Canadian Hogs | Ryan Brook
In a bold move to safeguard its agriculture, environment, and livestock industry, the Government of Alberta has officially classified wild boars—also known as feral swine or Eurasian wild pigs—as a "pest in all circumstances." Effective December 1st, this declaration ushers in sweeping restrictions, including a near-total ban on hunting and trapping across the province. The changes, detailed in amendments to the Pest and Nuisance Control Regulation under the Agricultural Pests Act, mark a dramatic shift from previous lax oversight and aim to halt the explosive spread of these invasive animals.
Wild boars first arrived in Alberta as exotic farm animals in the late 20th century, prized for their lean meat and rapid reproduction. But escapes from enclosures, intentional releases, and poor containment practices allowed them to establish feral populations across the Prairies, including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Today, these adaptable omnivores—capable of breeding twice a year with litters of up to six piglets—are classified among the world's top 100 most destructive invasive species.
Nocturnal and elusive, wild boars root up soil in search of food, devastating crops, native grasslands, and wetlands. Their wallowing habits pollute waterways, while their potential to carry devastating diseases like African swine fever threatens Canada's multibillion-dollar pork sector. Experts estimate populations in the thousands, with sightings reported in over 70% of Alberta's rural municipalities.
Under the updated regulations, wild boars lose their status as permissible livestock. Ownership and commerce are now restricted: it is illegal to keep, buy, sell, obtain, or transport wild boars or their hybrids (with 25% or more wild ancestry) without a special permit, and new wild boar farming operations are outright banned. Furthermore, sport hunting and recreational trapping are prohibited province-wide; only landowners (or their designees) may lethally control boars on their property, and every kill must be reported to authorities with details on the date, location, and number of animals. There remains about a dozen operations that are "grandfathered" and allowed to continue operations, but must comply with enhanced containment standards, such as escape-proof fencing.
To ease this shift, Alberta launched the Wild Boar On-Farm Exit Program on December 1, offering up to $590 per animal dispersed (via slaughter, export, or depopulation) plus fencing reimbursements. The $3 million initiative aims to clear inventories by February 27, 2026.
While Alberta tightens the reins, many U.S. states, on the other hand, embrace an "open season" strategy to combat similar feral swine plagues. In the American South and West, where feral hogs cause up to $2.5 billion in annual damages, hunting is often unregulated year-round on private lands, with no bag limits and minimal licensing requirements.
At least 12 states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, permit continuous hunting. Night hunting, baiting, and even airboat pursuits are common in hotspots like Texas, where landowners pay hunters to cull herds. Alberta's experts, however, argue that unregulated hunting only serves to exacerbate the problem.
"Sport hunting has been banned, which is something I've been talking about and begging and pleading for, for certainly over 15 years," University of Saskatchewan professor Ryan Brook says. "Unfortunately, not only does hunting not eliminate them fast enough ... it also breaks up groups and spreads them around the landscape, because very rarely will hunters actually remove a whole population."
U.S. successes, such as Colorado's full eradication by 2020, relied on coordinated trapping rather than bounties.
Alberta's strategy prioritizes containment over extermination, drawing lessons from global hotspots like Spain, where swine fever outbreaks in wild populations have crippled exports. With $3 million allocated for monitoring, trapping, and incentives, the province hopes to prevent a "superpig" catastrophe.
With seemingly no silver bullet strategy currently in place in any state or province, only time will tell if Alberta's gamble will effectively redefine invasive species management on a continental scale.
