It is illegal to hunt wild boar in Alberta

[Meroh]

It is illegal to hunt wild boar in Alberta on crown land. The claim is that wild boar populations apparently increase faster when there is hunting pressure.
Sad thing is that wild boar populations increase faster when there is habitat with few limiting factors. Hunting has very little to do with increases.
The reality is that dead pigs do not breed. The more pigs that die and are eaten, the fewer are left to breed.

https://www.alberta.ca/wild-boar-in-alberta

Ontario also. We were allowed to do on a small game license up until a couple years ago, then citing the same reason, the MNR closed it.

 

[fingers284]

That simple thinking is the exact reason which got the US pig population to where it is today. That strategy obviously didn’t work, yet people here are arguing for the same thing to happen in Canada.

Reading about why hunting doesn’t work is actually interesting learning…

Have you ever heard of the 1870's Buffalo hunt, that worked to perfection for its intended reason, to eradicate the food source for Natives. And now we hear about how the stopping of Grizzly hunting has skyrocketed the grizz pop in Ab, completely opposite of your position,your position claims that the bear pop should drop off to "0" shortly....so which rabbit hole are you sticking with????

i can tell you from extensive experience with controlling pests on the farm, gophers & migratory birds that quitting shooting them is a guarantee for failure to control the population on any given chunk of land ...private or crown...those critters dont know nor care about which they are on.

 

[BassAckwards]

That seems bass ackwards

Hey! I resemble that remark

 

[new]

Have you ever heard of the 1870's Buffalo hunt, that worked to perfection for its intended reason, to eradicate the food source for Natives. And now we hear about how the stopping of Grizzly hunting has skyrocketed the grizz pop in Ab, completely opposite of your position,your position claims that the bear pop should drop off to "0" shortly....so which rabbit hole are you sticking with????

i can tell you from extensive experience with controlling pests on the farm, gophers & migratory birds that quitting shooting them is a guarantee for failure to control the population on any given chunk of land ...private or crown...those critters dont know nor care about which they are on.

BINGO!

 

[BassAckwards]

I used to only hear rumours of grizz in northern B.C when on a moose hunt. Now I see two or three every time.

 

[Thunderhog]

If hunting wild hogs is such a bad idea, I wonder why no one has come up with a plan to handle the issue biologically by chemically sterilizing the sows through food ingestion techniques? That should be a bit of a no brainer wouldn't you think?

Great idea!

Can we implement this on Liberals?

 

[Shovel]

We should do a study. Make it scientific

 

[Thunderhog]

We should do a study. Make it scientific

Sterilize the most amount of Liberals in the shortest amount of time!......

 

[canadian hunter312]

Have you ever heard of the 1870's Buffalo hunt, that worked to perfection for its intended reason, to eradicate the food source for Natives. And now we hear about how the stopping of Grizzly hunting has skyrocketed the grizz pop in Ab, completely opposite of your position,your position claims that the bear pop should drop off to "0" shortly....so which rabbit hole are you sticking with????

i can tell you from extensive experience with controlling pests on the farm, gophers & migratory birds that quitting shooting them is a guarantee for failure to control the population on any given chunk of land ...private or crown...those critters dont know nor care about which they are on.

I’ll stick with what educated biologists and game mangers say before listening to someone talking gophers, buffalo and bears in comparison to wild boar.

Say, how’s that hunting solution working out for controlling hogs in the US? Oh, right….


It’s asinine to continue arguing that hunting works for hogs when there’s decades of this control method failing horribly in the US. But, yeah, hunting is the best solution.

 

[Whybeebaboo]

Was that you on the Forestry Trunk Road at 579 feeding the feral horses? Pulling a bale from the hatch?

R.

I don't have blue or pink hair so no that was not me.

 

[DaveMachine]

The fact you can get up in a helicopter with nods, a suppressor, a drum mag and smoke as many as you can should tell you how effective hunting has been in reducing the population in the US.

 

[ivobb]

The fact you can get up in a helicopter with nods, a suppressor, a drum mag and smoke as many as you can should tell you how effective hunting has been in reducing the population in the US.

If they wiped them all out you're out of business - it's not in their business plan to do so.

