When Chris Columbus loaded up a dozen swine to make the trip across the Atlantic to the New World for the first time in 1492, little did he know it marked the beginning of what would eventually become a war on wild hogs by the time the 21st century dawned.
From the eight pigs that survived the voyage to nest in the “West Indies,” to the estimated millions that now roam across the Americas, the problem with wild pigs seems to multiply faster than a calculator. This hardy and extremely adaptable animal species has slipped beyond the confines of farms and ranches in rural America and shed their domestic bonds in favor of rooting and surviving in the wild.
With tenacity and resourcefulness, feral swine tend to gather into sounders, or packs of wild pigs, and exert their aggressive behavior on their immediate environment, often competing with other types of wildlife for food and water resources. These opportunistic omnivores demonstrate a remarkable ability to survive under the harshest conditions, often destroying fields and forage as they root for food, contaminating water resources, and spreading a myriad of animal diseases that can negatively affect other animal species and even humans.
Read the rest of the story at Southwest Farm Press.
Filed under: news | Tagged: Chris Columbus, feral hogs, feral pigs, feral swine, feral swine in Texas, IPM, mammal pests, Southwest Farm Press, wild boar, wild pigs |
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