About half of all the 296 Rural Municipalities in Saskatchewan have wild pigs in them and that is likely an underestimate. That, from Doctor Ryan Brook, a researcher at the University of Saskatchewan who has been studying wild pigs, which are extremely smart and elusive, for about six years.

On social media he say there are wild pig populations in all provinces west of The Maritimes but the large majority are in our province. Still, he says even though they are widely distributed, there are low in numbers in most areas of the province.  And Brook says they are likely a cross between Wild Boar from Europe and Asia, and domestic pigs.

Brook says he gets no funding at all from within Canada, instead all of their research dollars come from the United States Department of Agriculture.  He believes Wild Pigs are a serious threat to ecosystems and to agriculture and so, he says he will continue his work to support any serious efforts at regulating or eradicating the pigs. However, Brook says hunting will never fix the problem and notes that  wild pigs reproduce rapidly with the young becoming reproductive within 4 to 6 months of being born. He says it’s a serious problem.