The Times reports that feral super pigs are invading America from Canada. They are crossing the Canadian border and they’ve been described as an “ecological train wreck”.
They are a cross breed and they combine the survival skills of the Eurasian wild pig with the procreation skills of the domestic pig.
Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan is the man who called them an ecological train wreck. His colleagues have recorded 62,000 sightings in Canada.
He believes that it is no longer possible to eradicate them in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
He wants an early detection system set up so that experts can respond quickly to their threat.
The state of Montana appears to have taken the best steps where they have banned raising and transporting wild pigs within the state.
Brook added: “The only path forward is you have to be really aggressive and you have to use all the tools in the toolbox.”
There are various methods to contain the super pigs such as ground traps which have names such as “Boar Buster” and net guns which are fired from helicopters.
They studied the possibility of using poisons such as sodium nitrate but of course this risks harming other animals and wildlife.
Pigs are non-native to North America. But they have been roaming part of the American continent for centuries. Brook believes that the problem originates to a time in the 1980s when farmers in Canada were encouraged to raise wild boar.
They have proved to be remarkably good at surviving during calendar’s harsh winters. And they are clever and adaptable. They eat anything including wildlife and crops.
The Times reports that while pigs cause about $2.5 billion worth of damage to US crops every year. This mostly occurs in the south such as Texas.
The US Department of agriculture is stepping up its surveillance along the Canadian/American border while the state of Minnesota is expected to release a report in February setting out new preventable steps to tackle the problem.
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