"Super pigs" — called the "most invasive animal on the planet" — threaten to invade northern U.S.
"Super pigs" — called the "most invasive animal on the planet" — threaten to invade northern U.S.
The animals are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boars with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a "super pig" that's spreading out of control.
An exploding population of hard-to-eradicate "super pigs" in Canada is threatening to spill south of the border, and northern states like Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana are taking steps to stop the invasion.
In Canada, the wild pigs roaming Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba pose a new threat. They are often crossbreeds that combine the survival skills of wild Eurasian boars with the size and high fertility of domestic swine to create a "super pig" that's spreading out of control.
Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada's leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, "the most invasive animal on the planet" and "an ecological train wreck."
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The most invasive animal on the planet.
I think humans win that trophy.
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Yeah, way into the planetary infestation phase too, and already triggered the 6th mass extinction event.
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Yeah those guys are distant second at best.
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We should handle it the same way we treat invasive animals 🙂
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At least they sound like a viable game animal. Invasive species to you, 100lbs of free pork for Billy out in the woods. We use it to control deer populations from exploding in certain areas where we've removed the top predator though, and we just kinda take its place. Can potentially help with any animal that has the misfortune of being both tasty and economical to go out and hunt for.
Won't eradicate them or anything, but will help keep them in check. It's a facet of that old alliance between hunters/fishermen and environmental activists.
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Unfortunately they'll still see population growth....
That means 65% or more of a wild pig population could be killed every year and it will still increase, Brook said. Hunting just makes the problem worse, he said. The success rate for hunters is only about 2% to 3% and several states have banned hunting because it makes the pigs more wary and nocturnal — tougher to track down and eradicate.
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I shoulda opened the article instead of just reading the synopsis. That is concerning.
I'll point out though, that since it's a new prey animal to the area, it will take time for the locals to learn how to hunt it effectively. It's behavior needs to be learned first, so effective approaches can be devised.
But ... delicious, economical and challenging is also something a hunter might find interesting.
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All the more bacon! And something useful to do for all those trigger-happy Americans.
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Just declare open season and no bag limit on pigs in all northern states. I guarantee you all the Bubbas and outdoorsmen will take care of it.
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They're not able to keep up with the breeding in Texas, and there's even helicopter tours where you can try and wipe out whole herds at a time.
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I have seen this in Louisiana, too. They will use helicopters(I even saw one mounted with a light machine gun) and gun down hundreds at a time. It still isn't enough, and they have a lot of Bubbas down there hunting them in one way or another.
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To your point, I ran across this video of an eradication attempt. Insane numbers being killed but they keep coming.
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In many states it is, not just northern. Iirc Texas will pay you to take an AR into a field and take out as many as you can. People even organize hunts from helicopters hunting herds like they should have Fortunate Son playing (no full auto though just ARs and typically BYOAR and ammo iirc.)
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"Super pigs" — called the "most invasive animal on the planet"
Human: Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power
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Super Human: Hold my beer
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Cody and the people at Some More News have been warning us for YEARS of this menace: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkJemc4T5NYZRH_2kTRBKeYVf6mmx0lQK&si=-A-aUBoR8svt17W2
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More like... Some Boar News!
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I think we’ve categorically shown that indeed, always some boar news.
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I can hear him screaming now incoherently as he chugs his wet juice down his glug hole. The poor ignored hero we all didnt deserve.
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I was about to say this. He warned us!
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They didn’t listen! And now it’s too late…
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Do they not taste good or something?
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No, Thėy təste aɓSlutelƴ awefull!
-Sined, Not Ae Pig
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REEEEE! Absholuutely, what thish guy RRRREEEEEEE shaid.. Tashtes like sssshhiiit..
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I've seen a little video on them. Apparently their meat is not good for consumption and tastes horrible due to their diet. But I've never tried super pig before, so right now it's only speculation.
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Apparently their meat is not good for consumption and tastes horrible due to their diet
I wonder how much selection pressure humans are applying in favour of this trait, since it's the ultimate defence against human predation . One of the best defences that Canada geese have is that they taste terrible too.
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But they should still be good enough for the McRib right?
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If they are anything like the wild boars in Texas they are incredibly gamey, which some people don't mind and others can't stand. I'm sure that there is a way to prepare them that makes them more palletable
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and we all made fun of that 30-50 feral hogs guy
truly we were the fools all along
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Feral hogs have been a problem for a while. They do tons of damage to southern agriculture each year. USDA estimates 1.5 billion dollars worth annually. https://www.nifa.usda.gov/about-nifa/impacts/southern-region-land-grant-researchers-finding-feral-hog-solutions
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No, we made fun of the fact that the dude was imagining himself going full Doom through an ocean of pig blood to reach his kids on the other side.
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I love problems we can eat our way out of... if we almost wiped out the buffalo these little shits shouldn't be an issue.
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A problem I've heard with them is that they're super smart. You trap one boar in a bear trap or something and that's the only boar you're catching from that region with that same type of trap.
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Pork for the pork God. -
Super-pigs threatening to invade America?
I knew all that military spending would come in handy
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What are chances US loses the North American Boar War?
