A crafty pig has saved its bacon after learning a party trick to keep it off the menu for the Chinese New Year.

Its owner – in Cangzhou, Hebei Province, eastern China – had bought the porker to fatten up for the feast night later this month.

But when he noticed that the pig had a talent for tricks he could not bear to give him the chop.

The pig found a discarded children’s hoop in the garden and learned how to spin it around its snout.

Now the owner – not named in local media – wants to keep the porker as a pet.

He shared videos of the pig’s tricks on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

He said he had not tried to train the pig, but it is intelligent and friendly.

He was amazed when it picked up the ring and started spinning it around its nose.

The man found that it could be encouraged to repeat the trick by feeding it treats, and it could even balance on a log to carry out the trick.

The Chinese New Year takes place later than in the West, and this year will be on 22nd January.

Eating pork is a big part of the annual festival, and only recently, a huge 16-story pig farm opened to keep up with the demand.

Online commentators, including one person, said: “It is amazing that even the pig knows that you need to have some skills to survive, but many people don’t.”

Each year the New Year is dedicated to a different animal in the Chinese Zodiac, and the year of the pig last happened in 2019.

The current year is the year of the tiger, and the coming year will be the year of the rabbit.