America is facing 'time-bomb' explosion of millions of 'super pigs' that can reproduce at just three months old, grow up to 400lbs and destroy thousands of square miles of farms and livestock

The United States is on the cusp of a huge pig 'time bomb' with the number feral hogs increasing in huge numbers. Research scientist Dr. Jack Mayer, a zoologist who has been researching wild pigs for 40 years, has warned that the population could keep on growing unless there is a sudden swine flu epidemic. 'It's a crazy situation with everything that's happened in what I call the Pig Bomb, which has exploded in North America,' Jack Mayer told The Daily Beast about the wild population of six million and two million in Texas alone. 'There's not another animal that can put little feet on the ground quicker than a wild pig.' Mayer blames global warming for increasing the survival rate of newborn piglets and producing more acorns, bulbs, roots and tubers for them to eat. They can start reproducing at just three months old and do so twice a year. 

 California and Texas have also encouraged recreational hunting as a way to reduce their pig populations, but even if three quarters of the population is killed off, they would be able to fully repopulate within three years. Across the U.S. as a whole there are currently believed to me as many as nine million feral swine in 39 states and they are expanding at a rate of 35,000 square miles a year. The pigs aren't the cuddly cartoon kind but a mixture of breeds coupled with wild boar. 'It creates what we'd call super-pigs,' said Ryan Brook, a biologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. The 'super-pigs' are able to grow large and can have litters of 10 or more each. 'Pig populations are completely out of control,' Brook says. 'The efforts to deal with them are about 1 percent of what's currently needed.' He says that his province of Saskatchewan will soon have more wild pigs than people.

There is a growing urge to deal with the problem as the animals are responsible for an estimated $2.5 billion worth of damage each year as they plough through crops, destroy plants, attack calves, lambs and pregnant livestock. The feral pigs carry bacterial diseases and parasites too. Montanans have been educated on the issue with a catchy campaign called 'Squeal on Pigs' that encourages residents to call a 24-hour hotline should they see any sightings so wildlife staff can trap and kill the animals. 

 Pigs end up going wild the moment they managed to escape from their farm enclosures. After breeding in the wild, the offspring are classed as feral and grow tusks. They also roam over vast distances of up to 19 square miles and sometimes turn nocturnal making them even harder to track...MORE

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How's that for a headline? As usual, a little bit of hyperbole from the UK's Daily Mail.

Mayer blames global warming...

We should have known. This, however, is probably the only way the feral pig problem will ever get addressed. Research would have to show that feral pig farts contribute to global warming. Then we would see headlines like:

Feral Pig Flatulence Furthers Warming

Or:

Wild Pig Windies Worsen Warming