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Hey agriculture / biology / farm animal research folks:
Where are your feral hog peeps? I know you're hiding someone in the glorious mess of scicomm Twitter somewhere...
(This is what I get for bulking up on goat researchers without infilling other gaps!)
Where are your feral hog peeps? I know you're hiding someone in the glorious mess of scicomm Twitter somewhere...
(This is what I get for bulking up on goat researchers without infilling other gaps!)
TIL hunting feral pigs makes the situation WORSE: psmag.com/environment/re…
Not only did Mr. "I spray my yard down with an assault riffle while my children frolic amongst 30-50 piggies" have an utterly surreal scenario, but his solution was also scientific bullshit. Shocking.
Not only did Mr. "I spray my yard down with an assault riffle while my children frolic amongst 30-50 piggies" have an utterly surreal scenario, but his solution was also scientific bullshit. Shocking.
I also learned that "feral pigs are destructive assholes that we don't know how to contain" stories are universal & always timely.
July 1: popsci.com/feral-pig-prob…
June 24: macleans.ca/society/enviro…
May 15: cbc.ca/news/canada/br…
2013: popsci.com/science/articl…
and so on.
July 1: popsci.com/feral-pig-prob…
June 24: macleans.ca/society/enviro…
May 15: cbc.ca/news/canada/br…
2013: popsci.com/science/articl…
and so on.
Meanwhile, if Entelodont were anywhere near as clever & vengeful as modern piggies, I'm even more inclined to never, ever timetravel to 2 million years ago. They can hang out with sabretooth kitties, bear-dogs, & 700kg rats without me.
Ah, here we go! 3-5 (or is that 9?) tweet-long thread on skunk pigs:
(delete/repair thread, whoops)
(delete/repair thread, whoops)
After seeing what a genuine 30-50 feral hogs looks like (count them! It's hard.), I'm even more puzzled by the whole volume/area constraints of small children frolicking amongst them within a yard.
Especially as "yard" != "enormous sprawling field."
Especially as "yard" != "enormous sprawling field."
Research into feral pig management comparing effectiveness of: trapping, angering, shooting, poisoning, Judas hogs, fertility
control, fencing, repellents, diversionary feeding, & translocation is fascinating: digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewconten…
Conclusion: fml
control, fencing, repellents, diversionary feeding, & translocation is fascinating: digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewconten…
Conclusion: fml
Whoops! Misquote. 30-50 feral piggies irl:
How many places are totally fucked by feral pigs running amok, trashing everything, and/or terrorizing small children?
Ignoring oceans (no open ocean piggies), feral pigs per km2 is:
blue 0
white 1
orange 6
red 11+
Alas, 30-50/km2 is off the scale.
📷: nature.com/articles/srep4…
Ignoring oceans (no open ocean piggies), feral pigs per km2 is:
blue 0
white 1
orange 6
red 11+
Alas, 30-50/km2 is off the scale.
📷: nature.com/articles/srep4…
But not all feral piggies are the same! Bask in the beautiful diversity of these terrorizing hellbeasts of ecological destruction:
Don't let the cute face fool you: feral pigs are total jackasses and threaten all sorts of poor lil endangered species: nature.com/articles/s4159…
(wait a minute, this is sounding familiar... are... are pigs human?)
(wait a minute, this is sounding familiar... are... are pigs human?)
Meanwhile in Canada: We're doing fuck-all.
I'm shocked. Who would've thought a decade of deliberately eroding public science would have long-lasting impacts.
Gee, if only I could think of another country doing fuck-all about obvious & increasing threats.
I'm shocked. Who would've thought a decade of deliberately eroding public science would have long-lasting impacts.
Gee, if only I could think of another country doing fuck-all about obvious & increasing threats.
Whoops, sorry water, turns out those big white oceans on that pig-density map should've been a grey "data not reported" because assuming no piggies is invalid.
Do you need another nightmare?
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious piggie virus.
Its name didn't keep it geographically constrained (fuck!). Find it in Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, parts of EU, Mongolia, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine & more. Yay!
fao.org/3/a-i7228e.pdf
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious piggie virus.
Its name didn't keep it geographically constrained (fuck!). Find it in Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, parts of EU, Mongolia, Vietnam, Russia, Ukraine & more. Yay!
fao.org/3/a-i7228e.pdf
Ahahahahahahhahahahaha ohfuck
But hey! Sometimes, with a lot of time and money and true focus on killing as many pigs as you can (oddly, without assault riffles...), it IS possible to completely eradicate feral pigs from small islands.
latimes.com/archives/la-xp…
nps.gov/chis/learn/nat…
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
latimes.com/archives/la-xp…
nps.gov/chis/learn/nat…
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
But, uh, not too big of an island. Hawaii gave up in 2008: hawaiitribune-herald.com/2017/12/25/haw… (except in parks: staradvertiser.com/2018/12/03/bre…)
They've been around for a while: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.10…
Kinda a problem.
& hunting doesn't help: nytimes.com/2013/05/19/tra…
They've been around for a while: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.10…
Kinda a problem.
& hunting doesn't help: nytimes.com/2013/05/19/tra…
Q: Pfft, I followed you for the space news! Where's the rocket connection?!
A: Feral pigs are such a nuisance at Kennedy Space Center that they trap & remove 2,000-5,000 a year so they don't fuck shit up too badly.
kennedyspacecenter.com/blog/07/the-wi…
A: Feral pigs are such a nuisance at Kennedy Space Center that they trap & remove 2,000-5,000 a year so they don't fuck shit up too badly.
kennedyspacecenter.com/blog/07/the-wi…
No island is too big to be fucked up by feral pigs.
See: Australia, home of Everything That Will Kill You, has a piggie problem. Think we can train blue-ringed octopus to take them down during swims?
See: Australia, home of Everything That Will Kill You, has a piggie problem. Think we can train blue-ringed octopus to take them down during swims?
Everything is bigger in Texas, including their Pig Problem.
"1 million pigs?" I read. "That can't possibly be right..." smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…
Oh, but no. It's 1.5 million OR MORE: tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/…
So... 1 pig per 20 people.
Um.
"1 million pigs?" I read. "That can't possibly be right..." smithsonianmag.com/science-nature…
Oh, but no. It's 1.5 million OR MORE: tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/…
So... 1 pig per 20 people.
Um.
Q: But what about hawgs? You know, wild invasive hedgehogs terrorizing the land! D'awww
A: ...that's actually a thing. European hedgehogs are a threatened species at home, but in New Zealand they're bird-killing menace.
nzgeo.com/stories/for-th…
landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/n…
A: ...that's actually a thing. European hedgehogs are a threatened species at home, but in New Zealand they're bird-killing menace.
nzgeo.com/stories/for-th…
landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/n…
Great! That's 22 tweets in 2hrs 05min mostly about feral hogs except when it wasn't, written by a geophysicist who specializes in doom and/or licking rocks, so I think we're good for an appropriate level of accuracy to mirror the meme.
Ping if you study pigs, tho.
Ping if you study pigs, tho.
I tried to pull a good stand-alone, but it just flat-out delivers on the lede.
Of course feral invasive pigs are a story of colonization. Get beyond the glib:
Of course feral invasive pigs are a story of colonization. Get beyond the glib:
