Status: 03.09.2024 10:42 a.m.
Not all grunts are created equal: A team of researchers from Copenhagen has used AI to decipher the language of pigs – and thus scientifically proven how animal husbandry affects the welfare of pigs.
Maren Osterbuhr and Rosalie are close friends. They don’t speak the same language, but they understand each other. That wouldn’t be unusual if Rosalie wasn’t a pig.
Farmer Maren Osterbuhr says she understands her pig Rosalie well.
When a piglet strayed onto her farm in Großefehn, Lower Saxony, a few years ago, farmer Osterbuhr raised it. A friendship developed. “I’m relatively sure that I know what she’s saying,” explains Maren Osterbuhr. Can that be true? Yes, says a team of researchers from Copenhagen. The researchers studied the language of pigs over a long period of time and delivered sensational results. They were able to translate pig language using AI.
Algorithm distinguishes emotional state of pigs
Biologist Dr. Elodie Mandel-Briefer explains the researchers’ approach: “We trained the algorithm so precisely that it can distinguish with 92 percent accuracy whether a pig is in a positive-happy or negative-anxious state. We now know better what pigs say about their feelings.”
Piglets greet their friends
Avelyne Villain, bioacoustician and Elodie Mandel-Briefer (in the background) from the Copenhagen research team examine the recorded pig sounds.
“They even greet each other personally!”, says Dr. Avelyne Villain, bioacoustician. “When piglets meet their friends again, they give this greeting. And when they are excited or frustrated, they make a high-frequency call.” According to Dr. Elodie Mandel-Briefer, the researchers found at least 19 levels of pig sounds with which the animals express their feelings – depending on the situation. With a type of facial recognition, it is now possible to measure the physical condition of pigs, for example whether they are stressed.
How do pigs feel in different types of husbandry?
43.8 million pigs are raised and slaughtered in Germany every year. They often live in very cramped conditions. Now, for the first time, researchers have investigated what the different types of husbandry mean for these sensitive animals. A huge challenge: the sound recordings had to be analyzed for months in order to be able to assign them to the individual animals.
More information
The documentary follows a research team as they decode pig sounds. Available in the ARD Mediathek from September 4th.
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Stress makes you unhappy and sick
Once sorted, the tests showed clear results. As a result of poor husbandry, the pigs feel bad. Stress makes them unhappy, sick and results in poorer meat. Conventional farmers like Eiken Struve also took part in the complex tests:
“A healthy livestock population is basically the be-all and end-all for successful pig production. Every illness costs energy, costs performance at the end of the day, costs feed and ultimately costs money. And logically, it also costs animal welfare,” says Struve.
Conventional or open air?
The research team from Copenhagen has managed to translate the sounds of pigs using AI.
In a conventional farm, pigs must have at least 0.65 square meters to themselves. In the organic farms studied, it is 2.3 square meters. Animals kept outdoors, with real space to roam and lots of variety, were also studied over several months.
Personal connection to the owner makes pigs happy
The results clearly showed that the well-being of the animals is not only determined by personal space. When the owners establish a personal relationship with the pigs, they are noticeably better off. In the end, the species-appropriate husbandry was the winning factor – now scientifically confirmed.
“As far as the type of farm is concerned, open-air farms are at the top of the list. They show the best results in terms of classification. There are very few stress noises and a lot of happy grunting,” explains biologist Mandel-Briefer. Farmer Maren Osterbuhr can confirm this from her own experience – and joins in a hearty laugh with her pig friend Rosalie.
The documentary “Talking Pigs. AI translates animal language” will be broadcast on 11 September at 00:05 on NDR television – and will be available on 4 September in the ARD Media Library to see.
More information
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This topic in the program:
NDR Kultur – The Journal | 02.09.2024 | 22:45
