They are considered the most damaging, invasive mammal in the world and they could be in your backyard.

While many may have heard about parts of the United States being overrun by herds of wild boars, some would be surprised to find out that parts of Alberta are hotspots for the destructive hogs as well.

Introduced in the 80s and 90s, the boars were intended to help diversify Alberta’s agriculture and meant for meat or hunting farms where people could hunt them in an enclosed area.

Over the years, the highly intelligent boars managed to escaped their enclosures, some intentionally released by farmers no longer interested in caring for the animals. The population since then has rapidly increased.

That's why a new provincial campaign has been launched to raise awareness and control the population of wild boar at large, called "Squeal on Pigs."

Megan Evans with the Alberta Invasive Species Council, the group behind the campaign says the animals pose a great risk to fields and livestock in areas just northwest of Edmonton. However, she notes there's has a report of one of these animals in Rocky View County.

"That area is definitely not the hot spot. Even though there may have been a report that came in, that's definitely not the core of where we are seeing problems with these animals in Alberta. That's not to say that we won't in the future because their populations are present on the Prairies and in Alberta and they're growing."

Evans said the species of boar has been known to damage crops and even harm wildlife and livestock on farmer's lands. But above all, the greatest risk they pose is the dozens of diseases they carry.

"Wild boar at large can host up to 89 different diseases, which are all transmittable to humans, livestock or wildlife. Some of those are reportable diseases. For some of them, such as Foot and Mouth disease, would result in the closure of our Alberta pork and beef exports which would be devastating."

Evans added outbreaks in domesticated animals are relatively easy to contain, but it becomes extremely difficult to control when diseases spread to wild populations.

This is why the campaign, launched late last month, encourages Alberta to report any feral pig sighting and damage to Alberta Invasive Species.

However, hunting them is not encouraged.

"For some time, there was actually a provincial bounty program on wild boar at large," said Evans. "We learned that hunting can actually make the problem worse because they can be harder to trap in the future."

Instead, the province has an eradication program in place, where staff from Alberta Agriculture and Alberta Pork track the boars in an effort to properly trap them. They receive information from drone surveillance and tips from the public.

Evans encourages anyone who sees these animals to report them to the Alberta Invasive Species Council.

 -With files from Fort Sask Online

 

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