Superpigs: Wild boars are ‘incredibly smart’ and can withstand low temperatures

The appearance of a kindsuper pigs”, the result of crossing pigs internal with boarscaused anxiety at the borders USA.

pigs They’re not native to the US, but they’ve been wreaking havoc in recent decades: the government estimates that roughly 6 million feral pigs in the country cause $1.5 billion in damage each year.

smart and capable

North America is facing a new threat related to pigs, as “super pigThe Canadian, a gigantic beast, “incredibly intelligent, very elusive”, capable of surviving in cold climates by digging tunnels under the snow.

“We’re seeing direct competition for food from our native species,” said Michael Marlowe, deputy director of the USDA’s national feral pig damage management program. USA.

“However pigs they are also consummate predators. They will accidentally stumble upon a hidden animal, and the males have long fangs, so they are quite capable of running up and grabbing it with their mouths. “They kill young fawns, they are known to be nest predators, so they hit turkeys and possibly quails.”

In some regions of the country, the prevalence pigs spawned an entire hunting industry where people pay thousands of dollars to shoot boars.

pigs Wild animals are also responsible for a long list of environmental damage, from eating innocent farmers’ crops to destroying trees and polluting water. They also pose a “risk to human health and safety,” Marlowe said.

Do?

Relatively recently in pigs they have become a problem. “They lived happily until, maybe three or four decades ago, we started seeing these fast excursions into the area that we hadn’t seen before,” Marlowe said.

Since then the number pigs in the US it has risen to over 6 million in about 34 states. On average, animals weigh from 35 to 110 kg, but can weigh twice as much. Nearly four feet tall and five feet long, they are a formidable foe.

pigs they survive in extreme weather by digging tunnels up to 2 meters deep under the snow.

Considering the damage caused pigsSeveral attempts have been made to get rid of them. Scientists and researchers in the USA and Canada have had some success trapping them whole in large traps, while in the US there have been attempts, sometimes unsuccessful, to poison pigs wild.

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