 

[Craig0ry]

I’ll stick with what educated biologists and game mangers say before listening to someone talking gophers, buffalo and bears in comparison to wild boar.

Say, how’s that hunting solution working out for controlling hogs in the US? Oh, right….


It’s asinine to continue arguing that hunting works for hogs when there’s decades of this control method failing horribly in the US. But, yeah, hunting is the best solution.

I haven't watched the video yet but have read quite a few replies,

Where my family is from in Eastern Sask, When I was younger, they had Ferel hogs come into the park and completely uproot a lake bottom to the point where it looked like it was overturned with machinery. People didn't realize it was hogs, They initially tried to shoot them, the group's broke into a bunch of smaller ones and the population exploded, they learned first hand. They went to alternate methods after that but they are still a problem. This was over 10 years ago

 

[ivobb]

I’ll stick with what educated biologists and game mangers say before listening to someone talking gophers, buffalo and bears in comparison to wild boar.

Say, how’s that hunting solution working out for controlling hogs in the US? Oh, right….


It’s asinine to continue arguing that hunting works for hogs when there’s decades of this control method failing horribly in the US. But, yeah, hunting is the best solution.

Guess they should have forced the hoggs to get the jab in order to control the population - ooops

 

[fingers284]

I’ll stick with what educated biologists and game mangers say before listening to someone talking gophers, buffalo and bears in comparison to wild boar.

Say, how’s that hunting solution working out for controlling hogs in the US? Oh, right….


It’s asinine to continue arguing that hunting works for hogs when there’s decades of this control method failing horribly in the US. But, yeah, hunting is the best solution.

Well,lets compare hogs to geese then both controlled by the hunting bureaucracy's you boast about...Nope dont hunt hogs, hunting never works....but the geese are eating themselves out of house & home up north so the same guys you sugest say "lets open another season up in the spring and increase the bag limits"....your turn.

 

[Aniest]

If there is proof and science behind the no hunting thing, then show it, Don't pontificate about how smart it all is without any significant proof, or solution.

There is so much evidence I need a couple of posts to just put the LIST of proof.

Again... you want the actions of a few to dictate the policy to many. That is what is really stupid. You can't see the flaw in that thinking?

R.

That's how laws work. We don't outlaw child rape because everyone is raping children, we outlaw it to bring to justice the few animals doing it. I assume that the laws against raping children doesn't apply to you, and yet we have those laws. You can't see the flaw in that thinking?

Not sure an earnestly asked question was deserving of that level of condescension, but I guess turning it up to 12 is the MO around here at times.

I am curious how a jurisdiction with unlimited hunting of feral hogs has had the population explode and expand as much as it has. Surely that is a reasonable thing to ask in the broader context of "can hunting help control the feral hog population." I understand your point on relative populations, but surely the Americans didn't always have 100x the hog population, and yet back in the day hunting didn't solve it.

People turn it up to "to 12" when the questions asked are so easily answered with the simplest Google search. At some point any claim is on the one claiming it to prove it, but at what point does the statement "Water is not wet, what water touches is wet: 'wetness' in regards to water is the feeling of water on another object, the literal amount of water felt in reference to something else" need a scientific paper to be quoted???

The wife and I are going down to San Antonio to go Heli hog hunting and have also booked a night thermal shoot. Can't wait.

And that is the exact point why a horrifically destructive invasive species cannot be eradicated, and the point being made: if there is to be short term gain of money then those people don't care who's crops or land is destroyed.

 

[Aniest]

That pretty much guarantees a superior education to whatever it is you have...

Here, apply that education and read:

Overview:
Shooting wild pigs is largely ineffective as a primary population control measure because
it scatters the "sounder" (family group), makes survivors more elusive, and their reproductive rate outpaces individual hunting efforts.

Why Recreational Shooting is Ineffective

• Behavioral Dispersal: Wild pigs typically live in stable family groups called sounders. When a hunter shoots one or two pigs, the rest of the sounder scatters, often moving to neighboring properties and establishing new problem areas.
• Education and Elusiveness: Pigs are highly intelligent animals and quickly learn to associate human presence and shooting pressure with danger. Survivors become more nocturnal, move into heavier cover, and become highly elusive and difficult to find and trap in the future.
• Rapid Reproduction: Wild pigs reproduce at an incredibly fast rate. Females can mature as young as five months of age and have two large litters per year. Studies indicate that hunters would need to kill an estimated 70% of a population annually just to keep it from growing, a rate rarely achieved through sport hunting alone.
• Inefficient Method: Ground shooting is time-consuming and labor-intensive, making it an inefficient method for large-scale population control compared to more coordinated efforts.
• Economic Disincentives: In some areas, the existence of a hunting industry creates a disincentive for complete eradication, as some operations rely on the continued presence of a robust pig population for revenue.