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100 %. Well, probably it'll become sort of a frozen conflict and a steady income for the ammunition industry, sort of a lose (US) — lose (boars) — win (ammunition industry) situation.
The only enemy boars have to fear is influenza.
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Can't this be solved in a way where we get tons of super bacon?
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Yeah, actually. The regions this will spill into have lots of hunters.
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And year long McRibs, carnitas, al pastor, jeff pastor, etc.
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Give a tax break to Hormel, Hillshire Farms, and Oscar Meyer
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Build a wall! The pigs are going to pay for it!
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The bacon tax.
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"most invasive animal on the planet"
Oh, just wait until you find out about humans...
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I know this is bad, but I also know I'm not the only one whose first thought was, "super bacon".
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Can wild wolves keep them in check? Coyotes seem too small to kill an adult wild pig. (I have no idea.)
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The pigs are mainly around agricultural areas. We're on the bare edge of the Canadian prairie (10km from the edge of forest that extends 2500km to the west and however far to the tundra) and we rarely see wolves even here. They aren't really a predator for the Russian boar that are now endemic in our area.
Between the 3 of us here on the farm, we've probably shot (and eaten because they're delicious) about 200 of them over the last 5 or 6 years. And we've knocked them back a bit on our own land, but they just breed over on other people's farms and give ours a wide berth now.
Biggest one we shot was over 500lbs
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Imagine thinking about a working natural ecosystem (co)existing in the same era as humans, preposterous.
:'(
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If it's similar to the boars we have in some areas here, the wolves better bring the whole gang and protective equipment :/
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Oh, ok, so like literally, not a title about overseas mutated police force ...
A close one with all them nuclear reactors being hacked to produce, em, hybrids.
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The Duke is waiting for the day, until then he waits for his Supply of bubblegum to run out
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I better prepare to be shaking it, baby.
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I'd say we could use Spider-Pig to stop the Super Pigs, but you're not supposed to mix Marvel and D.C.
EDIT: Guess you guys aren't Simpsons fans.
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Free pork should never be an issue.
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It is when it's fucking up everything else and not really free in that they take a lot of effort to find and kill. Pigs are very smart.
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FREE BACON!
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Stupid solution suggestion: set up plenty of bait traps that'll cage them. Barbecue ensues.
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In Texas we can shoot 'em from helicopters with fully automatic weapons. (Seriously) 🤠
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It's one of those things that could really only happen in 'murica 😆
Unless there's a lot of clear view of the herds (not many places for the pigs to hide from sight), that sounds counterproductive. Then again, I really don't know squat about Texas other than stereotypes. Mostly barren desert? What about rocky outcrops?
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You're just teaching them how to use helicopters!
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I have a pig and they're too smart. You can catch a load of them, but if any get away, and some will, they will not come near that trap again.
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If we can wipe out the passenger pigeon, we can surely wipe out some nice tasty pork.
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I think we better do what the pigs say guys. The threats sound like they've got a bone to pick with the US.
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Free food.
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Where are all those hunters that hunted everything else to extinction when you need them?
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In the US
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They're not even calling them 'Billionaires' anymore. What has the world come to...
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Time for an “Eat Pig” campaign!
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How can they invade northern US when they already have cops there?
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They rarely shoot their own
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What happened to superhornets?
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Superpigs ate them all, mission accomplished
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This is just the plot of the book Termination Shock.
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I had the same thought but it was the south yeah?
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Wait til the meth gators start coming ashire…
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Someone better call Red, the Drone Ranger...
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Someone call Al Gore
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@somemorenews
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I was going to get out the big Cody Logo to shine it in the nighttime clouds to alert him, but, then I realized, he already knows.
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Do some of these “super pigs” wear capes? I bet some of them can fly.
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I'm sad nobody is making the 30-50 feral hogs joke in here.
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scroll
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Surrender Canada to the superior species
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This helps for sure. And this. Those pesky coyotes seem get along also too well. Time for some harvesting (sic!) and then get out those ARs and gatlings we still have some boar families to massacre.
Yes there are singular cases where wolves can change a whole ecosystem for the good, but what about muh crops and livestock.
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The thing that annoys me is that sheep dogs etc al work great! Don't kill the wolves, just give ranchers working dogs.
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Where's my god damn Red Ryder? I'm going to shoot some eyes out
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Neal Stephenson was right.
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Build the wall? /s
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Hopefully there's no spider pigs in the bunch.
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OKJAAAAA
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Hard to eradicate? Some 556 oughtta clean that problem up nicely
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That's also what I thought before reading about Texas' wild pig problem. There are plenty of motivated firearm users in Texas. Yet Texas has problematic numbers of wild pigs (https://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/texas-feral-hog-problem-swine-country/), and the pigs have spread to 35 of the States.
I can't find the numbers now, but one report I read stated that 70% of the wild pigs need to be culled per year in order to keep their numbers under control year over year. But even if we only had to kill 20% of the wild pigs, and only in Texas(https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/nuisance/feral_hogs/), that would still be 520,000 rounds as long as everyone were one-shot -one-kill.
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I almost wish they were eaten to death, they were actually left to rot on the plains ...