For several years, many Missouri residents have been dealing with the issue of wild boars and the destruction they’re capable of.
But the wild swine causing concern in the Show Me State are piddly little life forms compared to the behemoths roaming (and to some extent ruling) portions of Canada, particularly the extensive forests and ranges of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Behold the Canadian “Super Pig.” And when you become aware of their characteristics, that name seems entirely appropriate.
They’re massive; 600-pounds-plus isn’t at all unusual.
They’re built for survival. They’re descendants of a breed native to Siberia, and are covered with a thick coat of hair and have the necessary bulk to easily withstand Canadian winters. Basically, the worst that the Great White North could deliver suits them just fine.
They’re highly intelligent. They’ll even build “pigloos” to cozy up in when snow accumulates and the temperature drops well below zero degrees Fahrenheit. In less snowy conditions, they’re known to construct dwellings by piling up cattails or other organic material into tight mounds and burrowing inside.
DELICACY TURNED NIGHTMARE
Pigs aren’t native to Canada, and the saga of the Super Pig can be traced back to the 1980s when wild boars were brought from Europe to be raised by farmers and served in dishes at fancy restaurants across the country. Then farmers who wanted versions that were larger and could breed faster crossbred their European animals with the familiar, more prolific standard pigs.
It worked well, to say the least. Of course, some escaped. But many were simply released when farmers literally cut fences during a market crash in 2001.
And of course, the hybrids thrived in the wild, and have since more or less become their own breed – and a very successful breed at that. And a very successful and ultra-destructive breed, too. Super Pigs are guilty of every negative trait and behavior associated with their smaller cousins in Missouri and elsewhere in the United States, only it’s all multiplied by about a thousand.
When they tear up land to root around for bugs or other edible morsels, they’re like huge excavators compared to their relatively diminutive cousins in the U.S. working like small backhoes.
These things are horrendous. They’re living nightmares and the potential ramifications of their very existence are pretty scary.
We’re talking Hogzilla. Swine Kong. Boarosaurus.
As has been said time and again, truth is often stranger than fiction.
Canadian pig expert Ryan Brook (who goes by the nickname “Chairman of the Boar”) has called them “the worst invasive mammal on the planet” and an “ecological train wreck.”
No wonder that some folks in Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota are already devising strategies regarding responses to the situation.
For the record, Brook said more than 62,000 Super Pig sightings have been confirmed in Canada, and aerial reconnaissance has shown them inside North Dakota and within less than 20 miles of Minnesota.
So it appears that their time has come in the land of baseball, hot dogs and apple pie.
And as if any breeding population of these monsters wasn’t enough, a Super Sow can become fertile at only four months of age and have six piglets in a litter and raise two litters in a year.
And we thought we had a wild pig problem.
Anyway, plenty of sources are distributing information out about these alarmingly awful beasts, because they have the potential to cause the kind of commotion and become the type of story nobody wants to be involved with. Here’s to hoping we never do.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald. Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.