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Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

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Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#41

Post by steve_adams_86 »

chasd00 wrote: post #29
jason-phillips wrote: post #13

In Texas we trap them, blow them up, shoot them from helicopters, and shoot them from quads while chasing them at 50mph. They're too smart to shoot them from a standing position. I've seen packs of 15-20 running along together while riding my motorcycle along county roads in the middle of nowhere, San Saba County. But they normally stay out of sight; they're super smart. Good luck.

I wonder if you can shoot them from drones? That could be interesting.

(Assuming you mean a small drone a citizen could be licensed to operate): Do drones have the ability to stabilize the recoil from a gun powerful enough to kill a pig?

You could certainly air drop explosives on them but that connotes serious risk to the environment and extremely inhumane injury or death to the pigs.

I wonder if some kind of dart could be used to euthanize them, though it would likely cost more than bullets and still lack accuracy.

What an awful topic though. The pigs have no idea they’re invasive. They’re such intelligent creatures, it’s an incredible shame that we’ve caused this.

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#42

Post by thechao »

Syonyk wrote: post #17
Super_Jambo wrote: post #7

I'm really hoping the other predictions in Neil Gaiman's System Shock aren't also coming true. But I suspect they will... For the big ones I have it as 3/6 already. (Not detailing em to avoid spoilers :))

> Neil Gaiman's System Shock Ehm... which book? Are you thinking of Neil Stephenson's "Termination Shock"? That one involves feral pigs, and I'm not seeing "System Shock" as a book by Gaiman.

I'm pretty sure this is what OP meant; but, now, I am saddened we haven't seen the Neil's collaborate on a sci-fi graphic novel. Obviously, it'd be 12000 pages long.

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#43

Post by Mountain_Skies »

pixl97 wrote: post #39
spokesbeing wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sport hunting doesn't help keep the population down though: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-has-a-feral-hog-...

When I was younger my friends and I used to trap and kill dozens of them at a time. The sheer number of hogs and the rate at which they breed down in the river bottoms is insane. Not sure how you'd ever get rid of them, they are pretty clever and once you use a trick unsuccessfully on them they tend to avoid it.

Biological warfare, in one form or another, might be the only way, but that comes with risks that are probably unacceptable, even in light of the amount of damage they cause.

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#44

Post by [deleted] »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #12

> [The] reality is still that outside of the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, there are no meaningful opportunities to hunt wild pigs, which is not allowed in Ontario and Quebec In the southern United States it’s open season on wild pigs to keep the population under control. In at least Texas, you can take a machine gun mounted to a helicopter to go hog hunting: https://www.helibacon.com/texa…

[deleted]

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#45

Post by xoa »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #12

> [The] reality is still that outside of the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, there are no meaningful opportunities to hunt wild pigs, which is not allowed in Ontario and Quebec In the southern United States it’s open season on wild pigs to keep the population under control. In at least Texas, you can take a machine gun mounted to a helicopter to go hog hunting: https://www.helibacon.com/texa…

I'm a gun owner and support controlled hunting both for needed food for some people and population control when done properly. But beware perverse incentives and proper management. There have been plenty of articles and research about use of incentives and industry for dealing with invasive species, not just the feral pig problem but many others (nutria and lionfish for example [0]). And states that have made hunting easier do not seem to have necessarily benefited perhaps in part due to also creating an industry and economic incentives around feral pig hunting that actively encourages people to want more feral pigs to hunt. This has echoes to efforts going way back, a well meaning simple program might offer payment for some proof of killing a pest animal. This seems like a way to get people to go out and get them. But will they do that, or will some end up actively breeding said pest animals, harvesting them for the reward, and having plenty escape or eventually cause other issues? There definitely has to be some holistic thinking before just letting systems develop, particularly since it can be hard/impossible to unwind even if it was a mistake. Like all kinds of economic activities once people get into them lobbying and economic arguments can in turn shift the politics.

----

0: "Review of harvest incentives to control invasive species" https://www.reabic.net/journals/mbi/2014/3/MBI_2014_Pasko_Go...

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#46

Post by [deleted] »

spokesbeing wrote: post #30
r3trohack3r wrote: post #12

> [The] reality is still that outside of the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, there are no meaningful opportunities to hunt wild pigs, which is not allowed in Ontario and Quebec In the southern United States it’s open season on wild pigs to keep the population under control. In at least Texas, you can take a machine gun mounted to a helicopter to go hog hunting: https://www.helibacon.com/texa…

Sport hunting doesn't help keep the population down though: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-has-a-feral-hog-...

[deleted]

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#47

Post by micromacrofoot »

pigs are arguably smarter than dogs and as many can attest, these pigs will avoid traps and hunters rather adeptly - this is a situation where we need to repopulate wolves - hobby hunting will never outpace their population growth, we need full-time allies

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#49

Post by coffeebeqn »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #32
starkd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't that true of most any game meat? I've heard that bear meat can be tough and grisly, but I was told it depends on how you butcher it.

> But isn't that true of most any game meat? Most so-called "gamey" meat is down to poor handling of the meat. Hogs are an exception... uncastrated males do taste bad to many people.

I always thought gamey was from high activity of the muscles. Farmed animals certainly don’t run around forests fending for themselves

Re: Researchers are trying to mitigate the spread of wild pigs in Canada

#50

Post by robofanatic »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #12

> [The] reality is still that outside of the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, there are no meaningful opportunities to hunt wild pigs, which is not allowed in Ontario and Quebec In the southern United States it’s open season on wild pigs to keep the population under control. In at least Texas, you can take a machine gun mounted to a helicopter to go hog hunting: https://www.helibacon.com/texa…

Wow, this is next level of killing living beings for pleasure.
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