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Vocalizations By Isolated Piglets: A Reliable Indicator Of Piglet Need Directed Towards The Sow, Daniel M. Weary, Stephen Ross, David Fraser
Vocalizations By Isolated Piglets: A Reliable Indicator Of Piglet Need Directed Towards The Sow, Daniel M. Weary, Stephen Ross, David Fraser
Communication Skills Collection
When suckling piglets are isolated from the sow and litter-mates they vocalize a great deal. Sows also call when isolated from their piglets. In one experiment, we found that isolated piglets doubled their call rate in response to playback of sow calls, indicating that piglets are directing calls towards the sow. In a second experiment, we found that variation in the piglet isolation calls related to aspects of the piglet's condition: piglets isolated for 13 min in an enclosure kept at approximately 14°C called more, used higher frequency calls and longer calls, than litter-mates isolated in an enclosure kept at …