Pig Pen: Wild pigs are trapped in the rain forest near Tully, Australia. The destructive descendants of domestic pigs brought by European explorers, wild boar now inhabit 40 percent of the country.
Pig Pen: Wild pigs are trapped in the rain forest near Tully, Australia. The destructive descendants of domestic pigs brought by European explorers, wild boar now inhabit 40 percent of the country.
Brian Cassey

Australia's battle against wild boars

Wild pigs are destroying farmland and forest. Controlling them is becoming serious business.

Page 1 of 3

A smear of caramel-colored mud coats a sapling at least three feet up its trunk. "That's a big pig," says professional hog trapper Paul Smith. "See this gash in the bark? That was made by its tusk – it would've been a big male, and it was here not long ago."

A beaten trail leads through the tangled jungle fringe to a small creek, where the banks on both sides are churned up – more evidence that wild pigs rule in this muggy corner of tropical Queensland.

Australia's lush forests and farmlands are hog heaven. But the wild boar are making it hell for everyone else. Blamed for an array of ruinous behavior to the environment and the crops, feral pigs are among the most destructive pests to be introduced by Europeans – and keeping their numbers down is becoming serious business.

The wild boar here are descended from the domestic pigs that 18th century European explorers such as Capt. James Cook released as a living larder for future expeditions. With plentiful food, a balmy climate, and no natural predators – aside from the occasional marauding crocodile and the piglet-poaching dingoes – the pigs flourished.

Government estimates vary, but suggest there could be up to 23 million pigs in Australia.

Feral pigs inhabit about 40 percent of the land, colonizing a range of habitats from forests and mountains to semi-arid savanna, according to the federal agency, Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre.

They have also grown bigger and brawnier than their British ancestors. Some razorbacks weigh more than 300 pounds, and the males are capable of goring a human with their formidable tusks.

The pigs are bad news for Australia. They prey on newborn lambs; damage fences; reduce yields of cereal grain, sugar cane, fruit, and vegetable crops; and spread disease, according to the research center.

They also harm the environment. In Queensland, wild boar dig and root along the banks of creeks and rivers, loosening the soil and making it vulnerable to erosion in the annual wet season. The muddy silt eventually washes into the sea and out to the Great Barrier Reef, smothering pristine reefs and killing coral.

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | Next Page

Get Monitor stories by e-mail:
(Your e-mail address will be protected by csmonitor.com's tough privacy policy.)
(Lionel Cironneau/AP/File) When the Berlin Wall came down
Twenty years later, the rest of the world is a different place because of that event.


In Pictures:
The Fall of the Berlin Wall

POLITICS Patchwork Nation
The American voter beyond red and blue


Daily podcast

Monitor Reports

Discussions with Monitor reporters from around the world


Today

Pat Murphy

US unemployment rate hits 10 percent.




Making a difference
Making a Difference

What happens when ordinary people decide to pay it forward? Extraordinary change. See how individuals are making a difference, finding solutions, overcoming adversity, and giving back globally.

A recent graduate of Vermont's Middlebury College, Corinne Almquist promotes the practice of distributing produce that would otherwise go to waste to those in need.

Sarah Beth Glicksteen

The need to feed hungry families cultivates new interest in gleaning

Corinne Almquist wants to restore the biblical tradition of harvesting what farmers leave behind.