Minnesota braces for wild ‘super pigs’ from Canada

With wild “super pigs” just across the border in Canada and feral hogs slowly expanding their range in nearby states, the Minnesota Legislature has asked the state’s Department of Natural Resources to make a plan to thwart any wild swine invasion.

Lawmakers earlier this year ordered the agency to review protocols, regulations and laws dealing with feral hogs as well as mink farms, and report back in 2024 on any changes that should be made to make sure the state is ready. The Department of Agriculture, Board of Animal Health and Department of Health also are part of the effort.

Canadian researchers have called wild pigs “ecological train wrecks” that can cause soil erosion, degrade water quality, destroy crops and prey on small mammals and birds.

The researchers at the University of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Wild Pig Research Project made headlines earlier this year when they reported the nation’s population of large, wild pigs was growing rapidly and essentially uncontrollable — nicknamed “super pigs” because they can grow to 400 pounds, run 30 mph and have adapted to live in bitter cold and deep snow. They are apparently the progeny of intentionally cross-bred Eurasian boars and domestic pigs, escaped hybrids that have adapted to the wild.

Some of the super pigs are within 50 miles of the Minnesota border, and some have already dipped into North Dakota, officials note. Other populations of feral hogs are established in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

There are now an estimated 6 million feral hogs roaming in the U.S., wildlife officials said. In the 1980s, feral swine were in only 20 states, primarily in the South. Now they are in 36 states as the animal’s range expanded west and north. The number of counties affected by wild hogs has nearly tripled from 550 in 1982 to 1,496 in 2023.

Female pigs can give birth when they are just six months old and can produce two litters of four to 12 piglets a year, a trait that can lead to rapid population expansion. They can cause massive damage to wildlife habitat and forest ecosystems while spurring severe erosion and damaging water quality by rooting near streams.

To make matters worse, all that rooting around in the soil releases greenhouse gases, as much as 1 million cars annually, one report concluded.

They are also a menace to crops, causing an estimated $1.5 billion in agriculture losses annually in the U.S. alone. Farmers report that a group of 10 to 20 wild pigs, called a sounder, can destroy 10 acres of corn in one night. And they are a reservoir of diseases that can spread to domestic hogs and even other species.

All pigs in North America are invasive, introduced here by European settlers. The wild ones are often called feral swine, wild boars, wild hogs or razorbacks.

But it’s not just wild pigs moving in from other places that worry agriculture and wildlife experts in Minnesota. Escaped domestic pigs can rapidly become wild. That’s what happened in northwestern Minnesota in 2016 when an escaped female pig, one of several that breached a farmer’s fence, survived the winter and had piglets in a state wildlife management area.

The escaped pigs were eventually discovered and tracked down by federal trappers who killed them. Officials learned that the pigs had likely been surviving in the wild for a year or more. The farmer was cited, convicted and fined $135 for allowing his pigs to roam free and become wild. But the situation underscored how quickly any pig can adapt once they are loose.

“It’s sometimes impossible to tell the difference between a domestic pig and a Eurasian wild pig. But it really doesn’t matter. Any pig that is loose in the wild has the potential to be the beginning of a major problem,” said Leslie McInenly, wildlife populations and regulations manager with the DNR. “It’s not just wild ones moving in from other places. It’s Minnesota farm pigs that escape and turn wild.”

It’s illegal to hunt wild pigs in Minnesota. Experts note that allowing the public to shoot wild hogs has not worked to reduce their numbers in most areas and may make wild pigs more wary of people.