Released Dec. 11, 2007

AUBURN UNIVERSITY, Ala. -- That implacable enemy of landowners everywhere — the feral pig — has garnered a place even in the most unlikely of places, the 10-mile Backcountry Trail adjoining Orange Beach.

In fact, the pigs have acquired habitats all over Baldwin County, one of Alabama’s fastest growing and developing counties.

Urbanization, it seems, no matter how many people it brings, is no match for the crafty pig.

In fact, the pigs are first known to have followed people beginning some 1,000 years ago, when they accompanied the Polynesians to Hawaii, writes Ryan Dezember, of Mobile’s Press-Register. (http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/119728187299670.xml&coll=3) More recently, they accompanied Spaniards on transoceanic voyages, first arriving in the Gulf Coast in 1539, compliments of Ferdinand De Soto, though experts stress that the Orange Beach pigs likely are escapes from domestic herds.

Whatever the case, the pigs are feared for the threat they pose to the fragile Gulf Coast ecosystem located within the Gulf State Park.

“Pigs will definitely alter a habitat,” says Dr. Jim Armstrong, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System wildlife specialist and Auburn University professor of forestry and wildlife science.

For starters, they’re relentless tillers as they go about foraging for food. And the unfortunate result often is uprooted native vegetation, which often leads to the destruction of fragile plant ecosystems as damaged native species are quickly out competed and overtaken by other species that often aren’t native to the ecosystem.

Likewise, they often tend to be disruptive to fauna as well — everything from ground-nesting birds to native reptiles and amphibians.

Armstrong says people should take steps to discourage the release of hogs into any free-ranging environment.

Fortunately, he says, science has gained a better understanding of feral pigs, the trouble they can cause to ecocystems, and, perhaps most important, their patterns of behavior.

“They’re not a native wildlife species, and as is the case with any nonnative species, they can displace native species and wreak environmental havoc,” Armstrong says.

Armstrong, who has researched the animals for years and who recently directed a study through one of his graduate students, says the combination of genetics — in many cases, domestic pig genes mixed with those of wild boars imported from Europe — has resulted in an animal that is especially well-equipped to survive just about any challenge nature throws in its direction. Moreover, this unique combination — the feeding and breeding efficiency of domestic pigs, coupled with the fierceness of wild boars — has produced an animal that is especially well-suited for survivability and reproduction.

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http://www.aces.edu/department/extcomm/npa/daily/archives/003470.php

Contact: Jim Langcuster, (334) 844-5686 or langcjc@aces.edu