A Little Pig-Me-Up

Down Under, it’s a nasty bunny-business. A few cute bunnies introduced over a century and a half ago, and this sub-equatorial continent is still paying the price: “In Australia, rabbits are a serious mammalian pest and invasive species. They were introduced in the 18th century with the First Fleet, and became widespread after an outbreak caused by an 1859 release. Rabbits cause millions of dollars of damage to crops. Various methods in the 20th century have been attempted to control the population. Conventional methods include shooting and destruction of warrens, but these had only limited success. In 1907, a rabbit-proof fence was built in western Australia in an attempt to contain the rabbits. The Myxoma virus, which causes myxomatosis, was introduced into the rabbit population in the 1950s, and had the effect of severely reducing the rabbit population.” Wikipedia. Ewwwww!

So give me your rabbit attention. We’ve lots of “invasive species” in this country too, from Africanized killer bees to… er… pigs. Lots of them. Feral porkers whose antics have generated governmental programs – is that what they mean by pork barrel politics? – to deal with a rather serious issue. Snort. Snort. You see, Houston, we have a problem. Yee ha, and kye ya yay, yippee a yay! Y’all come down and set a spell!

 “They’re multiplying like mad — like rabbits with hooves, tusks and an epic sense of entitlement — especially here in Texas, where an estimated 2.6 million of them routinely desecrate farmland by rooting up crops, decimate reptile populations by snacking on them, devour feed meant for livestock and probably do some other pernicious thing beginning in ‘de-’ that won’t come to me right now.

“Destroy enclosures! That’s it! Feral hogs have been known to chew and stomp their way into suburban yards and even onto Army bases, said Richard Heilbrun, a biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. ‘And when you have a military installation with a fence problem,’ he told me, ‘you have a national security problem.’” Frank Bruni writing for the April 22^nd New York Times.

Where did these critters come from? “Feral hogs are old world members of the swine family whose ancestors date back to the ice age. Early explorers and missionaries brought the first swine into Texas, but the feral populations originated during colonization. In the twentieth century, introductions of domestic hogs and European boars into the wild by landowners and sportsman further enhanced the population. Changing land use practices, improved animal husbandry, and eradication of diseases have enabled the feral hog to adapt and disperse throughout most of Texas.” AgriLife.org.

To a Californian, the thought of pigs tearing up the Texas countryside makes some folks think God’s just punishing them Texans for too many guns and too many prejudices! Well, okay, we don’t, but the thought of wild hogs being something other than bikers on Harleys is somewhat amusing, unless you own something of value that has been pigged at. One solution, Texas style: Good eatin’?

“Feral hog meat, used at [Houston restaurant] Haven for a ‘wild boar chili,’ is less exorbitant and more available [than expensive invasive species lionfish served elsewhere in the United States], partly in response to a piggy population explosion sometimes called the ‘pig bomb.’ Across dozens of states, there are about five million feral hogs, descendants of imports from Europe, and Heilbrun said that the fecundity of females, which give birth more than once a year, is the stuff of legend.

“‘The old joke is that their average litter size is six, but 10 survive,’ he told me… While Texans have accelerated their killing of hogs to about 30 percent of the population annually, that still allows for a doubling of the population over a five-year period. And that underscores the strange blind spots in the ways of us conscientious omnivores, who congratulate ourselves on foraging and on nose-to-tail eating while failing to chow down adequately on an entire breed just begging to be bacon.” Bruni in the NY Times. And that ain’t Sir Francis! Messin’ with Mother Nature usually has some pretty unintended consequences, and I thought that talking about one that wasn’t global warming might be a bit different. Thanks Gary and Sara for this idea! A “pig bomb”? Not a pretty visual.

I’m Peter Dekom, and hey Texans, stop yor big whine about too many swine!