because she was not in a crate.
Even though they do not get to show many maternal behaviors they still
*bark/grunt/call out to their young
*milk letdown the more the piglets nurse
*take notice to where they are laying down (most try not to crush the piglets)
*they also do nest a little bit; even though that is before delivery.

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#7 Commonly observed female sexual behaviors in Swine

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#7 Commonly observed female sexual behaviors in Swine

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Sows and gilts will often have very distinct and apparent signs that they are in heat/coming into heat/ready to be bred/a standing heat.
*Pricked ears
*Barking
*Standing
*Swollen hind end
*Looking for boar

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#6 Male Sexual Behaviors in Swine (Boars)

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#6 Male Sexual Behaviors in Swine (Boars)

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Some of the commonly observed boar behaviors would be
*Rubbing of snouts 'nosing'
*Head to head behavior
*Wallowing (Calling at them)
*Sniffing rear end
*Mounting attempts
*Standing reaction copulation

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There are SO many fun facts about pigs but one that is always brought up is how pigs eat humans. Although for our show pigs and sows we only feed them a grain based diet...
*Like humans, pigs are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and other animals.*
But a different one that I learned and enjoyed myself was that if you scratch their bellies they roll over like a dog and start "barking" at you. They really are just like dogs and they Love treats; especially marshmallows! ;)

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https://extension2.missouri.edu/g2500
An example of a sensitive period for pigs would be from birth to weaning. It is said that on average two pigs are lost during this period. From dealing with stress, litter mates, nursing, transitioning to pre-starter food and water intake.  Also, they just have to make it through by surviving being possibly crushed by their mother, anemia, and a range of other factors.

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One example of how swine would have behavioral heritability would be their rate of gain ability. If you have pigs/parents/previous litter mates with high rate of gain history it is more likely that the next mating will also have high level of rate of gain ability. Or in lame-mans terms ADG which you would want a 1.7 pound gain per day.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6097724/

"Indirect Genetic Effects for Growth in Pigs Affect Behavior and Weight Around Weaning"

This research article links the behavior of pigs to the relation of growth that has to do with their genetics. It goes on to say how selecting piglets that have a high IEG upon birth will have a better performance history compared to those who do not. Interesting as well, is that those with higher IEG numbers will be better in the social order and ranking of their litter mates.

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I picked the species of Swine to do a little more digging/investigating/learning about! I chose them because of my recent internship I had over winter break and that I will be continuing through part of spring semester. As I have come to learn more about the species I have never been more intrigued! I have watched them go from not cycling to being in a standing heat where the communication between the sows/gilts and the boars was fascinating. Then watching the gilts develop and learning the signs of labor. When to put them into the crates, how to keep them calm, when to give them space and how hot to keep the farrowing rooms. My favorite part was watching the sows and gilts maternal instincts come to and watch the piglets grow up. I am interested to see what drives these traits and actions happen. Which is why I am excited to learn more about the Swine species.