March 11, New York Times – (New York) Wily, elusive foragers invade upstate New York. Feral pigs have been ransacking farms in upstate New York eating apples and other crops, the New York Times reported March 11. They roam by night, picking cornstalks clean, making off with apple crops. They have almost no natural predators, but they have razor-sharp tusks and a voracious appetite for plants and animals. Their population can triple in a year. Feral pigs have long plagued parts of the southern and western United States, now they have become a problem in the Champlain Valley of New York, an agricultural heartland on the edge of the Adirondacks. They hunt at night and steer clear of humans. The pigs devour ground-nesting birds and reptiles, fawns and domestic livestock, native vegetation, and crops. Wildlife managers and researchers nationally are exploring control measures, from contraceptives and poisons to snares and aerial shooting. Some are even employing night-vision equipment and thermal imaging. In New York, the state’s ordinarily strict hunting rules have been relaxed for feral swine. The department of environmental conservation’s Web site advises those with small game licenses to “shoot and keep feral swine at any time and in any number.” Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/nyregion/feral-pigs-plaguing-upstate-new-york.html?smid=tw-nytmetro&seid=auto