I have been working with hogs for just over a year. I am using, "naturalistic observation" which means, studying behavior both in nature and in captivity. In this case, its using captivity to "test" observations in nature.

One of the most interesting behaviors hogs do is that good old playing dead thing. Of course, I don't buy the playing dead thing as all predators kill them before they eat them, so its something more to it.

When they do this behavior, its more then flipping over, they excrete fluids out of all holes, hahahahahaha blood out of their mouth and many different fluids out of the other end.

My field partner is a masters in biology(herp related) and tells me there are some papers of hogs and bufotoxin. I will be going in the field with him soon and will ask for those papers. Anyway, if those fluids contain bufotoxin, then the behavior of playing dead, is very explainable. Obviously it works.

Next, that playing dead behavior and temps. In the field, the hotter their Body temps(BT's) are, mid 80's to mid 90's, the more and quicker this behavior occurs. To a point of just walking near them excites that behavior.

The lower their BT's are, mid 60's to mid 80's, the less it occurs and it takes much more stimulus to express that behavior.

In captivity, folks tell me that hogs stop doing that behavior(or rarely do it) So of course, testing is in order. Silly as it sounds, but in captivity, they behaved exactly like in nature. They did not express that behavior commonly at lower temps, but did repeatedly express that behavior at higher temps. End part 1

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