Canadian hogs

[Bledfor Days]

A thread in the traditional hunting section caught my interest in the wild pig/hog problem in the US. I'm a trucker and have yet to see one in my travels. I'm mostly in the western provinces now but do go east a couple of times a year. I see everything from turkeys to grizzlies but have yet to see a wild hog. A women posted pics on Twitter last week of a couple of boars she saw east of Edmonton. I'm seeing billboards in Saskatchewan on reporting sightings. Are any of you hearing or seeing signs of them in your province?
These are the ones seen near Edmonton.

 

[Walkingeagle]

A bunch escaped from a farm in the Grimahaw area (Peace River) in Alberta back when I was living up there. Only seen a couple on a few occasions but some landowners had said they’d shot a few already.
Walk

 

[Ames]

Had no idea. News to me.

 

[Carbon 6]

Wolf food, what's a hog going to eat in winter in Canada ??

 

[Rató:rats]

We’ve got ‘em here on the North Shore of Lake Erie. They’re all over the corn and soybean fields, competing with Whitetails for resources.

 

[Daryl Crawford]

Wolf food, what's a hog going to eat in winter in Canada ??

We'll they survive in Russian winters. There's a pretty good chance they will handle a Canadian one.

 

[Bledfor Days]

According to biologists that are studying them, they burrow under the snow to stay warm. They call them 'pigloos.' Lol.

 

[Carbon 6]

 

[toot]

send them to the barbeque, all of em!!

 

[old ugly]

on our game camera at Stink Dog Creek we have a photo of what looks to me like a hog but my wife tells me its an owl. I i guess owls and hogs look the same. im going with hog.

 

[Notchy Bob]

That hog in post #1 looks like one tough old *******. I haven't really thought much about hogs in Canada, but I understand they are one of the principal prey animals of Siberian tigers, and I've seen video of a fellow hunting them in the snow in Germany. I guess there is no reason they couldn't survive north of the Medicine Line.

I've never seen one like that one, though. Wild hogs are plentiful where I live, in Florida. Most that you see in the woods here are lean and solid black, with very much elongated snouts and generally pretty smooth coats. That one in the photo from Edmonton is the hairiest hog I've ever seen in my life, as if he rooted his way right out of the Pleistocene. In my experience, our local hogs are wilder than deer, and almost as agile. I try to be cautious when they may be about, but I did walk up on a bedded sow with a litter of about eight very small pigs one time. Mama jumped up and ran away as fast as she could, abandoning the little ones to their own devices, although they did get up and run, one by one, in the direction she was headed. I don't doubt that some sows are protective, but I don't think that legendary fearlessness is universal. When they know humans are present and watching them, they normally head for cover at a dead run... At least in my experience.

I think hogs adapt very quickly. Wild hogs in Florida supposedly descended from domestic stock ( and I have seen a few red ones), with very little true "wild boar" influence, but they reproduce so quickly I believe dominant genes may take over within a very few generations in the wild, which might only take two or three years, or even less if the feral hogs are breeding with the wild stock, as I'm sure they do. This, I think, explains why they are so typically black, lean, and remarkably nimble.

Wild hogs do tremendous damage, yet I find them to be very interesting animals. They've been in Florida longer than English-speaking people. I would enjoy reading about more of your experiences with them in Canada.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

 

[Carbon 6]

I don't know what I was thinking, of course hogs in Canada, I had completely forgotten about Canadian bacon.

 

[Bledfor Days]

I find them quite fascinating as well. I guess you could say I've gone 'hog wild.' Now I know they're here, I want to see one. I've been studying up on their behavior, habitat, and history. I need to get out and talk to locals in my travels and see if the hogs are around. I appreciate the responses from everyone.

 

[Carbon 6]

I think it's a law where I'm at that if you see one, you have to kill it. I think you Canadians should adopt the same.

 

[Bledfor Days]

I think it's a law where I'm at that if you see one, you have to kill it. I think you Canadians should adopt the same.

They have been declared a Schedule C invasive pest here in BC. That means no season and no limits. Basically the guvmint saying ' Get 'em!'

 

[rusty]

there are not any down here around Lethbridge at least I have not heard of any

 

[Howard Pippin]

View attachment 51919
We’ve got ‘em here on the North Shore of Lake Erie. They’re all over the corn and soybean fields, competing with Whitetails for resources.

late last winter I was at a Montana FWP meeting about wild pigs, and they explained why they didn't want them shot. It was the very reason Given in your posting from Canada. If you didn't kill all that you saw, the ones that escape would move someplace else and get harder to catch next time. So far we don't have any from Montana and I know of, but we are expecting some from Canada to eventually move south.
Squint

 

[yonderin]

Some north of Peace River, in the Deadwood area for a few years now.

Around 15(?) years ago, what appeared to be one was captured on the Suffield base, west of Medicine Hat. Only the one so suspect it was an escapee from somewhere.

 

[Bobby44]

Picked up one on a trail camera. Big old boy. We had a moose on there as well that stood in the same spot so we could estimate size. A neighbor said he had taken a shot at a lone boar and another had reported sighting. So we go look. Little rooting in the crops. Lots in the bush 20 ft in. Big rooted trails through bush and rushes to the water of a beaver dam. We saw lots of evidence (tracks, roots and scat) of multiple hogs but never saw one. I think we may try snares, but that is lots of work too. This is in the Melfort area of sask.

 

[Rató:rats]

Picked up one on a trail camera. Big old boy. We had a moose on there as well that stood in the same spot so we could estimate size. A neighbor said he had taken a shot at a lone boar and another had reported sighting. So we go look. Little rooting in the crops. Lots in the bush 20 ft in. Big rooted trails through bush and rushes to the water of a beaver dam. We saw lots of evidence (tracks, roots and scat) of multiple hogs but never saw one. I think we may try snares, but that is lots of work too. This is in the Melfort area of sask.

Good luck
If they’ve had a chance to breed it might be like bailing a canoe with a thimble in a rainstorm