When the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation held its annual conference in February, one issue which was plainly put forward was that feral wild boar are a growing problem in the province, and across Canada.
Feral wild boar are becoming a concern for wildlife management across the country, explained Ryan Brook, who spoke at the convention held in Yorkton.
But to undertake management and control, one needs to have an understanding of the extent of the problem, and that is what the Feral Boars in Canada Collaring Project is designed to provide, he said.
“It is baseline information,” said Brook during a convention presentation, adding that they hope to gather data on populations, distribution, and knowledge regarding the ecology of the feral stock.
In other regions, feral boars have become a major issue.
Brook pointed to the United States.
“Texas has well over three million pigs,” he said, adding the situation could happen here.
“… About half of all RMs (rural municipalities in Saskatchewan) have pigs,” said Brook. “… We could well be in a position to have more pigs than people.”
In a random telephone survey of 3,000 rural residents across Canada, it was found “every single province had (wild) pigs … Everybody is reporting them.”
“We’re starting to see a pretty broad distribution of pigs,” said Brook.
It appears at least in Saskatchewan the government is listening, as the Government of Saskatchewan has amended the wildlife regulations and the stray animals regulations to clarify the status and hunting requirements for feral or free-ranging wild boar.
In the release regarding the changes, the government commented on the broad distribution of feral wild pigs.
“Free-ranging wild boar populations have been reported in more than 60 rural municipalities across southern Saskatchewan,” it stated. “Wild boar have damaged golf courses and crops, harassed livestock, threatened people, destroyed fragile plant communities and can transfer diseases to domestic hogs.”
“Free-ranging or feral wild boar have the potential to become a serious provincial problem,” Environment Minister Herb Cox said in the recently circulated press release. “These amendments address ongoing concern for public safety and protection of wildlife and habitat.”
Amendments to the wildlife regulations now allow Saskatchewan hunters to hunt wild boar without a licence, while still maintaining reasonable safety expectations, such as asking permission to hunt on private property and not hunting along roads or road allowances, detailed the release.
The removal of stray animal designation that currently applies to wild boar means that local rural municipalities that administer the Stray Animals Act and its regulations are no longer responsible for wild boar capture and containment. And there are stricter fencing requirements for farmed wild boar which is intended to reduce the number of wild boar that escape.
New fencing regulations would seem to be a cornerstone to any control problem, at least if Brook’s view of the situation is correct. He noted at the SWF meeting that the pigs are not a native species to Canada.
“We know farms are the source of this,” said Brook, adding the pigs are often escapees, and in some cases, there are reports of farmers cutting fence and letting stock go rather than continuing to look after them.
Even on well-run wild boar farms, it is estimated two to three per cent of stock escapes, said Brook.
Control has to start at the source.
The government release follows the same general thinking.
“Wild boar are a species from Asia and Europe, and were imported to Saskatchewan in the late 1970s as domestic livestock. They escaped from farms and created reproducing populations in wild areas throughout the province,” stated the release.
The new regulations also change how wild boar are defined.
“The move to regulate escaped wild boar as exotic wildlife instead of stray livestock enables landowners and producers to better protect their livestock, crops and pasture,” Agriculture Minister Lyle Stewart said in the release. “I also encourage anyone looking for support in controlling escaped wild boar to take part in the Feral Wild Boar Control Program administered by the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation.”
Of course, there is another aspect of the story, one which relates to the way farmers have over the years tried to diversify operations with some very unusual ‘livestock’; elk, fallow deer, ostrich, wild boar, emu, and so on, and there has been limited success with these species which are still far more wild than domestic.
Wild boar have become the poster ‘animal’ for what can go wrong if proper precautions are not put in place.
But at least the new changes seem to address the increasingly well-understood problem. At least the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities believes so.
“SARM is pleased with these changes as escaped wild boar pose a danger to people, personal property, other wildlife and to livestock,” said Association President Ray Orb in the government release. “We need to make sure their population is kept under control and are hopeful these regulatory changes will achieve that.”
