Morning Read: Does the North Country’s next invasive species have tusks?
The Associated Press is reporting this holiday weekend on worries in New York state that Russian wild boars could be the next foreign species to invade our forests.
Wild boar. Photo: Wikipedia
Wild pigs are intelligent and adaptable, eating almost anything and able to live in a wide range of habitats. They dig up cropland and lawns. They damage ecosystems by rooting and digging for food and devouring roots, stems, leaves, fruit, nuts, bark, bird eggs, mice, snakes and fawns.
They compete with native wildlife for food such as acorns, carry diseases that can be transferred to wildlife, and destroy wetlands with their wallowing.
Feral swine multiply rapidly, with sows producing several litters a year of four to six piglets, so as with any invasive species, it’s crucial to mount aggressive eradication efforts before the population is widely established, [Gordon Batcheller, head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Bureau of Wildlife] said. They’re also wily and secretive, and become even more so when people try to shoot or trap them.
Yikes. Makes zebra mussels and Eurasian watermilfoil sound kind of tame.
Tags: environment
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Place them in the varmit list with a 12 month open season.
Feral pigs are a big problem in Hawaii, mostly for the significant destruction they bring to delicate native forest eco-systems.
Once established, a bitter human quarrel also arises: there are many who like to hunt pigs, and/or eat them for subsistence. They want the pigs left alone. Environmentalists favor eradication. That conflict gets acrimonious.
I suspect it is better if they do not get introduced/established in the first place, if such a thing is possible.
When I was growing up in California the wild boars were popular for hunting. There were two ways – chase them with dogs until they get trapped somewhere and then go after them with bows and arrows (scary), or use hunt at night (illegal) with a jack light (I think that is a flashlight on the gun). In someways they are like bears you just don’t see them. but you can see evidence that they have been around.
The damage they do is incredible. They root around for food and they are like mini-excavators. A family of them will dig a many square foot area 1 foot deep. In a rainy area that would be a disaster – a bunch of mud pits. They would be like ATVs in the forest.
Feral hogs like to get into crop fields and root everything up. The pathogenic E coli outbreak from California lettuce was caused by feral pig feces in the lettuce fields.
These animals have a terrific capacity for population growth, and seem to be even more resilient to heavy hunting pressure than white-tailed deer. New York should do everything possible to discourage importation and release into the state, and to make sure that pigs that do get loose are removed from the landscape quickly.
I lost a young pig many years ago…searched and searched, but never found him. I supposed that he found some nice farmer to take him in for a while, or that he’d find his way into someone’s game bag in October. What I’d never imagined, is that he might survive the North Country winters, and grow bigger and stronger, and more wily over time.
Now I imagine him roaming the forest…big as a Volkswagon…uprooting trees like a snorting microburst, dislodging cabins from steep hillsides like a cloven-hoofed bulldozer, and wrecking back country dams like a hairy hurricane.
Citizens! Arm yourselves!
Feral hogs are the new sharks:
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/pig-bomb-hog-hunting.html
There was a Post Star story about a week or two ago about wild boars already loose in Washington County and Clinton County. And a mountain lion.
http://poststar.com/blogs/adirondack_outdoors/wild-hogs/article_dd673494-c8d3-11e0-b6c6-001cc4c002e0.html
http://poststar.com/news/local/officials-boars-seen-but-not-heard-from-in-washington-county/article_70a82a56-cb81-11e0-ae68-001cc4c002e0.html
Pork, the ONLY white meat….
I am always kind of confused about these animals.
Are they Ferrel Hogs (domesticated genetics but are now wild)
Russian Wild Boar-A wild animal?
Javelina- A wild pig found in the desert and other places.
Others?
What are we talking about for the north country?
They are wild animals brought in for hunting, but they have (I would guess) bred with feral hogs.