(submitted photo/Canadian Wild Pig Research Project)

By Alice McFarlane

Wild Boars

Controlling the wild boar population

Sep 20, 2019 | 4:23 PM

The Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC) took over the administration of the feral wild boar program in 2015 from the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM).

Concerns were raised recently about the wild boar population working its way closer to the Canada and U.S. border.

SCIC Executive Director Darby Warner said they have collaborated with University of Saskatchewan research scientist Ryan Brook and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“We worked closely with Dr. Brook and the USDA. They had a helicopter in the area putting collars on. It was for the research project. At the same time we collared some pigs to be used for, they called it a Judas pig. The theory is you follow the GPS tracking on the collar and then you find where that pig is hanging out and you can go in there and remove the problem pigs that are in that area,” Warner said. “We did some work with him on that and that was effective for us.”

Warner said since then they’ve expanded their work using hog trapping equipment called Jagger Pro.

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“It has a trail cam at the sight. The trail cam sends images whenever something is there. The theory behind this is you can capture the whole family of pigs at one time so there are no escapees,” Warner said. “If you watch the trail cams, you know how many pigs are in the area. Once you get them all in the enclosure you can drop the gate using your cellphone. That`s been really effective for us.”

Warner add they have used drones with a infrared heat signature so it can show where the animals are and a team can go in to confirm the pigs are in the area.

However, Warner said it’s reported sightings that offer the best line of defence.

“The primary success we’ve had is from people contacting us to let us know that they have pigs in the area. To know their location you really need somebody local with on the ground knowledge because they’re a fairly elusive animal,” Warner said. “We have dedicated staff that follow up on any report that comes from the public or from rural municipalities. We still work closely with rural municipalities, SARM and Sask Pork. We meet with them regularly. We have great working relationship with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture as well. We have all of those resources at hand. The key part is for people to notify us when they have pigs in their area and we’ll send somebody out to investigate as soon as we get the information.”

Warner said SCIC still gets a few claims each year that have wild boar as one of the causes of loss.

“It`s usually a secondary cause of loss. It`s in an area where there is a large population of elk or white tail deer that are doing some damage in a field. And sometimes we’ll get some sightings of wild boar in those areas. We have some specialists that work for us that know how to find those signs and they know how to go and seek them out if they find some sign. In those cases we send those people to those locations. They’ll gather that information for us and if we confirm a sighting then that’s an area where we’ll set up one of our traps and remove those animals,” Warner said.

You can report wild boar sightings to a local crop insurance office, rural municipality, conservation officer or Sask Ag office.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF