Wild boar are still on the loose in Manitoba, decades after they escaped farms around the province in 1980s. The feral pigs destroy crops and, if provoked, can charge people.
Kenny Harpelle said wild boar have destroyed up to $10,000 worth of crops this year. Last year, he said they took down a whole field worth of corn on his neighbour’s property.
“It’s just 100 per cent gone, wherever they want to feed,” said Harpelle. “Every day it will grow bigger and bigger and bigger until they decide to move on, or we combine the corn and cancel their corn supply.”
Wild boar are known to be extremely elusive animals. They are mostly nocturnal and, if startled, can run off in a flash. Harpelle said he always carries a gun in case he sees one.
“They are just all over. You just don’t know when you are see one,” he said.
“We’ve seen very large tracks of a very large pig around the area and I know my neighbours have seen them (weigh) 300, 400 pounds,” said Harpelle.
October sighting near Cypress River
Sightings of wild boar make some people nervous down the road in the town of Cypress River.
"I think it could be dangerous if we were out walking," said resident Agnes Johnson.
Harpelle says wild boar are extremely difficult to hunt and are multiplying faster than they are being killed. Manitoba Conservation says on its website that wild boar can have two litters per year with between four and 12 piglets.
Ken Rebizant, big game manager with Manitoba Conservation, said hunting has been working. He said sightings in the last 10 years are down and he believes there are about 50 wild boar in Manitoba.
The province permits residents of Manitoba to hunt and kill escaped wild boar that are running at-large anywhere in Manitoba, at any time of the year. Manitoba Conservation killed four wild boar near Russell in March 2013. Rebizant urges the public to report sighting to their local branch of Manitoba Conservation.
But Harpelle said that’s not enough. He wants to see and eradication program devoted to getting rid of the animals.
"It would be nice if we could stop this before it gets too far,” said Harpelle. ”Fifteen years ago they were a novelty and now they are a nuisance."
New Canadian website tracks wild boar
Clinton Hood is an IT specialist in Battleford, Saskatchewan, and is concerned about the wild boar population in Canada. He developed a website to track wild boar sightings across Canada. He said he hopes to gather a better idea of their numbers and where they are located.
The website is wildboarcanada.ca
Hood said he doesn’t want to see Canada resemble the wild boar problem in Texas where they are causing major ecological damage, can aggravate farm animals, or endanger people.
