From the University of Saskatchewan:

Wild pigs typically weigh between 120 and 250 pounds. They have around six piglets per litter, per year.

They are adapted to very cold temperatures, and can breed in any season, living in pigloos burrowed into the snow.  Sexually mature within four-to-eight months, they feed on all common types of farmers’ crops, including corn, wheat and canola. They also eat insects, birds, reptiles and small mammals.

“The growing wild pig population is not an ecological disaster waiting to happen—it is already happening,” said USask’s Ryan Brook, lead researcher for the Canadian Wild Pig Project, a Canada-wide research program, and Aschim’s supervisor.

Even the New York Times is getting in on the pigloo action (although it has yet to be noted on the Times First Said Twitter bot):

Many experts thought the pigs couldn’t thrive in cold climates. But they burrow into the snow in winter, creating so-called pigloos — a tunnel or cave with a foot or two of snow on top for insulation. Many have developed thick coats of fur.

Now they are poised to invade states along the border, threatening to establish a new beachhead in this country.

“It’s concerning that Canada isn’t doing anything about it,” said Maggie Nutter, one of 80 concerned ranchers and farmers who met recently near Sweet Grass, Mont., to discuss the potential swine invasion. “What do you do to get them to control their wild hog population?”

It seems that not even an AR-15 nor a Jason Isbell song can stop these feral hogs from burrowing. Read the rest

A coke stash hidden in the woods by suspected drug dealers was destroyed by boars, report police in Tuscany.

The drug stash was hidden in a forest area in the Valdichiana valley. The law enforcement probe, which spanned between September 2018 and March 2019, discovered one of the gang members was allegedly distributing drugs via a nightclub in Arezzo.

The suspects traded approximately two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of cocaine every month, which netted the gang the equivalent of between $90 and $120 per gram, Il Tirreno reported. An unknown number of boars allegedly dug up and destroyed the gang's packages, dispersing their contents in the woods.

It was not immediately known what happened to the curious animals.

Screenshot: Barry Young Read the rest

In China, technology firms are working with the government to push voice and facial recognition to help pigs, many of which have been dying from a swine disease that's sweeping the country. Read the rest

Police noticed an odor and alcohol, and Henry admitted to drinking a six-pack of Hamm's beer.