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Think of the worst invasive species you know. Kudzu: smothering trees and houses, growing a foot a day. Burmese pythons: stripping the Everglades of small animals. Asian carp: hoovering streams clean of plankton and swimming toward the Great Lakes.
They all came from somewhere else, arrived with no natural predators, outcompeted local flora and fauna, and took over whole ecosystems. But they all have their limitations: Kudzu dies in a hard freeze, carp can't tolerate salt water, and pythons can't cover long distances very fast. (Thankfully.)
Now imagine a species with all those benefits—foreign origin, no enemies—and no roadblocks to dominance: One that is indifferent to temperature, comfortable in many landscapes, able to run a lot faster than you, and muscular enough to leave a big dent in your car. That describes any of the possibly 6 million feral hogs in the United States, the most intractable invasives that most people have never heard of.
[...]
USDA research estimates that, on their own, hog populations will expand their range by about 4 to 8 miles per year. But Mayer jokes darkly that they have relocated at "about 70 miles per hour—which is the speed of the pickups taking them down the highway."
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This story originally appeared on wired.com.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Friday March 24 2023, @02:59AM (4 children)
Even if they're 100% domestic ancestry, it only takes a few generations of natural selection for hogs to revert to the wild type -- longer legs, long snout, athletic as hell, hairy, and generally indistinguishable from wild boar.
The solution to the shitshow problem might be draconian penalties for proliferating an invasive species.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Friday March 24 2023, @02:08PM (3 children)
Here in Tennessee, moving a live feral hog is a Class A misdemeanor, with a maximum fine of $2,500 and sentence of up to 11 months and 29 days in jail for each animal. I believe it's also subject to equipment forfeiture too, i.e. they take your truck.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday March 24 2023, @03:12PM (2 children)
That seems fair enough... of course, the problem always is catching 'em,. The culprits as much as the hogs.
I expect the root of the problem, tho, is ironically that TN is almost entirely private land, and the perpetual difficulties of getting permission to hunt that private land, not to mention a settled density that can make a secure backstop an issue for shooters. Out west we're mostly public lands, no permission required, and outside of the metros not nearly as settled (and the backstops are a lot more visible).
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Friday March 24 2023, @09:08PM (1 child)
The private land situation here isn't terrible, but you have to know where to look for it. I.e. my favorite place to get gone is on the shores of Normandy lake. The TVA owns it, but they have it open to many public uses including hunting. There's also a closed recreation area a bit north of me that hasn't been on any map published this century. I wish I had a place I could put up a primitive cabin, but the last place you could do that in the states closed up with the ANCSA treaty five years before I was born.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday March 24 2023, @09:54PM
The problem is whether the pigs conveniently congregate on public land. Far more likely in the west, just because there's so much of it.
Handy Map, a bit off due to reservations being included:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_lands [wikipedia.org]
You mean put a cabin on public land? cuz for private land there's only what restrictions may be local. (In fact my family owns a primitive cabin just outside of Glacier Park.)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.