Australia's hog population more than its human population

Sydney, Sept.28 : Official estimates suggest there are now 23 million feral pigs in Australia, outnumbering the continent's human population of 21 million.

According to news.com.au, they are the descendants of domestic pigs which explorers such as Captain Cook released as a living larder for future expeditions.

The animals found Australia to be hog heaven, with plentiful food, a balmy climate and no natural predators aside from the occasional crocodile and piglet-pinching dingoes.

They have grown bigger and brawnier than their ancestors, with 150kg bristle-backed tuskers that are more than capable of goring a human to death.

And perhaps the worst news is that their meat cannot be eaten, due to worm infestation and disease.

In Queensland, a state with a tropical climate, they are causing millions of pounds of damage to crops and threaten the survival of endangered rainforest animals.

"There's no question that they are on the increase. They are the biggest single problem up here in the wet tropics region and the government won't do a bloody thing about it," said Norman Kippin, from the farming lobby group Agforce.

Two years ago ex-soldier Paul Smith set up Boar Busters, a professional pig trapping business run with military discipline. Since then he and his trappers have caught and shot 1,200 pigs in the rainforests and farmland surrounding the coastal town of Mission Beach.

Pigs have been allowed to thrive thanks to decades of inaction and squabbling between farmers, wildlife authorities and government agencies.

The animal is remarkably fecund. A sow can produce two litters a year, with up to 10 piglets in each litter. Within six months the young pigs are ready to breed.

Where farmers once shot a dozen pigs a year, they are now bagging hundreds.

Farmers are being driven close to financial ruin by the depredations of pigs, which congregate in large herds and can charge through electric fences. The animals are estimated to cost agriculture more than 40 million pounds a year.

As well as raiding farms, the pigs have a serious impact on the rainforest by fouling streams and competing for food with animals such as the cassowary bird, which disperses the seeds of more than 100 species of tree. The seeds will only grow if they have passed through the cassowary's gut. (With inputs from ANI)

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