Wild+Boar(steven)

**__General Information:__**This pig is similar to the domestic pig but it has coarser hair and is a brown or black color. This pig originally came from Eurasia which is Europe/Asia/ Russia/Africa and other areas. Feral pigs are usually a couple hundred pounds normally between 100 pounds and 200 pounds (1). There have been documented pigs however those that have been killed weighed close to 1000 pounds.
 * Feral Pig (Sus scrofa) aka Wild Boar, Wild hog**

Feral Pigs usually start reproducing at about 20 months and once a pig is pregnant it is pregnant for about 3 and a half months, then the pig will have a litter of around 6 piglets. The Feral Pig eats just about anything but its usual consumption consists of grubs, insects and small lizards (2). Feral pigs however have been known for eating crops and eating small animals like rats and chipmunks too. The FeralPpig out competes natives species because it’s a bigger animals other animals that the pig would compete with would be like a skunk or a raccoon which are smaller and there fore have more predators. The habitat in Europe and Asia’s and Africa are warmer more open forests with swampy lands such as the southern United States.
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 * __Habitat and distribution:__** The Feral Pig came to America by way of ship. Original settlers of America who came from Europe brought food along with them. They also brought animals they could eat later among these animals was the Feral Pig. Once in America however the feral pig some how escaped and became wild that’s why there are feral pigs here now. Hawaii has one of the USA's longest-running and most serious problems with feral pigs. Polynesian islanders brought the first pigs to the islands several centuries ago (1). Capt. James Cook, the first European visitor, brought in reinforcements hundreds of years later (2). The Feral Pig is successful here in America because our environment is similar to the one it came from. It is also successful because it will eat just about anything and it has few predators. States like Georgia Florida and Texas and especially Hawaii whose climate is similar to Asia’s and is close to where the feral pigs are a problem.

__**Impact:**__ Pigs all over the world are increasing in numbers. These pigs are eating up plants and destroying the ecosystem. It is extremely bad in Hawaii many forests are being destroyed because of overpopulation of Feral Pigs. Farms in America and in Europe and other places of the world’s crops are being destroyed constantly by feral pigs. It costs the United States about 40 million dollars a year (3)

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 * __Control:__** Many states have increased the amount of feral pigs you can shoot to try to bring down numbers. In Texas helicopters go over heard of feral pigs and shoot them from the air. To help the pig problem the state of Missouri’s game commission has encouraged its hunters to shoot the pigs on site if they come across them hunting. In Zandt County, Texas, they pay hunters 7 dollars for a pair of hog ears the bring them. Other control methods consist of trapping and fencing them out of areas(1)

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2 http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/TMOT1/sus_scro.htm

3 http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2650348