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Grad student studying elusive wild boars across Western Canada

A grad student is on a road trip across Western Canada to study the elusive wild boar.
A grad student is on a road trip across Western Canada to study the elusive wild boar.

A grad student from University of Saskatchewan is embarking on a road trip across Western Canada to learn everything she possibly can about an elusive creature that wreaks havoc on our land: the feral boar.

Ruth Kost, a master’s student at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Agriculture and Bioresources, chose to analyze the wild pig since little is known about its activity in Canada.

“I wanted to do my research on a big animal, not a bird or fish,” she told Yahoo Canada News. “It’s gotten more interesting since no one else has studied it. It’s exciting. We can go anywhere we want with this.”

For Kost, anywhere means crisscrossing between Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia for the next three months, collecting as much data as possible.

She intends to conduct surveys amongst local farmers, hunters, biologists and conservation officers regarding ecological information, like the habitat they’ve been spotted in and whether they were alone or in a group. She’ll also research the social spectrum of the animal, such as concerns over the damage they cause to land.

“We won’t be able to get numbers, but will be able to get an idea of where they roam in order to find management solutions,” she says.

Feral boars are considered pests, the equivalent to large rats, since they have the capability of destroying crops by digging up roots with their nose. They’re also deemed vicious and will disrupt livestock.

Farmers have told Kost that boars harass their livestock and get into their grain bins.

“I had one farmer say they’ve run into them at night and say that they were concerned for their safety. They’ve been known to be very aggressive,” she says.

Ryan Brook, Kost’s advisor and an assistant professor in the agriculture department at the University of Saskatchewan, says “hunters are calling these things the poor man’s grizzly. Unlike most hunted animals in Canada, if you shoot at them and don’t kill them, they’ll come at you and can be very aggressive.”

Wild boars aren’t a native species to Canada. They were brought here from Europe and Asia in the late 1980s and early 90s, in an attempt to push diversity in agriculture within the country. They were raised as domestic agriculture, but over time the animal was released or escaped into the wild.

While Kost has never seen a boar, she’s tasted one before, freshly hunted in Saskatchewan.

“They’re delicious.”