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Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

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Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#3
I love pigs and dread the thought of butchering mine. Where I live wild pigs are not a problem, but in the Southern states of the USA there are literally millions. They are the most invasive of species, descendants of those imported from Europe or maybe Russia in the 19th century. Some get to be enormous. They destroy property and they're tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They're smart and dangerous. The right solution is of course to shoot them en masse, but the optics aren't so good on that solution.

Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#4
post #3

I love pigs and dread the thought of butchering mine. Where I live wild pigs are not a problem, but in the Southern states of the USA there are literally millions. They are the most invasive of species, descendants of those imported from Europe or maybe Russia in the 19th century. Some get to be enormous. They destroy property and they're tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They're smart and dangerous.…

Around 600000 are shot per year in Germany, as a point of reference.

Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#5
post #4
post #3

I love pigs and dread the thought of butchering mine. Where I live wild pigs are not a problem, but in the Southern states of the USA there are literally millions. They are the most invasive of species, descendants of those imported from Europe or maybe Russia in the 19th century. Some get to be enormous. They destroy property and they're tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They're smart and dangerous.…

Around 600000 are shot per year in Germany, as a point of reference.

Wow! I somehow decided that Germany was densely populated enough that the numbers wouldn't be nearly so high.

Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#6
post #3

I love pigs and dread the thought of butchering mine. Where I live wild pigs are not a problem, but in the Southern states of the USA there are literally millions. They are the most invasive of species, descendants of those imported from Europe or maybe Russia in the 19th century. Some get to be enormous. They destroy property and they're tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They're smart and dangerous.…

Aren't those boars though? Or are those the boars and pigs same animal just that one is feral? My knowledge of boars is entirely from Asterix and Obelix so take anything I say with a grain of salt. Though if the comics (from 1950) are to be believed, they were also aplenty in Gaul 2000 years ago.

Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#7
On the topic of pigs and pork I enjoyed this recent Adam Ragusea video about why we don't have a good explanation for decrees against eating pork:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sew4rctKghY

Like most of his work he tries to research and source everything he says.

I can't recall if it was in the video or a comment, but one idea is that chickens just do it better. They convert garbage to food (and eggs!) more quickly and efficiently. You can eat one chicken but can't eat a similar sized part of a pig, which is important before refrigeration. They don't make lard which was a major use of pigs (apparently they were often grown fat on purpose for lard, not meat) but warmer climes had access to and preferred olive oil anyway, since it kept better.

Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#8
post #3

I love pigs and dread the thought of butchering mine. Where I live wild pigs are not a problem, but in the Southern states of the USA there are literally millions. They are the most invasive of species, descendants of those imported from Europe or maybe Russia in the 19th century. Some get to be enormous. They destroy property and they're tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They're smart and dangerous.…

One may recall the "30 to 50 feral hogs" tweet that got turned into somewhat of a joke/meme a year ago. Here's an article that delves into the realism a bit...

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/6/20756162/30-to-5...

Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#9
post #3

I love pigs and dread the thought of butchering mine. Where I live wild pigs are not a problem, but in the Southern states of the USA there are literally millions. They are the most invasive of species, descendants of those imported from Europe or maybe Russia in the 19th century. Some get to be enormous. They destroy property and they're tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They're smart and dangerous.…

One may recall the "30 to 50 feral hogs" tweet that got turned into somewhat of a joke/meme a year ago. Here's an article that delves into the realism a bit... https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/6/20756162/30-to-5...

Trapping an entire sounder of feral hogs is apparently a better choice than trying to shoot a few of them, as any hogs not killed will repopulate quickly: https://www.uaex.edu/publications/pdf/MP534.pdf

Re: Ubiquitous Medieval Pigs

#10
post #3

I love pigs and dread the thought of butchering mine. Where I live wild pigs are not a problem, but in the Southern states of the USA there are literally millions. They are the most invasive of species, descendants of those imported from Europe or maybe Russia in the 19th century. Some get to be enormous. They destroy property and they're tearing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. They're smart and dangerous.…

Aren't those boars though? Or are those the boars and pigs same animal just that one is feral? My knowledge of boars is entirely from Asterix and Obelix so take anything I say with a grain of salt. Though if the comics (from 1950) are to be believed, they were also aplenty in Gaul 2000 years ago.

Not many people know that if you take the standard domesticated pig we’re all used to and let it roam free, it will change physically and behaviorally pretty quickly and resemble a boar. Pretty “wild” stuff.

https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/31104/202...

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