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.”
The most invasive animal on the planet.
I think humans win that trophy.
To be fair, we are behind the whole invasive species thing
“Who is more invasive? The invasive species or the invasive species who imported it?” – Obi Wan Swinobi
And that species was Albert Einstein
Yeah, way into the planetary infestation phase too, and already triggered the 6th mass extinction event.
Yeah those guys are distant second at best.
We should handle it the same way we treat invasive animals 🙂
At least they sound like a viable game animal. Invasive species to you, 100lbs of free pork for Billy out in the woods. We use it to control deer populations from exploding in certain areas where we’ve removed the top predator though, and we just kinda take its place. Can potentially help with any animal that has the misfortune of being both tasty and economical to go out and hunt for.
Won’t eradicate them or anything, but will help keep them in check. It’s a facet of that old alliance between hunters/fishermen and environmental activists.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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
I think it means that when they go out and shoot a pig or two, that’s only 2-3% of the herd
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
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
Time to allow hunters to bring in M60 machine guns.
Ironically they are nicknamed “the pig”.
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.
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.
All the more bacon! And something useful to do for all those trigger-happy Americans.
Can’t this be solved in a way where we get tons of super bacon?
Yeah, actually. The regions this will spill into have lots of hunters.
And year long McRibs, carnitas, al pastor, jeff pastor, etc.
They reproduce faster than they can be hunted.
Call it an immigrant caravan of Al Queda terrorist who are bringing the gay communist agenda of socialism who read in drag to children.
Problem solved. You’re welcome.
So… unlimited bacon?
unlimited trouble.
Give a tax break to Hormel, Hillshire Farms, and Oscar Meyer
“most invasive animal on the planet”
Oh, just wait until you find out about humans…
and we all made fun of that 30-50 feral hogs guy
truly we were the fools all along
No, we made fun of the fact that the dude was imagining himself going full Doom through an ocean of pig blood to reach his kids on the other side.
I know this is bad, but I also know I’m not the only one whose first thought was, “super bacon”.
I’d say we could use Spider-Pig to stop the Super Pigs, but you’re not supposed to mix Marvel and D.C.
EDIT: Guess you guys aren’t Simpsons fans.
The risk is that if these pigs cross with a hypothetical manbear then we would have an unstoppable being that’s half man, half bear, half pig.
You can’t be cereal
I’m super cereal, buddy.
Spider pig
Spider pig
Does whatever a spider pig does
Just declare open season and no bag limit on pigs in all northern states. I guarantee you all the Bubbas and outdoorsmen will take care of it.
In many states it is, not just northern. Iirc Texas will pay you to take an AR into a field and take out as many as you can. People even organize hunts from helicopters hunting herds like they should have Fortunate Son playing (no full auto though just ARs and typically BYOAR and ammo iirc.)
These are super pigs, we’ll need an upgrade.
AR-15-2 when?
Well, you’d just increase the calibre. AR-10, technically a predecessor.
It’s actually pretty easy to find AR-15s in larger calibers, modular design for the win I guess.
For example, with a little bit of work you can have them fire these fellas
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50_Beowulf
Okay, actually a lot of work, including probably having to do your own reloading, but still.
For sure but I’d still take .308 over one of those proprietary calibers. Or 6.5 grendel if I can’t pick .308.
But you can find AR-15s in .308!
Well you’d need an AR-10 lower, upper, BCG, dust cover, barrel, barrel nut, handguard, bolt catch, gas block, buffer weight, lpk, mag catch (unless DPMS AR-10, they fit the AR-15 mag catch), and muzzle device, making it an AR-10.
The triggers, hammers, stocks, grips, tubes, mag rel buttons, and safties are interchangable though, yes.
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Not in the US, unless you have proof I haven’t seen. They literally don’t need to, as per the article they already breed faster in the wild than we can kill them, seems like a waste of money to breed them when you can just use the wild ones that are already there.
They are bred with domestic pigs so they have less survival instinct and the clients can find them (i.e. they don’t avoid blinds and feeders). One-off clients would give your ranch bad reviews if they didn’t see anything all weekend. Meanwhile regular hunters understand truly wild animals can elude you for days. If a visiting group has come up dry all weekend they might even release a sacrificial domestic pig (just out of sight) that will then walk right towards the clients, innocently arranging it’s own death. Source: am Texan who hunted pigs.
So the releaser is standing downrange? Not buying your source, sorry, I’m Stephen Hawking.
“just out of sight” was an exaggeration. They could be on the other end of the property to release a pig and its going to head towards the feed and the people… Just like a hungry dog would. Also, blinds usually face a single direction.
Next you’re gonna have me call your uncle Larry to corroborate your story, right?
Never underestimate Cletus
So just making shit up, got it.
Where are all those hunters that hunted everything else to extinction when you need them?
In the US
How can they invade northern US when they already have cops there?
They rarely shoot their own
They’re not even calling them ‘Billionaires’ anymore. What has the world come to…
Can wild wolves keep them in check? Coyotes seem too small to kill an adult wild pig. (I have no idea.)
Imagine thinking about a working natural ecosystem (co)existing in the same era as humans, preposterous.
:'(
Build a wall! The pigs are going to pay for it!
The bacon tax.
Oh, ok, so like literally, not a title about overseas mutated police force …
A close one with all them nuclear reactors being hacked to produce, em, hybrids.
The Duke is waiting for the day, until then he waits for his Supply of bubblegum to run out
I better prepare to be shaking it, baby.
Time for an “Eat Pig” campaign!
