As Canada ramps up efforts to manage an escalating wild pig problem, Dr. Wayne Lees is asking anyone who suspects wild pig sightings to report them. As coordinator of the Squeal on Pigs Manitoba program, Lees is working on the frontlines of what he calls a “very serious issue” that affects agriculture, the environment, and public safety alike.
Lees says that wild pigs, mostly descendants of Eurasian wild boar, are not just escaped farm animals. “They survive harsh winters, destroy ecosystems, pose significant disease risks to livestock, and even threaten human safety,” he said. Originally introduced in the 1980s and ’90s as part of farm diversification strategies, wild boar have since established a foothold in the Canadian landscape, despite early assumptions that they wouldn’t survive Prairie winters.
The Squeal on Pigs initiative, funded through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, relies on public sightings to track the elusive animals. From there, trained field staff conduct site investigations, deploy drones and trail cameras, and, when warranted, install traps to remove entire groups. “Finding wild pigs is our biggest challenge,” Lees said, emphasizing the difference in scale between Canada and the U.S., where wild pig populations are far more widespread.
This issue was a key focus of of the second annual Wild Pig Summit held last week. The event included sessions on surveillance innovations, such as environmental DNA sampling, and scenario planning for disease outbreak responses. Lees noted a critical gap in coordination, as wild pigs straddle the jurisdictions of agriculture and wildlife: “They fall between the cracks. They’re not really agriculture, they’re not really wildlife.”
Farmers, ranchers, and landowners are encouraged to report sightings through toll-free lines or provincial websites as this intelligence underpins all control efforts. For Manitoba, sightings can be reported at 1-833-SPOT-PIG or via squealonpigsmb.org.
As Lees put it, tackling this invasive species is going to involve a team approach and Canadian agriculture is being called to rally.
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