An exploding population of hard-to-eradicate "super pigs" in Canada is threatening to spill south of the border, and northern states like Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana are taking steps to stop the invasion. In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba pose a new threat, the AP reports. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boar with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a "super pig" that's spreading out of control. Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada's leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, "the most invasive animal on the planet" and "an ecological train wreck." Feral swine have been reported in at least 35 states, according to the USDA, which estimates the swine population in those states totals around 6 million.
Pigs are not native to North America. While pigs have have roamed parts of the continent for centuries, Canada's problem dates back only to the 1980s, when it encouraged farmers to raise wild boar, Brook said. The market collapsed after peaking in 2001, and some frustrated farmers simply cut their fences, setting the animals free. It turned out that the pigs were good at surviving Canadian winters. Smart, adaptable, and furry, they eat anything, including crops and wildlife. They tear up land when they root for bugs and crops. They can spread devastating diseases like African swine fever to hog farms. And they reproduce quickly. A sow can have six piglets in a litter and raise two litters in a year.
That means 65% or more of a wild pig population could be killed every year, and it will still increase, Brook said. Hunting just makes the problem worse, he said. The success rate for hunters is only about 2% to 3%, and several states have banned hunting because it makes the pigs more wary and nocturnal—tougher to track down and eradicate. Wild pigs already cause around $2.5 billion in damage to US crops every year, mostly in Southern states like Texas. And they can be aggressive toward humans. A woman in Texas was killed by wild pigs in 2019. Eradication of wild pigs is no longer possible in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Brook said. But the situation isn't hopeless everywhere, and a few US states have eliminated them. The key, he said, is having a detection system that finds them early and fast, and then responding quickly.
story continues below
Brook and his colleagues have documented 62,000 wild pig sightings in Canada. Their aerial surveys have spotted them on both sides of the Canada-North Dakota border. They've also recorded a sighting in Manitoba within 18 miles of Minnesota. "Nobody should be surprised when pigs start walking across that border if they haven't already," Brook said. Montana has been the most serious in its fight, he said, banning raising and transporting wild pigs within the state. "The only path forward is you have to be really aggressive and you have to use all the tools," Brook said. That could include big ground traps or net guns fired from helicopters. Some states and provinces embrace crowdsourced "Squeal on Pigs" tracking programs. Scientists have studied poisons such as sodium nitrite, but they risk harming other species.
(More
feral pigs stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
