BRANDON — Don’t shoot.
That’s the plea from virtually all wild pig experts who are fighting the reasonable — but wrong — assumption among many hunters, farmers and other gunowners that shooting a wild pig helps control the growing problem.
“You’re not going to shoot your way out of a pig problem,” said Aaron Sumrall, who works for the manufacturer of the Pig Brig pig-netting system and is a former Texas A and M University extension specialist.
Recent wild pig stories:
- Wild pig experts divided over extent of the problem
- Wild pig control gains momentum on Prairies
- More funds on the way for wild pig fight
- Ont. faces unique wild pig challenges
- German study highlights wild pigs’ wandering nature
While shooting a wild pig might help control one pig — if it dies, which isn’t a sure thing with the thick-skinned beasts — it will scare off any other wild pigs within earshot, who will conclude that they’re in a dangerous area and should move off.
Unfortunately, they often move off in a number in a number of directions as the “sounder” scatters in fear. Females that flee can establish new sounders in previously unpigged areas, while the males can spread diseases dozens of kilometres from where they began wandering.
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“You need to get away from disturbing the wild boar, making them shy,” said Carl Gremse, a wild pig expert with an eastern German state agriculture department.
The trick to getting rid of wild pigs is to spot them, study their habits and then get them all caught in a trap together, or in a couple of traps in their home territory. That eliminates the entire breeding population and won’t spread the problem.
“Pigs are creatures of habit,” said Sumerall.
“Using that pattern against them to do a total eradication or a total control is much more easy than it is after someone has gone in there and used a firearm.”
