401
submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] khannie@lemmy.world 56 points 8 months ago

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.

[-] Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net 24 points 8 months ago

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.

[-] Jaysyn@kbin.social 12 points 8 months ago

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.

[-] trash80@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 8 months ago

The success rate for hunters is only about 2% to 3%

What does that mean? What is the definition of success?

[-] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 29 points 8 months ago

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.

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago

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

[-] Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I think it means that when they go out and shoot a pig or two, that's only 2-3% of the herd

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago

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

[-] Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

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

[-] girlfreddy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 8 months ago

If you sell meat it's supposed to be federally inspected. That's the catch-point here.

[-] Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago
[-] girlfreddy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 months ago

Agreed. It throws a big wrench into selling locally-harvested wild boar meat tho.

[-] ours@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Time to allow hunters to bring in M60 machine guns.

Ironically they are nicknamed "the pig".

[-] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 1 points 8 months ago

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.

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

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.

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

All the more bacon! And something useful to do for all those trigger-happy Americans.

[-] interceder270@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago

People have been setting up cages with bait and trapping them by the dozens.

You're blowing this way out of proportion.

this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
401 points (98.8% liked)

News

22488 readers
3954 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS