Pigs are socially competent and capable of learning. But the combination of these two skills, i.e. learning by observing others, has been insufficiently studied so far. The exact copying and understanding of demonstrated actions – something that would indicate highly developed learning abilities – could not yet be proven. A new study with Kune Kune pigs conducted by cognitive researchers from the Messerli Research Institute of Vetmeduni Vienna, could now show for the first time that these animals do in fact learn from each other – in this case from their mother or their aunt. The intelligent animals also possess a remarkable long-term memory once they have internalized a technique. The results were published in the journal Animal Behaviour.