Pigs can play video games, scientists have found, after putting four fun-loving swine to the test.

Four pigs - Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony and Ivory - were trained to use an arcade-style joystick to steer an on-screen cursor into walls.

Researchers said the fact that the pigs understood the connection between the stick and the game “is no small feat”.

And the pigs even continued playing when the food reward dispenser broke - apparently for the social contact.

Usually, the pigs would be given a food pellet for “winning” the game level. But during testing, it broke - and they kept clearing the game levels when encouraged by some of the researchers’ kind words.

“This sort of study is important because, as with any sentient beings, how we interact with pigs and what we do to them impacts and matters to them,” lead author Dr Candace Croney said.

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