Destructive wild hogs that 'kill pets' and are the 'most invasive mammal on the planet' are set to take over a city, warns an expert.
The hogs are a hybrid between domestic pigs and Eurasian wild boars and are believed to have escaped from farms during the 1990s.
With razor-sharp teeth and weighing up to 100 kilograms, the "super pigs" are now preparing to descend on Edmonton, Canada, according to University of Saskatchewan professor Ryan Brook.
Brook warned that the city must prepare to avoid the "ecological trainwreck" that would take place if Edmonton fell to the beasts.
Brook, who has been researching the wild boars for over 10 years, said: “They tear up the forest floor, native grasslands get destroyed, wetlands, water systems. They feed on anything where they can, and will kill any pets, for sure.
“Wild pigs are the worst invasive wild mammal on the planet — I don’t think there’s any debate about that.”
Although none of them have been spotted in Edmonton so far, Brook's research has found them popping up just to the west and southeast of city boundaries.
The river valley where the city lies is said to provide them with access to water and wooded cover, making it an ideal habitat.
Using their teeth and powerful chomp the hogs eat anything organic from insect and roots to squirrels, live deer and even pets according to Brook.
On average females birth two litters of six piglets each year which has seen them spread like wildfire in Canada's national parks.
Brook continued: “You can ignore wild pigs all you want until you can’t ignore them. Then they’re at your doorstep and literally showing up in your house and coming into cities.
“You cannot dabble in wild pig eradication. You either go in full hog and go hard and remove them, but you need a strategy.”
The province of Alberta, of which Edmonton is the capital, has a general wild boar strategy now that they have been proving a nuisance for some time.
However Edmonton spokeswoman Chrystal Coleman said that city authorities don't yet have a plan of their own, instead relying on the provincial government to combat the invasive species.
USDA biologist Mike Bodenchuk has tracked the destruction caused by wild hogs in cities in Texas, where they have decimated cemeteries and stolen food from porches.
He said: “If you think a farmer complains about corn damage, wait until one gets on the [golf course].
“It’s hard to imagine you can damage trash, but you can … if we don’t cover it deep enough, the pigs will dig it up and eat that trash, and it opens it up to birds coming in.”
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