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.”
Can wild wolves keep them in check? Coyotes seem too small to kill an adult wild pig. (I have no idea.)
The pigs are mainly around agricultural areas. We’re on the bare edge of the Canadian prairie (10km from the edge of forest that extends 2500km to the west and however far to the tundra) and we rarely see wolves even here. They aren’t really a predator for the Russian boar that are now endemic in our area.
Between the 3 of us here on the farm, we’ve probably shot (and eaten because they’re delicious) about 200 of them over the last 5 or 6 years. And we’ve knocked them back a bit on our own land, but they just breed over on other people’s farms and give ours a wide berth now.
Biggest one we shot was over 500lbs
Imagine thinking about a working natural ecosystem (co)existing in the same era as humans, preposterous.
:'(
I’d imagine wolves wouldn’t be able to. Predators don’t survive by picking hard fights.
Sounds like we need super wolves. Make them bigger, like the ones in Lord of the Rings :)
Exactly! What could go wrong?
If it’s similar to the boars we have in some areas here, the wolves better bring the whole gang and protective equipment :/