Effective Control Methods
Instead of individual shooting, wildlife management experts recommend a comprehensive approach focused on the complete removal of entire sounders at once.

• Coordinated Trapping: Large, corral-style traps are considered the most effective method. Traps are set up in travel and feeding areas to capture a whole group simultaneously, which minimizes the number of "educated" survivors.
• Professional Eradication Campaigns: Government agencies and professional wildlife services implement science-based, coordinated plans that involve landowner cooperation, trapping, and strategic removal (euthanasia) of captured pigs.
• Reporting, Not Shooting: In many areas, such as Virginia and Missouri, officials encourage landowners to report sightings to wildlife authorities rather than attempting to shoot the animals themselves. This allows professionals to implement effective, long-term removal strategies. For example, use the Kentucky Wild Pig Reporting Form to report sightings in that state.
• Strategic Shooting: Firearms have a role within a coordinated program, such as aerial shooting (where permitted) to reduce high-density populations or for the quick, humane euthanasia of pigs already secured in traps.

Calls to open wild pig hunting return every time frustration rises in farm country. The idea sounds simple: See pigs. Shoot pigs. Problem solved. But the science, field experience, and global evidence say otherwise. Hunting does not fix the wild pig problem. It often makes it worse.

ht tps://www.winnipegsun.com/opinion/columnists/siemens-says-hunting-wild-pigs-is-not-the-solution/article_1d8566b0-197c-4e1a-8bda-8da005b64c35.html

Unfortunately, management experience in other jurisdictions shows that hunting does not work to control or eradicate wild pigs and can make the situation much worse. This has more to do with the pigs themselves than with hunting as they reproduce faster than any other mammal their size. A wild pig population can double their numbers annually as females can mature as young as five months of age and have two large litters per year.

Studies from the US have shown that hunters need to kill at least 70% of a wild pig population each year just to keep it from growing, a number that is rarely if ever achieved. To effectively eradicate wild pigs, the whole sounder needs to be removed at once and trapping is the most effective method. Hunting typically kills some but not all of the sounder, scattering and educating the survivors, which makes trapping even harder.

ht tps://oodmag.com/why-wild-pigs-should-not-be-hunted-in-ontario/

“Sport hunting breaks up groups, unfortunately it makes them more nocturnal so much harder to find. Under any kind of pressure from humans, whether it's being shot at or chased or what ever, those animals will become highly elusive and they'll move into heavy cover,” said Dr. Brook.

ht tps://www.saskpork.com/news-articles/2022/5/2/sport-hunting-ineffective-in-reducing-wild-pig-populations-says-saskatchewan-researcher

 

[igojuone]

Sounds like rhetoric straight out of Ontario.

I think the biologists have a point - the claim is that hunting pressure fractures pods and causes stress, so by hunting not only are we educating them and turning them nocturnal, we are supercharging the reproductive drive.

Most effective means of control is baiting and trapping. Better chance of trapping the whole pod jf they are uneducated.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of control strategies are actually implemented, that's for sure

So hunting will educate them but trapping won't, I get it.

 

[Aniest]

If there is proof and science behind the no hunting thing, then show it, Don't pontificate about how smart it all is without any significant proof, or solution.

I suppose you know better than a natural resources specialist in Missouri? Or the State of Virginia? Or the State of Kentucky?

Mark McLain, feral hog elimination team leader with MDC, says trapping, by itself, is the top method to eliminate wild pig populations. Hunting, he explains, is an impediment to trapping efficacy. “Targeting the entire group at once with a trap is the best way to remove the group, then strategically move on to the next group, and with time, eliminate the population. When feral hogs are hunted, a hunter may be able to shoot one or two in a group, but then the rest of the hogs in the group scatter, often onto neighboring property.”

