'Tricky species': Alberta programs targeting wild boar fail to bag a single pig (2024)

Two provincial efforts targeting Alberta’s wild boar population didn’t kill a single one of the troublesome swine, says a government official.

This is the latest frustration in Alberta’s years-long boar war against the destructive species that wreak havoc on the landscape and spread disease.

A two-year incentive program aimed at trapping sounders (wild pig groups) ended last March 31 but came up empty-handed, as did another discontinued initiative focused more on hunting that paid for each ear collected, said Hannah McKenzie, wild boar program specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation.

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“None of them resulted in any removals of wild boar,” she said.

She said only four counties or municipalities — not known to host established wild boar populations — participated in the sounder trapping program, which paid hunters and landowners $75 per boar head if a group was eliminated.

The cost of implementing the program for counties meant “there wasn’t a lot of appetite for taking on that kind of investment,” said McKenzie.

The hunting program, which ended March 31, 2023 after running for a year, wasn’t the kind of initiative known to produce results because killing individual animals only makes the highly intelligent, surviving sounder members more wary and liable to disperse and spread, she said.

“They’re not that successful; they don’t have a population (reduction) effect,” said McKenzie.

More effective has been an Alberta Pork trapping team, working in conjunction with provincial officials, that’s removed 66 sounders accounting for 410 wild boar since 2018, she said.

Those efforts employing nine traps have been operating in counties north and northwest of Edmonton where the animals are particularly pervasive — Lac Ste. Anne, Two Hills, Strathcona and Woodlands — with 75 per cent of those culled in the latter area.

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“People in those areas were very happy with how their trapping was operating already, rather than (adopting the sounder trapping program),” said McKenzie.

After they’re euthanized, samples from each of those 410 animals are sent to the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine to be assessed for the potential to spread disease to livestock.

The animals are considered the most destructive invasive mammal species on Earth and are known for trashing crops, harming livestock and wildlife, spreading disease, damaging river banks and even attacking humans and invading urban areas.

The problem originated when non-indigenous swine escaped from game ranches in the 1980s and 1990s, most of those located in areas where they now cause the most trouble.

After decades of combatting the swine, there’s still little known about their numbers but what is clear is that their ability to procreate year-round — compared to much less-prodigious ungulates like deer or elk — means managing the boar threat isn’t easy, said McKenzie.

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“They’re a very tricky species to monitor and with the resources we have, how much do you put towards counting them and how much towards getting rid of them,” she said.

But the province is hardly surrendering in the fight against them, with pork producers being equipped with trail cameras to detect if their farms are being visited by feral swine marauders.

Four additional trappers will begin working against the sounders this summer, added McKenzie.

Alberta doing more than other provinces, but it’s still not enough: expert

The unproductive programs are the fruits of playing politics over science, said Dr. Ryan Brook, a wildlife ecologist with the University of Saskatchewan who’s studied wild boars for 15 years.

Even so, he said at least Alberta is trying to arrest the threat posed by the animals, compared to other provinces, and said its trapping program is excellent, if too small.

“Alberta’s the only province I know of that’s spending money researching it and the only one (on the prairies) that has a strategy,” said Brook, who’s partnering with the U of C to research the pigs’ genetics.

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“It’s at least a decade ahead of other provinces.”

He said his research — which includes mapping of boar sightings — suggests the spread of the animals on Canada’s prairies is worse than it’s ever been.

And while Alberta’s situation isn’t nearly as bad as Saskatchewan’s boar problem, not enough is being done to ensure it won’t worsen, said Brook, adding that the numbers being culled are insufficient and dozens more traps need to be employed.

“That removal, at best, is only addressing the ones (still) escaping game ranches,” said Brook, noting he agrees with McKenzie’s views on the inadequacy of sport-hunting the pigs.

“If Alberta wants to claim they’re really serious about it, you have to address sport hunting.”

Hunters typically only kill three per cent of a local population, he said, while an 80 per cent rate is required to be successful.

The use of helicopters and so-called Judas pigs — sows equipped with radio collars that attract males and lead trappers to groups — have proven highly effective in eliminating sounders, he said.

There’s no indication wild boars have significantly infiltrated parts of the province outside the areas they most heavily populate, said McKenzie, “though that’s tricky to say. There is a potential for them to spread.”

“We really need to get more data.”

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

X (Twitter): @BillKaufmannjrn

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