"Super pigs" — called the "most invasive animal on the planet" — threaten to invade northern U.S.
"Super pigs" — called the "most invasive animal on the planet" — threaten to invade northern U.S.
The animals are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boars with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a "super pig" that's spreading out of control.
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. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boars 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."
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At least they sound like a viable game animal. Invasive species to you, 100lbs of free pork for Billy out in the woods. We use it to control deer populations from exploding in certain areas where we've removed the top predator though, and we just kinda take its place. Can potentially help with any animal that has the misfortune of being both tasty and economical to go out and hunt for.
Won't eradicate them or anything, but will help keep them in check. It's a facet of that old alliance between hunters/fishermen and environmental activists.
Unfortunately they'll still see population growth....
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.
They are clever animals. You have to play the long con if you want to deal with their populations. Ive seen things where they actually feed them and gradually pen them in and the liquidate the whole drove.
My family in GA does a lot of this. They are farmers & have been successful in keeping feral hogs out of their fields. Hunting & trapping absolutely does work, you just have to know what the hell you're doing.
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A hunter does not need to make 33 to 50 trips to get one kill (a 2% - 3% success rate). Clearly the definition of success here is whack.
One would assume success means killing an animal when you go out on the hunt. 2-3% seems ludicrously low though, i grew up hunting in southern Illinois to feed our family and the success rate for deer was easily ten times that number on a bad year
I think it means that when they go out and shoot a pig or two, that's only 2-3% of the herd
Gotcha, but if 10 hunters in the herds area do that for a week straight, no more herd as intended right? Or just say open season on the invasive wild hogs and the hunters will go kill enough to fill their deep freezes and will go do it again as soon as stock starts running out
I think I could only fit a single hog in my freezer.
The real way to fast track the extermination would be to allow the hunters to sell the meat, or some other incentive to destory entire herds
If you sell meat it's supposed to be federally inspected. That's the catch-point here.
For good reason
Agreed. It throws a big wrench into selling locally-harvested wild boar meat tho.
Time to allow hunters to bring in M60 machine guns.
Ironically they are nicknamed "the pig".
The issue with vermin animals that have free range licenses is that you get a lot of people that have no idea what they're doing, usually teenagers, out there that teach the animals to avoid humans.
I assumed it meant they're only killing 2-3% of the population?
I shoulda opened the article instead of just reading the synopsis. That is concerning.
I'll point out though, that since it's a new prey animal to the area, it will take time for the locals to learn how to hunt it effectively. It's behavior needs to be learned first, so effective approaches can be devised.
But ... delicious, economical and challenging is also something a hunter might find interesting.
All the more bacon! And something useful to do for all those trigger-happy Americans.
People have been setting up cages with bait and trapping them by the dozens.
You're blowing this way out of proportion.
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That's not true.
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