Los “super pigs“begin to generate a environmental alert in Canada and United States. It is a subspecies of mestizos (European wild boar cross con domestic pigs) that could weigh up to 300 kilos. These “super pigs” escaped from captivity and quickly spread across North America. According to experts, they areincredibly intelligent, very elusive and difficult to locate”.
Lacking natural predators, they “cause damage to crops, destroy natural environments, enter cities, destroy water quality and can spread disease to humanslivestock, pets and native wildlife,” said Dr. Ryan Brook, an assistant professor in the department of animal and poultry science at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
“Super pigs are the worst invasive large mammals on the planet”
“These pigs are easily the worst invasive large mammals on the planetsaid Dr. Ryan Brook in Fox News Digital. He added that “there are no native pigs in Canada. Anything that sounds like a pig and grunts like a pig was imported.”
According to the specialist, wild boar breeders were told to cross the wild boar with domestic pigs to make a larger and longer animal with the aim of achieving an animal with an extra set of ribs and young with larger and more frequent litters.
These “super pigs” are the product of crossing European wild boar with domestic pigs and could weigh up to 300 kilos.
Dr. Brook anticipated that “if these pigs are not promptly eradicated, there will be a devastation to the environment”. In addition to the environmental problem, the US government estimated almost 6 million wild pigs that inhabit that country and would cause damage for 1,500 million dollars per year.
direct competition for food
Michael Marlow, assistant manager of the Department of Agriculture’s national feral hog damage management program, said in The Guardian that these ‘super pigs’ “will kill young fawns, they are known to be nest predators, thus impacting turkeys and potentially quail. In other words, there is direct competition for food from our native species.”
The specialist stressed that wild pigs are responsible for a long list of environmental damage, ranging from eating innocent farmers’ crops to destroying trees and polluting water. And they also represent “a risk to human health and safety”.
In the US there are almost 6 million feral hogs that cause damage of 1,500 million dollars a year
While Marlow claimed that his team managed to eradicate pigs in seven states over the past decade, but with little realistic hope of getting rid of pigs altogether.
Super pigs, transmitters of possible diseases
These animals are a “mixing vessel” capable of carrying viruses, like the flu, that are transmissible to humans. National Geographic reported that pigs have the potential to “create a new influenza virus”, which could spread to humanity.
The disease is always fatal to pigs, and in China, home to more than 400 million pigshalf the world’s pig population, African swine fever killed more than 30% of the pig population in 2018 and 2019. African swine fever has also occurred in Europe, but Marlow explained that it has not yet been detected in the Americas .
“Feral pigs are easily the worst invasive large mammals on the planet,” said Ryan Brook. Who continued: “They are incredibly smart. They are very elusive, and also when there is any pressure on them, especially if people start hunting them, they become almost completely nocturnal and become very elusive: they hide in dense forest cover, disappear into wetlands, and can be very difficult to spot. to locate”.
cold survivors
These pigs escaped from captivity and quickly spread across Canada. While many doubted its possible survival of that country’s terrible winter, the ‘super pig’ proved to be an incredibly competent breeder. Its gigantic size (a pig has been recorded at over 300 kg.) makes it capable of survive the cold in the west of that country, where the thermal sensation can be -50C.
These animals managed to survive digging tunnels up to two meters under the snowBrook said, creating a snow cave. “They used their razor-sharp fangs to cut cattails [una planta nativa], and they covered the bottom of the cave with reeds as a nice warm insulating layer. And in fact, they’re so warm inside that one of the ways we use to find these pigs is to fly out first thing in the morning when it’s really cold, colder than -30, and you’ll actually see steam coming off the top of the snow,” explained Ryan Brook.
NT / ED
You may also like
Source link
