Farmscape for May 19, 2022
| Full Interview 12:17 | Listen  |
An Associate Professor with the University of Saskatchewan says wild pigs are easily the most destructive invasive large mammal on the plant.
Manitoba Pork, in partnership with the federal and provincial governments, has launched its “Squeal on Pigs” campaign, an initiative that encourages the public to report sightings or evidence of wild pigs. Dr. Ryan Brook, an Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture and Bioresources with the University of Saskatchewan, says wild pigs already occupy about one million square kilometers within Canada and their populations are expanding.
Clip-Dr. Ryan Brook-University of Saskatchewan:
Wild pigs are in a totally different category than any other large mammal. They reproduce normally six young per liter but they can have multiple liters per year. In Manitoba or anywhere in Canada we have elk, deer, moose, caribou. They’ll have, four would be outrageous for any one of those species and once per year in a narrow three-week window. With pigs, they’re reproducing continuously and so your females are having multiple liters per year of six young. Even one liter would break any record in any of our native species and they are doing multiple per year and it’s continuous. Any time of year you’ll see piglets at heel with those females, so massive reproductive output.
So, contributing sightings is really important. Manitoba has just announced, as part of a broader North American effort, the “Squeal on Pigs” program. You see a pig and you report it. A lot of people see them and don’t even know that’s a problem. They go to coffee row and talk about it but nobody realises that we should report that and get rid of it. Now we have effectively a sort of 911 for pigs which is a Squeal on Pigs call and we can go in and find and remove them.
Wild pig sightings can be reported through the Squeal on Pigs web site at squealonpigsmb.org or by calling the toll-free number at 1-833-spot-pigs.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca. Bruce Cochrane.
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