Hunting of any sort has exacerbated the wild pig problem in Missouri, says Eric Lemons, natural resources specialist at Wappapello Project Office with the Corps. In the Wappapello area, increased wild pig presence surfaced in 2002, and the Corps responded by asking the public for hunting help. The result, according to Lemons, was a major population jump. “People called from all over the country wanting to hunt them and it actually built a hunting culture that was negative to what we were actually trying to accomplish. For 10 years plus, we let people come in and hunt at will or trap by permit, but the only thing happened was an increase in hogs.”

ht tps://nri.tamu.edu/news/2019/may/wild-pig-wars-controversy-over-hunting-trapping/

If feral hogs are such a problem then why is the DWR not doing more to encourage hunting of them?​

The recreational hunting of feral hogs does not control populations, just like hunting does not effectively control coyote populations. It is estimated that 70% of a feral hog population must be harvested every year to continue reducing the population size. In wild, free-roaming populations of feral hogs, achieving this goal is virtually impossible. Additionally, hunting pressure on feral hogs often pushes them to other properties and educates them, making harvest success even lower. Even successful hunting tactics can make a feral hog population that much harder to control. The best way to control for feral hogs is through controlled trapping operations.

ht tps://dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/feral-hogs/hunting-faq/

“It goes against what we’re trying to do with our trapping efforts by educating these pigs, making them much more difficult to trap,” Robinson said in December. “We’re having a lot of success with our partners, [U.S. Fish and] Wildlife Service, USDA, in trapping these animals and keeping them out of Kentucky. So by allowing landowners to just shoot freely, that goes against what we’re trying to do.”

h ttps://kentuckylantern.com/2024/05/16/please-dont-shoot-the-wild-pigs-it-only-makes-them-more-elusive/

In the 1950s and 60s, says Mayer, wildlife departments promoted pig hunting and sometimes even stocked the animals. Now, they’re the second most popular game animal after white-tailed deer. But even when state officials encouraged sport hunting for the explicit purpose of curbing the tidal wave of pigs, it’s backfired. Hunters love to shoot them so they transport the animals to new areas. Even when the new hunting spots are fenced properties, the swine are notoriously good at digging their way out and escaping.

Once they’re out in the open, feral hogs simply breed too fast for hunters to keep up. To wipe out a population, you need to shoot 60 to 80 percent a year, says Mayer, but recreational hunting can only cut their numbers by about a quarter. And while plenty of non-human predators would enjoy some pork—including mountain lions, alligators, coyotes, and hawks—there are just too many pigs to make a dent. Meanwhile, they thrive almost anywhere between the Arctic and the tropics and females can birth two litters every year. They are “opportunistic omnivores,” which is a fancy way of saying “if it’s got a calorie in it and they can get their mouth around it, they’ll try to eat it,” says Mayer.

ht tps://www.popsci.com/feral-pig-problem/

REPORT WILD PIGS! DON'T SHOOT!

Hunting fails as an eradication tool for wild pigs due to their high reproductive rate and intelligence. Disturbances associated with human activity, especially hunting pressure, cause wild pigs to leave the area and become nocturnal.

ht tps://fw.ky.gov/InvasiveSpecies/Pages/Wild-Pig-Home.aspx

 

[igojuone]

The problem is 95% of hunters could agree with you, and that remaining 5% will #### it up for everyone else.

Are you suggesting you've never seen another hunter break the law? Cause I sure have...


What I'm trying to say is your logic is flawed and you're not looking at the big picture. Big picture, allowing hunting causes more problems then it solves.


Let me ask you this: a hunter finds a group of pigs. He kills one, and sees at least 3 more take off.
Does the hunter:
A) tell everyone so a bunch of people go to that location and kill all the pigs.
B) shut the #### up and keep his little pig honey hole to himself.

In my personal experience talking to a few people that claim to have killed pigs in Alberta and Sask, it is ALWAYS the second option. If you use the search on here you aught to be able to find some examples of it.

So it's not the hunting of pigs that causes population explosion, it's the greedy hunter wanting to keep his honey hole a secret. Maybe it's not the hunting of them but the lack of hunting. Not every hunter has the interest in hunting pigs, maybe they need more pig hunters in the South and here in the North.