An academic paper on the maternal behavior of sows has sparked laughter online recently as it says that the adult female pigs make "hehe" noises in motherhood, a sound also widely used by Chinese Web users.

The phrase "hehe" correlates to laughter in Chinese. It is also frequently used by Web users when they feel that they have nothing else to say or add to their online conversations. In fact, usage of the phrase is so open-ended that it even prompted other researchers to look into Web users' usage of "hehe" in an earlier study.

The paper on sows in the Journal of Domestic Animal Ecology written by students at Jiangsu Polytechnic College of Agriculture and Forestry said that after a sow gives birth to her first piglet, she expresses a strong maternal impulse by standing up and making the noise "hehe."

Web users poked fun online, saying that Web users should think twice before typing "hehe," since, after all, it's a phrase used by pigs.