Home

A WILD BOAR HORROR STORY

Submitted by KAT on Tue, 10/30/2007 - 5:21pm.

Here’s a scary story that’s all the more terrifying ‘cause it’s true: ferocious feral pigs are wreaking havoc on Australia’s agriculture to the tune of about $100 million in damages annually. From rainforests to savannahs, monster razorbacks are ravaging crops, tearing down fences, wolfing down baby lambs, spreading disease and even choking coral reefs with the muddy runoff from their soil-shredding hooves.

And all because some European explorers decided not to bring home the bacon a few hundred years back. The wild boars who’ve colonized about 40 percent of Australia’s land are direct descendants of the domestic pigs that Captain James Cook and other 18th century explorers decided to leave behind as a kind of “living larder for future expeditions.”

A living larder, alas, with a hefty appetite and a remarkably rapid rate of reproduction; sows can produce two litters a year, with as many as 10 piglets per litter. And those little piglets are ready to start breeding at six months.

Add to this a climate that turned out to be the quintessential hog heaven, long on lush growth to nosh on and short on predators, and you can see why half the country’s overrun by something like 23 million wild boars, none of which, ironically, is fit to be eaten, because they’re infested with worms and disease.

Invasions by non-native species of plants and animals can be found all over the world, but few examples are more dramatic than the tale of how Australia’s been euro-trashed by these voracious and vicious boars.

Farmers trying to defend their crops and livestock shoot hundreds of the pigs each year, but beyond the boundaries of the farms, professional pig hunters have to rely on traps, because the forests where the pigs roam are so dense. Eliminating the pigs altogether would be impossible, but if they can’t be at least driven out of critical habitats, the very future of Australia’s rainforests may be in doubt.

By hogging the rainforests’ wild fruits, the pigs are endangering the survival of a rare flightless bird called the cassowary, on whom more than a hundred species of trees in Australia depend for propagation. The seeds of these trees will only germinate after they pass through the cassowary’s gut. But, thanks in part to the feral pigs, the wild cassowary population has dwindled to just 1,200.

You’re probably thinking, wow, tough luck for Australia. But we’ve got our own wild boar crisis here at home, it turns out. As the Toledo Blade reported last week:

It may be too late to slam the proverbial barn door on the spread of destructive wild boars in Ohio, but state wildlife and agriculture authorities are vowing to try.

For the second consecutive autumn, the Ohio Division of Wildlife is publicly encouraging hunters to shoot all the wild boars they encounter, this in hopes of limiting the damage these "eating machines" inflict on other wildlife and wild plant communities. Agricultural interests further are concerned about the potential of spreading diseases to domestic stock.

…Federal wildlife and agriculture authorities, also trying to put a lid on the boar explosion countrywide, note that in 1988 the creatures were known in 18 states. Now they have spread to 39 states, with the heaviest concentrations in Texas, California, Hawaii, and Florida.

We do have one advantage over Australia; according to the Toledo Blade, our wild boars can be safely eaten:

Wild boar is considered excellent table fare if properly field-dressed and thoroughly cooked. A recommended finished cooking-temperature for wild pork is 155 to 165 degrees.

Ohio’s wildlife division would like to see the wild boars totally eradicated. One look at what’s happening in Australia, and you can see why; Captain Cook’s "living larder" has become a living nightmare.