Descendants of imported boars leave trail of destruction in Canada
WILD pigs are wreaking havoc across Canada, building “pigloo” shelters as they expand their territory.
The animals are the descendants of wild boars who were imported to the country from Europe in the late Eighties and early Nineties in an attempt to improve the quality of meat. However, the boars proved less co-operative than farmers might have hoped, with some escaping by burrowing their way under fences or simply barging their way through their enclosures to freedom.
Others were released by farmers as the demand for boar meat fell, National Geographic magazine reported.
Some of the boars interbred with domestic pigs, leaving the country with an expanding and uncontrollable feral hog population.
The hogs are now to be found throughout western and central Canada from Manitoba to British Columbia, leaving a trail of destruction as they expand their territory.
They are now displacing other wildlife, harassing livestock, eating anything they can find, and wrecking crops and grassland.
Few people thought that the boars could survive Canada’s harsh winters, but they have proved to be tougher than expected.
The rapid spread emerged after a team at the University of Saskatchewan began tracking them – in some cases putting GPS collars around their necks.
Ryan Brook, a researcher at the university, dubbed them “superpigs” thanks to their tolerance of the cold.
“We should be worried, because we know the biology,” he said.
“They are called an ecological train wreck for a reason.”
Such is their ingenuity that the hogs are even capable of building overground shelters – which have been dubbed “pigloos” by researchers.
The wild pigs are bigger than others found elsewhere in North America – one was found to weigh more than 600lb.
With short sharp tusks and bristly fur, the hogs are reproducing rapidly, partly because of their ability to give birth to large litters.