{"id":35938,"date":"2023-12-21T01:54:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=35938"},"modified":"2023-12-25T23:58:07","modified_gmt":"2023-12-25T23:58:07","slug":"wild-super-pigs-from-canada-could-become-a-new-front-in-the-war-on-feral-hogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wild-super-pigs-from-canada-could-become-a-new-front-in-the-war-on-feral-hogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild \u2018super pigs\u2019 from Canada could become a new front in the war on feral\u00a0hogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marcus Lashley<\/a>, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They go by many names \u2013 pigs, hogs, swine, razorbacks \u2013 but whatever you call them, wild pigs<\/a> (Sus scrofa<\/em>) are one of the most damaging invasive species<\/a> in North America. They cause millions of dollars in crop damage yearly and harbor dozens of pathogens that threaten humans and pets, as well as meat production systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although wild pigs have been present in North America for centuries<\/a>, their populations have rapidly expanded over the past several decades. Recent studies estimate that since the 1980s the wild pig population in the United States has nearly tripled<\/a> and expanded from 18 to 35 states<\/a>. More recently, they have spread rapidly across Canada<\/a>, and these populations are threatening to invade the U.S. from the north<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wild pigs in Canada are unique because they were originally crossbred by humans to be larger and more cold-hardy than their feral cousins to the south. This suite of traits has earned them the name \u201csuper pigs\u201d for good reason. Adults can reach weights exceeding 500 pounds, which is twice the size of the largest wild pigs sampled across many U.S. sites in a 2022 study<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a wildlife ecologist<\/a>, I study how wild pigs alter their surroundings and affect other wildlife species. Early detection and rapid response<\/a> is of utmost importance in eradicating an invasive species, because invasions are more manageable when populations are small and geographically restricted. This is especially true for species like wild pigs that have a high reproductive rate, can readily move into new areas and can change their behavior to avoid being captured or killed. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RpwHJT4t-Zo?wmode=transparent&start=0 Minnesota wildlife experts are keeping a wary eye on their northern border for signs of wild \u2018super pigs\u2019 moving down from Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omnivores on the hoof<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Much concern over the spread of wild pigs has focused on economic damage, which was recently estimated at about US$2.5 billion annually<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wild pigs have a unique collection of traits that make them problematic to humans. When we told one private landowner about the results from our studies, he responded: \u201cThat makes sense. Pigs eat all the stuff the other wildlife do \u2013 they just eat it first, and then they go ahead and eat the wildlife, too. They pretty much eat anything with a calorie in it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More scientifically, wild pigs are called extreme generalist foragers, which means they can survive on many different foods. A global review of their dietary habits<\/a> found that plants represent 90% of their diet \u2013 primarily agricultural crops, plus the fruits, seeds, leaves, stems and roots of wild plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Lesser prairie chickens are a ground-nesting species \u2013 found in parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas \u2013 that is listed under the Endangered Species Act. Feral hogs prey on the birds and their eggs and damage the birds\u2019 habitat by rooting up and consuming native plants and spreading invasive plant seeds. Greg Kramos\/USFWS<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wild pigs also eat most small animals, along with fungi and invertebrates such as insect larvae, clams and mussels, particularly in places where pigs are not native. For example, a 2019 study reported that wild pigs were digging up eggs laid by endangered loggerhead sea turtles on an island off the coast of South Carolina, reducing the turtles\u2019 nesting success to zero in some years<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And these pigs do \u201cjust eat it first.\u201d They compete for resources that other wildlife need, which can have negative effects on other species<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, they likely do their most severe damage through predation. Wild pigs kill and eat rodents, deer, birds, snakes, frogs, lizards and salamanders. This probably best explains why colleagues and I found in one study<\/a> that forest patches with wild pigs had 26% fewer mammal and bird species than similar forest patches without pigs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This decrease in diversity was similar to that found with other invasive predators<\/a>. And our findings are consistent with a global analysis showing that invasive mammalian predators that have no natural predators themselves \u2013 especially generalist foragers like wild pigs \u2013 cause by far the most extinctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Altering ecosystems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many questions about wild pigs\u2019 ecological impacts have yet to be answered. For example, they may harm other wild species indirectly, rather than eating them or depleting their food supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work shows that wild pigs can alter the behavior of common native wildlife species<\/a>, such as raccoons, squirrels and deer. Using trail cameras, we found that when wild pigs were present, other animals altered their activity patterns in various ways to avoid them. Such shifts may have additional cascading effects on ecosystems, because they change how and when species interact in the food web.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another major concern is wild pigs\u2019 potential to spread disease. They carry numerous pathogens, including brucellosis and tuberculosis. However, little ecological research has been done on this issue, and scientists have not yet demonstrated that an increasing abundance of wild pigs reduces the abundance of native wildlife via disease transmission. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vIHbFQFdyaM?wmode=transparent&start=0 Feral hogs can be seen rooting up the soil in this trail camera footage from Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, in their native range in Europe and Asia, pigs do not cause as much ecological damage. In fact, some studies indicate that they may modify habitat in important ways<\/a> for species that have evolved with them, such as frogs and salamanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, however, there is virtually no scientific evidence that feral pigs provide any benefits in North America. One review of wild pig impacts<\/a> discussed the potential for private landowners plagued with pigs to generate revenue from selling pig meat or opportunities to hunt them. And it\u2019s possible that wild pigs could serve as an alternative food source for imperiled large predators, or that their wallowing and foraging behavior in some cases could mimic that of locally eradicated or extinct species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the scientific consensus today is that in North America, wild pigs are a growing threat to both ecosystems and the economy. It is unclear how invading super pigs would contribute to the overall threat, but bigger pigs likely cause more damage and are generally better predators and competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While efforts to control wild pigs are well underway<\/a> in the U.S., incursions by Canadian super pigs may complicate the job. Invasive super pigs make for catchy headlines, but their potential effects are no joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an updated version of an article<\/a> originally published on Aug. 26, 2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcus Lashley<\/a>, Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marcus Lashley, University of Florida They go by many names \u2013 pigs, hogs, swine, razorbacks \u2013 but whatever you call them, wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are one of the most damaging invasive species in North America. They cause millions of dollars in crop damage yearly and harbor dozens of pathogens that threaten humans and pets, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":35939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1862,118],"tags":[2292,4992,584,2333,4422,8009,2199,14990,573,1055,14989],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35978,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35938\/revisions\/35978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}