I watched an interesting show on Discovery last night called Pig Bomb. I had no idea that the US has such a rampant overpopulation of these guys. They are a nuisance to farmlands, as well as pose a threat to humans and pets. They showed several reenacted scenarios where the boars had actually forced themselves into people's homes.
Upon further review out of curiosty, I found that they are here in NY with the Alleghany area and areas south of Syracuse are reporting sightings and confirmed harvests by hunters.
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/na ... dBoars.htm
http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2009/ ... re_st.html
I wouldnt mind doing some research on this topic Matt and adding them to our wildlife database if given the go-ahead.
Wild boars
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has the DEC confirmed breeding populations here? I guess either way I should get them into the list of mammals. I need to revisit those pages soon.
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I spoke with the Region 8 DEC, and was told that they cannot confirm nor deny a breeding population here. He does acknowledge that they have had reported sightings filed as well as the confirmed deaths of several.
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I'm fairly certain all the wild boars in the ASP area have been killed and/or captured.
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Read more here: http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pb ... 1104170350Invasion of feral hogs poses problems for N.Y.
Wild pigs can threaten resources, people
6:48 PM, Apr. 17, 2011
Written by
Jeff Murray
New York wildlife officials are scrambling to confront an invasion before it becomes an environmental disaster in the Southern Tier and elsewhere.
Feral hogs, abundant for years in many Southern states, are slowly creeping into New York, and they are not a welcome addition.
A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture indicates the wild pigs are breeding in three New York counties -- Tioga, Cortland and Onondaga.
"In the absence of aggressive professional management, these populations will likely continue their expansion and become entrenched in New York state -- with potentially devastating consequences to natural resources, agriculture and human health and safety," the report concluded.
An aggressive invader
Feral hogs are domestic pigs gone wild.
Some of the wild pigs turned up in New York and have migrated from the South, and others are European or Russian boars that escaped from shooting preserves or breeding facilities, said Paul Curtis, a Cornell University professor and Cooperative Extension wildlife specialist.
The hogs, which started appearing in New York about five years ago, are prolific breeders with very few natural enemies, and they can quickly overwhelm local ecosystems, Curtis said.
"If hogs are left unchecked, they can cause tremendous damage to agricultural crops." he said. "They can also cause environmental damage. Wildlife can be impacted by hogs. According to a recent report, feral hogs cause damage nationwide of $2 billion or more (annually). We don't need that problem in New York right now."
Feral hogs can also spread diseases to other wildlife and livestock, and they compete directly with deer and other games species for food.
Adults can weigh several hundred pounds and sometime reach 1,000 pounds or more.
In Pennsylvania, damage caused by feral hogs has been documented in the southwest, south-central and northeast regions of the state, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Former Ithaca resident Carlo Troise has seen first-hand the devastation feral hogs can create.
Troise, a Cornell University retiree who moved to South Carolina two years ago, shot a 400-pound boar while deer hunting last fall. He knows what the swine are capable of.
"They have caused extensive damage to farm and crop lands, golf courses, woodland clearings and homeowners' yards and property," Troise said. "Just recently in our town, a woman had her entire front yard turned over by hogs, and it looked like someone had plowed her yard with farm equipment."
An all-out battle
Because feral hogs have such destructive potential, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has adopted a take-no-prisoners approach to their management.
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