Rise Of Super Pigs: Reason To Fear As Hybrid Animal Heads Toward Utah?

There's a new breed of pigs in the world -- dubbed "Super Pigs" -- and experts say it's only a matter of time before they find their way to Utah.

If you Google "super pig," dozens of entries come up in the search, plus questions like "How fast can a super pig run?" and "How dangerous is a super pig?"

The new breed, descended from feral razorbacks or boars mating with domesticated pigs, can grow up to 400 pounds and run up to 30 miles per hour (!), about 10 MPH faster than YOU can run.

From the website a-z-animals.com: "Super pigs are hybrid species resulting from mating or breeding between wild and domestic pigs. In Canada, wild pigs from Europe were introduced in the 1980s. Super pigs resulted when farmers began to breed the already existent population of feral Canadian pigs with those from Europe of recent introduction. Farmers decided to breed the two groups in this way because they believed that super pigs would provide more meat and be easier targets to shoot."

They were wrong on both accounts. "Another fact about super pigs is that they are highly intelligent. Super pigs can recognize when they are being hunted or threatened, allowing them to change their course of action to survive. For instance, if a super pig realized it was being hunted, it might become nocturnal or hide in brush, forests, or dense wetlands to evade capture or death."

According to CBS News, "Ryan Brook, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and one of Canada's leading authorities on the problem, calls feral swine, "the most invasive animal on the planet" and "an ecological train wreck."

While these animals rarely attack humans, what they do attack is ecosystems.

Imagine Utah's mountain populated not with deer, elk or rabbits, but feral pigs that eat everything they can as fast as they can.

From CBS News again: "Pigs are not native to North America. While they've roamed parts of the continent for centuries, Canada's problem dates back only to the 1980s when it encouraged farmers to raise wild boar, Brook said. It turned out that the pigs were very good at surviving Canadian winters. Smart, adaptable and furry, they eat anything, including crops and wildlife. They tear up land when they root for bugs and crops. They can spread devastating diseases to hog farms like African swine fever. And they reproduce quickly. A sow can have six piglets in a litter and raise two litters in a year."

So what are the odds they'll be in Utah anytime soon?

Well, witnesses have already spotted the super pigs within a few miles of the US-Canadian border, while others say they're already in some northern states, like Montana.

Utah and Montana are only about 400 miles apart in some places.

As they reproduce and continue to search for compatible climate and land, these super pigs will keep migrating south. It's only a matter of time, really, before super pigs are here.

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 Wildlife Authorities Take Action After Bear Incidents

Bears have been in the news as of late, with one Alaskan bear set to compete (without his knowledge presumably) in the Fat Bear Week bracket competition killing and eating another of the competition's bears (conspiracy here?), and Fish and Game authorities announcing they have euthanized a bear after it had another run-in with humans.

The euthanized bear, a grizzly mama, recently broke through a window in an occupied cabin and took off with a large bag of dog food.

When they finally caught up with the bear and its 46-pound cub, rangers realized it was the same bear that had killed a woman in Yellowstone National Park last summer.

Authorities tracked the bear in the Montana wilderness and say its habit of frequenting human areas, plus its track record of being a killer, spelled doom for the mama bear.

She was put to sleep this weekend and her cub was taken to a local zoo.

Authorities said the bear had become somewhat reliant on humans to provide food for itself and its cub and it had more than just the two encounters with people.

When the mauling occurred in July 2020, officials were unable to locate the bear, and the incident was filed away until the recent intrusion into a cabin near Yellowstone.

Fortunately, the occupants of the home didn't confront the bear and it left on its own accord. The home's owners were unhurt in the incident, but reported the home invasion by the grizzly to authorities.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks issued the following guidance for avoiding encounters with bears:

• Carry bear spray and be prepared to use it immediately.
• Travel in groups whenever possible and make noise, which can help alert bears to your presence.
• Stay away from animal carcasses, which often attract bears.
• Follow food storage orders from the applicable land management agency.
• Keep garbage, bird feeders, pet food and other attractants put away in a secure building. Keep garbage in a secure building until the day it is collected. Certified bear-resistant garbage containers are available in many areas.
• Never feed wildlife. Bears that become food-conditioned lose their natural foraging behavior and pose threats to human safety. It is illegal to feed bears in Montana.

But if you do encounter a bear, never approach it. Leave the area when it is safe to do so.

Every year there are hundreds of bear attacks in the United States, with 110 of those being fatal. The attacks are almost exclusively in western states like Utah, Montana, Idaho, Alaska and Wyoming.

The attacks usually take place in the summer months (between May and October) as bears normally hibernate in the winter.

For more on bear attacks, go to the bear attack blog by clicking here.