Feral pig
[5] Christopher Columbus intentionally released domestic swine in the West Indies during his second voyage to provide future expeditions with a freely available food supply.
[14] For commercial pig farmers, great concern exists that some of the hogs could be a vector for swine fever to return to the U.S., which has been extinct in America since 1978.
In the East, the range expands northward to include most of the forested areas and swamps of the Southeast, and from there goes north along the Appalachian Mountains as far as upstate New York, with a growing presence in states bordering West Virginia and Kentucky.
[22] Legal restrictions on methods of hunting are lax, as most state departments of wildlife openly acknowledge feral pigs as an ecological threat and some classify them as vermin.
For example, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources considers them unprotected wild animals with no closed season or harvest limit, and promotes their aggressive removal.
Catch dogs typically are American Pit Bull Terriers and their crosses, the Catahoula (dual purpose), the Dogo Argentino, a dog used for the same purpose in South America, and American Bulldogs; the first of these has been put back to work as a utility breed[26][27] over the past 30 years and its tenacity on the hunt and undying loyalty to protect its master have made it a popular asset.
[34] In February 2017, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller approved the use of a pesticide called Kaput Feral Hog Lure, which is bait food laced with warfarin (a rodenticide used to kill rodents).
[35] Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) have become an invasive species in Canada, particularly in western and central regions, following their introduction as livestock in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
These animals are hybrid descendants of European wild boars and domestic pigs, and have developed unique adaptations to survive in Canada's cold climate.
They possess several distinctive features: Research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan has shown that feral pigs have spread throughout western and central Canada, from British Columbia to Manitoba.
[37] Additional varieties of European pigs were introduced after Captain Cook's arrival into Hawaii in 1778,[38] where they prey on or eat endangered birds and plants.
[40] Feral pigs in the U.S. eat small animals, mostly invertebrates like insects and worms but also vertebrates such as wild turkey poults, toads, tortoises, and the eggs of reptiles and birds.
In some case, other wildlife are out-competed by the feral pigs' higher reproductive rate; a sow can become pregnant as early as six months old and give birth to multiple litters of piglets yearly.
Predators such as bobcats and coyotes may occasionally take feral piglets or weakened animals, but are not large enough to challenge a full-grown boar that can grow to three times their weight.
The grizzly bear, while native to most of the American West, is gone from the states that have large feral pig populations, namely Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico; and the species also has a very slow reproductive rate.
Wolf numbers are small and expected to remain so as they slowly repopulate their range; only a few individuals thus far have been recorded as inhabiting California, in spite of thousands of square miles of good habitat.
[44] In South America, during the early 20th century, free-ranging boars were introduced in Uruguay for hunting purposes and eventually crossed the border into Brazil in the 1990s, quickly becoming an invasive species.
Licensed private hunting of both feral boars and their hybrids with domestic pigs was authorized from August 2005 on in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul,[45] although their presence as a pest had been already noticed by the press as early as 1994.
[46] Releases and escapes from unlicensed farms (established because of increased demand for boar meat as an alternative to pork) continued to bolster feral populations and, by mid-2008, licensed hunts had to be expanded to the states of Santa Catarina and São Paulo.
In the Strzelecki National Park on the island, the ecosystem has been severely damaged; extensive rooting in the gullies led to water erosion and loss of regenerating forest plants.
Bracken fern (Pteridium esculentum) flourishes in this damaged environment and dominates large areas forming dense stands to about 4 m which prevent light reaching the forest floor.
[52] According to property co-owner Naomi Steenkamp, "It's a murder scene", with the morning revealing evidence of the previous night's carnage—bone fragments, such as bits of hoof and skull, are often all that remain of the helpless young goats.
[53] Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne in a formal statement to news media stated that "multiple hogs" assaulted Rollins during pre-dawn hours between 6 and 6:30 a.m. when it was still dark outside.
