Wild ‘super pigs’ that can eat anything, tear up land and spread devastating diseases are multiplying in Canada and threaten to cross into and wreak havoc in the US.
The pigs, often crossbreeds adept at surviving like wild Eurasian boar and very fertile like domestic swine, have reproduced in high numbers in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The furry pigs, which can carry African swine fever, eat both wildlife and crops and are smart enough to survive brutal Canadian winters.
They are ‘the most invasive animal on the planet’ and an ‘ecological train wreck’, according to University of Saskatchewan professor Ryan Brook.
The uncontrollable population of feral pigs threaten to cross the border into northern US states including Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota.
‘Nobody should be surprised when pigs start walking across that border if they haven’t already,’ said Brook. ‘The question is: What will be done about it?’
The super pigs are difficult to eradicate because each sow can have six piglets per litter and two litters every year, meaning their population can grow even if more than 65% are killed off annually.
Hunting them exacerbates the problem because there is only a 2% to 3% rate of shooting them down and the pigs have reacted by becoming more nocturnal and harder to track, Brook said.
They have become impossible to eradicate in Canada, where Brook has documented 62,000 sightings. To prevent their invasion and takeover in the US, states must detect the swine early and act fast.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is watching the border for swine using drones and aircraft.
In 2016, USDA Wildlife Services killed off a group of pigs that escaped from a farm in Minnesota and became feral and destroyed a wildlife preserve. The state’s director of Wildlife Services, Gary Nohrenberg, said no more super pigs have been spotted to his knowledge.
Feral pigs cause an estimated $2.5billion in damage to American crops annually and have attacked humans, including one fatal incident with a Texas woman in 2019.
They have been reported in at least 35 states and have a combined population of roughly six million.
The USDA launched the National Feral Swine Management Program in 2014 and has provided funds to 33 states to try to eradicate the wild swine, said the assistant director Mike Marlow.
It has had some success with small feral pig populations in New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. But ‘eradication is not in the near future’, Marlow said.
Americans ‘have to be really aggressive and you have to use all the tools in the toolbox’, Brook said.
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