Australia's battle against wild boars

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

By Nick Squires | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 29, 2007 edition

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Innisfail, Queensland - 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.

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