Canadian ‘super pigs’ poised to wreak environmental havoc, spread disease in US: expert
BY PGF1 year, 5 months ago
First, Canada sends their geese, and now these. Imbedded video includes an infographic depicting the spread. Apparently, they also build “pigloos.”
The cross between a European wild boar and a domestic pig is migrating south, to the US, as their numbers swell in Canada.
A cross-bred “super pig” from Canada is poised to wreak havoc on the environment in the United States and must be dealt with aggressively and immediately, a wildlife expert told Fox News Digital.
“These pigs are easily the worst invasive large mammal on the planet,” said Dr. Ryan Brook, an assistant professor in the department of animal and poultry science at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
These “super pigs” are actually a cross between a European wild boar and a domestic pig, Brook said.
The pigs “cause crop damage, destroy natural environments, get into cities, destroy water quality and can spread disease to humans, livestock, pets, and native wildlife,” he also noted.
The pigs are coming into the U.S. from Canada as their numbers swell there, causing populations to migrate south. Left unchecked, these “super pigs” could negatively impact just about everyone, Brook emphasized.
“The only people who should be worried about this is anyone that lives in North America and eats meat, or eats vegetables, or eats any foods based on grain crops or spends time outside for any reason,” he said.
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The “super pigs” began with a unique set of circumstances, said Brook.
“Wild boar farmers were told to cross the wild boar with domestic pigs to make a bigger and longer animal,” Brook said.
He said a domestic pig has an extra set of ribs and has larger, more frequent litter.
“This was great for wild boar farmers, but [it] was a huge problem when [these animals] got into the wild,” he said.
The animals’ size, along with their intelligence, has made the “super pigs” capable of survival in harsh conditions and therefore hard to eradicate, said Brook. He noted they’ve even learned how to tunnel into snow caves to keep themselves warm.
“It is much warmer under than snow than on top of it,” said Brook.
Eradicating these wild pigs must be done as “quickly as possible,” he emphasized.
There must be “a rapid and highly aggressive response, just like dealing with cancer or forest fires — that is really the only option.”
He added, “Once [the pigs] are established, you will have them for another 500 years.”
Traditional hunting techniques are not effective in pig eradication, said Brook.
“Large traps and tracking Judas pigs (wild pigs with a GPS collar that will lead you to other pigs), ground removal teams, fencing, and education are all key,” he said.
Failure to quickly eradicate the pigs will result in devastation to the environment.
But how do they taste?
On July 10, 2023 at 10:17 pm, Nature Boy said:
Reminds me of old cartoons where the animal would morph into some vittles on a plate in a vision.
The fat of the land with these porcine porkers and good protein.
Mostly deer locally, does, the geese hang out behind the Sack-N-Save and it is fun to feed them a loaf of bread but watch out for the droppings that are slick.
Leave out some food bowl for Rocky Raccoon so the trash doesn’t get strewn all over and they can get on hind legs and open the lid of a plastic container.
Some hoot owls in the last remaining forest that developers salivate over and once saw a spotted owl about ten feet away on a bottom limb that wasn’t bothered by my presence.
Saw a majestic freedom flapper (Eagle) at the named creek treetops in the spring!
On July 11, 2023 at 4:41 am, jrg said:
A10 Warthog would be an appropriate measure. Is this invasion along the entire U.S. / Canada border or is it only certain areas where this is happening ?
And yes – how do they taste ?
On July 11, 2023 at 7:16 am, PGF said:
@jrg, an infographic of the spread is in the video at the first link.
On July 12, 2023 at 2:15 am, george said:
Soooo, they are like democrats, huh
On July 12, 2023 at 10:30 am, Dirk said:
We are just now starting to see Wild pigs arrive in the area along with wild Turkey. I’m told they’re coming up the Klamath river canyon and other canyons transiting between Calif and Oregon.
I’ve not personally see a hog here yet, but the turkeys,,,,,,,my god out towards Keno Or, thousands. It’s like they showed up over night.
Up in Bend the turkeys showed up early last fall, hung around all winter then just disappeared. Gone no sign of em?kind of a mystery.
On July 13, 2023 at 5:32 am, jrg said:
Thank you PGF – I did not read the entire link and missed that.
That particular monster hog back in 2014(Hogzilla) apparently have some Canadian cousins. We have some big a$$ feral hog in Texas as well, though the biggest I’ve heard / read of is 600 lbs, more or less. Scary when you meet them in person up close.