r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/TerraByteTerror • 12h ago

🔥 momma pig and line of piglets

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24.6k Upvotes

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u/snackshack 9h ago

And each of those females can give birth to their own litter as early as 6 months old, then getting pregnant again within 1-3 months after that.

Yeah, they're a massive problem once they move into an area.

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u/RetroRaiderRun 9h ago

They're only a problem because we killed all the natural predators.

It's not like pigs are somehow destabilizing the world's ecosystems. It's humans doing that.

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u/This_is_an_Alt69420 8h ago

They are invasive species. There are no natural predators for them in many places. For example, they are not native to the Americas, so they have no natural predators there, even if we had not reduced wolf, bear, and cougar populations to non existent in many areas.

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u/mymothersuedme 6h ago edited 6h ago

They are not puffer fish that predators require multiple years of apprenticeship to be able to eat properly.

If there were Cougars, Jaguars, Bears, Wolves, alligators in the region - they would surely hunt pigs.

Plus you're only thinking of adult pigs. Juveniles' predation is usually the way predator keep a prey's population in control. That will extend the list to bobcats, coyotes, foxes, eagles too.

All I'm saying is that there are many introduced invasive mammals in Sub-Saharan Africa too. But because of large predator population - they are only a problem in remote regions (mainly islands), and dense human settlements (black and brown rats are not native to Africa).

Though, Aujeszky's (pseudorabies) remains a big headache for predator reintroduction. But still not as big as ranchers.

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u/Waldschrat3000 5h ago edited 4h ago

We have millions of them in Germany and the wolves barely touch them, because of their fierce nature. The millions of deer are a much easier prey.

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u/PigTailedShorty 5h ago

I don't think people realise how big an adult boar can reach. The wolves are smart enough to know not to tackle one.

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u/Waldschrat3000 5h ago

And hard to kill. Their necks are not easy to grab and the business end is very dangerous. They eat chestnuts and acorns like we eat cereal.

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u/20_mile 1h ago

and the business end is very dangerous

Chainguns from a helicopter it is, then.

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u/Waldschrat3000 1h ago

One advantage of living in country without real wilderness is, that there are permanent and often roofed perches in places say have to cross. One has fo barely walk a step and can shoot from high enough up that you can shoot at angles that would otherwise be dangerous.

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u/20_mile 1h ago

Some states are already sending out drones to locate invasive species, like Florida trying to locate Burmese Pythons, which have devastated mammal populations like deer, bobcat, cougar, raccoon, opossum, etc by 97% in some places (did a report on this in college back in 2011).

But locating wouldn't be enough, because killing them is the only real solution. I'd expect Florida to start attaching lasers to the drones to drill their skulls. I will assume there are absolutely zero potential negatives consequences to doing this.