Every morning, the pot-bellied pigs Lilah and Lavinia come to the door of my house, calling for breakfast. Earlier, I have let them out of the pen where they spend the night. When I take too long to arrive with their mashes, they knock on the door with their snouts and treat me to their many sounds.
The range of their vocalizations is new to me. Lilah, the first of the pigs to arrive on the sanctuary, taught me about pig voices. I had expected to hear the traditional oink but had no idea that pigs sing, hum, and mutter as well. Here is a video of their morning visit at my door, though Lilah is being a bit shy and not revealing her full voice.
Lilah has a particularly wide range and she began to teach me right away. The night she arrived, she muttered and hummed her way around her new enclosure, as if commenting on the accommodations.
Lilah sings, hums, and mutters throughout our morning walks with the dogs around the property, especially when a new person is walking with us. I have come to interpret her humming as a kind of self-soothing. Her singing seems to indicate that she likes what’s going on. As for the muttering, it sounds like ongoing commentary.
What a joy to hear the language of another species!
