Wild Boar

Are wild boar here to stay?

There have been an increase in sightings of feral pigs roaming the countryside in central/southern Ontario, including almost as far south as Windsor ON (wildboarscanada.ca), in the last 2 years. The majority of the sightings come from Eastern ON due to escaped feral pigs. Progeny may continue to spread to the slightly warmer, crop abundant, and predator free, southern Ontario. I don’t wish for southern Ontario to “feel” the impact of wild boar, but feelings aside…

Wild Boar have no natural predators in Southern Ontario, except human (http://wildpiginfo.msstate.edu/behavior-feral-pigs.html ). Coyotes may attempt at piglets, but not a full grown boar. Considered dangerous game, and often ranked just after Africa’s big six (https://www.wideopenspaces.com/10-da...-game-animals/ ). The extremely sharp tusks and aggressive temperament have given this animal a history of turning the tables on its predators, even killing them (including human).

Wild Boar reproduce frequently. Litters range up to 8 piglets, twice a year (http://wildpiginfo.msstate.edu/behavior-feral-pigs.html ). Many countries around the world (eg. Australia) have been “over run” with exploding non-native feral pig populations (http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agricu...-feral-or-wild ).

Besides the urban centers, southern Ontario is mostly divided up into farm land. These farms support a many crops from corn, soy beans, fruit, etc… all consumed by wild boar who eat just about anything available (http://wildpiginfo.msstate.edu/behavior-feral-pigs.html ). This area is also interspersed with numerous streams, rivers, lakes and forests providing abundant food, fresh water, and shelter.

Southern Ontario experiences the warmest climate in Canada (not counting B.C.’s coast), likely to increase with climate change. Historically, wild boars occupy southerly climates, eg. Southern states (http://wildpiginfo.msstate.edu/history-wild-pigs.html), but range has been increasing. With greater sightings and activity of wild boar in Saskatchewan, a province with a higher latitude (wildboarscanada.ca), it is conceivable that southern Ontario with its warmer climate is more attractive.

Maybe the prequel story to the wild boar is the eastern coyote. A recent inhabitant of southern Ontario (and much of central and eastern Canada also), it is a product of interbreeding with the eastern wolf and western coyote, filling an ecological niche spreading all over southern Ontario (habitat of the eastern wolf once upon a time) (http://wolvesontario.org/wolves-ontario/ ). Despite a continual hunting season, no daily limit, no possession limit, and little to no firearm restrictions the eastern coyote is doing very well everywhere it goes (https://files.ontario.ca/hunting_regs_e_final.pdf ). I expect something similar will happen, should the wild boar become established here. In 2014, the MNRF issued a memorandum to the counties of Prescott and Russell in Ontario “authorizing landowners and hunters to kill any wild boars sighted as per Section 54 (5) of the FWCA.” (http://www.ofah.org/downloads/getfil...l_Prescott.pdf ).

However, unlike the eastern coyote, I think humans will feel the agricultural and ecological effects of wild boar sharper. Wild boar are many things, including a pest. The agricultural damage in the U.S. is estimated to be $1.5 billion annually (http://wildpiginfo.msstate.edu/damag...d-by-pigs.html ). Should wild boar become established here, the consequences will be felt.

That being said, as a hunter, I must adapt and overcome if I am to continue to be successful. Wild Boar hunting offers new opportunity, excitement and great culinary options (https://www.outdoorcanada.ca/hoghunting/ ). Although I don’t wish for it, I will take the good with the bad and the ugly, and hunt swine in southern Ontario. Mmmmm....baaaacooon.

There's been very,very few sightings of Wild Boar in south and south-central areas of the province. That may be a good thing. Anecdotal sightings appear to be domestic swine that have slipped under farmer's fences. I know from relative's first hand accounts that bona fide Wild Boars are really bad news for agricultural damage to fields. They're also very territorial and aggressively dangerous to animals and even humans. Having said that,I've also had several excellent meals from smoked wild pork.

They believe that some have migrated from Manitoba into northern parts of Ontario, but due to the vast wilderness and few people there, confirmed sightings are rare.

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

There's been very,very few sightings of Wild Boar in south and south-central areas of the province. That may be a good thing. Anecdotal sightings appear to be domestic swine that have slipped under farmer's fences. I know from relative's first hand accounts that bona fide Wild Boars are really bad news for agricultural damage to fields. They're also very territorial and aggressively dangerous to animals and even humans. Having said that,I've also had several excellent meals from smoked wild pork.

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Feral hogs are what is destroying the southern US, get your smoked pork from the farmer and keep the wild ones away, unless you would like to see the total destruction of our agricultural system in Ontario and the reduction in population of our native game animals, including deer, grouse, turkeys, rabbits, ducks, geese, etc, everything will be hurt by them.

A number of US states that currently do not have wild boars have proactively stated in their game regulations that hunting them is illegal in their state. This has been done to specifically discourage the "accidental" introduction of pigs to establish a huntable population. Ontario should do the same.

According to my BIL,New York State has stopped the hunt,too,however they still allow them to be shot to protect people or livestock. Someone came up with the theory that hunting them just makes them breed faster leading to more hogs and more damage. We'll see.

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

According to my BIL,New York State has stopped the hunt,too,however they still allow them to be shot to protect people or livestock. Someone came up with the theory that hunting them just makes them breed faster leading to more hogs and more damage. We'll see.

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That is wishfull thinking.

This is from the Manitoba Hunting regs...pretty sure Ontario would be follow suit;

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Wild BoarWild boar is not considered a big game animal. Manitoba has been declared a wild boar control area, which means only a resident of Manitoba may take wild boar any time of the year. A hunting licence is not required to hunt wild boar, but the hunter must comply with other general hunting regulations, including the use of hunter orange during a big game season where normally required. If hunting on private land, permission of the land owner is required. There is no bag limit, possession limit or tagging requirements for wild boar.Hunters are required to report the taking of a wild boar within seven days to the Manitoba Sustainable Development office nearest the location where the wild boar was taken. It is important to provide particulars including the location where the animal was killed, the number of other wild boars observed, etc.

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

Someone came up with the theory that hunting them just makes them breed faster leading to more hogs and more damage. We'll see.

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Heard the same 'theory' about Coyotes...not sure how they know they need to produce more, maybe they get e-mails :)

That theory might make sense if you looked at if based on the survival rate of the piglets. The smaller the Sounder (Groups of older pigs are called a sounder of swine) food is more plentiful, so more piglets survive ??

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Originally Posted by MikePal

Heard the same 'theory' about Coyotes...not sure how they know they need to produce more, maybe they get e-mails :)

That theory might make sense if you looked at if based on the survival rate of the piglets. The smaller the Sounder (Groups of older pigs are called a sounder of swine) food is more plentiful, so more piglets survive ??

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The theory is carrying capacity, I know that you are fully aware of what that means.

The problem the people saying the population follows the food is that they hardly consider the non-natural food that is available. When coyote populations go up they need to move more towards people to gain access to food, easy food, so the population limit is almost non-existent in an agricultural area. If the population drops then the home range expands and more coyotes will pair up to make babies rather than when they are in a pack situation where you have the alphas breeding.

I see the pig breeding situation very similarly except for the fact that they eat tons of veggies as well as meat and no alpha situation.