Wild pig control gains momentum on Prairies

Eradication efforts face obstacles and experts disagree over the extent of the problem, but much progress has been made 

BRANDON — Canadian wild pigs are furtive, rugged and mysterious beasts roaming and rooting in unknown numbers across the parklands of Western Canada.

Understanding them, catching them and eradicating them is now a crusade across Canada and other regions where the animals are a problem, Canada’s first ever Wild Pig Summit revealed.

Recent wild pig stories:

“We’re finding a lot of diseases in the wild population,” said Mathieu Pruvot, a researcher and expert on wildlife-livestock interactions with the University of Calgary’s veterinary college.

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That disease threat is the stuff of nightmares for livestock producers, who fear the introduction of African swine fever and other pestilence through the spread of wild pigs, as has already happened in Europe.

But wild pigs pose many other dangers for farmers, wilderness, biodiversity and the environment.

They are aggressive and destructive pests of wilderness areas, competing with deer and numerous other species of native wildlife for the same food sources. They tear up pastureland and gobble corn crops like candy. Of course, they also wield fearsome tusks.

During the multi-day conference in Brandon, which brought together wild pig control professionals, researchers, farmer representatives and government officials from North America and Europe, it became clear that research into wild pigs has just begun, control methods are still evolving and the eradication of wild pigs is in its early stages.

However, most experts and pig-fighters sounded optimistic about the potential of eliminating wild pigs from Western Canada, despite the debate over whether the so-called “super-pigs” are already out of control.

Net and cage systems, developed in the United States and Europe, appear to work well in Western Canada, although to be effective they need to be customized for the brutal conditions of Prairie winter and the unique behaviour of western Canadian wild pigs.

Experts from a successful wild pig control project in Germany’s Brandenburg forest and a collaring project by the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicate that the pigs have a much wider range than previously thought.

In Germany and the United States, wild pigs appear to wander for dozens of kilometres, showing up far away from previous sightings of the same individuals. They are willing to swim large rivers and cross highways and hillsides.

Manitoba’s Squeal on Pigs program has found that prairie pigs appear to wander far and wide, a conclusion that fits with the work by the University of Saskatchewan’s Ryan Brook.

A spirited back-and-forth arose about numbers and area occupied by wild pig populations and the degree of threat they pose for spread.

Brook is a pioneering researcher in the area and has raised the issue of invasive wild pigs for more than a decade. He has taken a maximalist approach to the risk and size of the problem, referring to wild pigs as “super-pigs” with an extreme risk of uncontrolled population growth and of spreading into the U.S. His work has often captured the attention of the public.

Many provincial wild pig control people feel Brook exaggerates the risk and that his maps of sightings create an unduly alarmist perception of the problem. Most believe that the current wild pig populations are small and can be eradicated if carefully managed.

Some on the minimalist end of the scale believe there are no wild pigs breeding in their provinces, with only sporadic releases from domestic captivity or in-movement from out-of-province pigs resulting in their sightings.

Brook feels this view ignores the reality of rooting and breeding across the Canadian countryside.

What virtually all wild pig control people agree on is the risk posed by shooting at wild pigs. Many hunters and rural people believe the best way to deal with wild pigs is to shoot them on sight.

Experts agree that this is counterproductive and merely spreads the pigs because even if one pig in a “sounder” is killed, the rest will scatter, determining that the area they were in is dangerous. New sounders will then arise from scattered females.

Reaching hunters with a “don’t shoot” message has been a priority in all provinces, and hunting groups have relayed the warning.

It isn’t easy for provincial agencies and organizations to deal with the wild pig issue. As provincial representatives explained, each province has its own set of rules and regulations spawned by provincial legislation that governs how wild pigs are treated. Are they wildlife or livestock? Which department and legislation is responsible? Who should lead control efforts?

Most provinces have government departments leading the control efforts. Manitoba’s program, which uses the same Squeal on Pigs name that is shared with other provinces and U.S. state organizations for wild pig control, is hog industry-based, which is something its organizers believe allows it greater flexibility and speed of response.

Manitoba’s hog industry is gravely concerned about an outbreak of ASF, and it fears wild pigs could become vectors for the disease.

Most prairie wild hogs are descended from wild boar that escaped or were released into the wild from farms in the 1990s and 2000s. They have mixed with domestic escaped pigs and created hybrids that are still mostly wild boar.

In other areas the wild pigs have a different genealogy. In some parts of British Columbia there are small livestock operations that sometimes experience jailbreaks. Ontario has the same, plus occasional pet Vietnamese pot belly pig escape/releases that appear in areas near cities.

American wild pigs are a motley mix, with centuries-old feral hogs breeding with other escaped pigs to create fearsome beasts such as the famed razorback and the hordes on the Texas plains. They like to roam.

Researchers are busy across North America, including on the Prairies, digging into local populations of wild pigs to identify their DNA and the best methods of monitoring, including drone technology and artificial intelligence.

The conference brought significant representation from Manitoba’s politicians and government officials. Manitoba agriculture minister Ron Kostyshyn and Manitoba Metis Federation agriculture minister David Beaudin both attended and stayed for hours. The province’s deputy agriculture minister and an assistant deputy minister were there, along with other officials.

Beaudin said all communities in Manitoba must “make a collective effort” to get the wild pig problem under control.

Kostyshyn sounded a hopeful note. He announced that the provincial Squeal on Pigs program will receive more than $600,000 per year for the next four years to boost its control efforts. With enough commitment, wild pigs can be eliminated, he believes.

“We can make it happen,” said Kostyshyn.

“Let’s get it done.”