Santa Clara Valley Chapter
By Olive Zappacosta
An expanding population of wild (feral) pigs poses yet another management problem for the protection of California's native flora and fauna.
A study of pig damage at Pepperwood Ranch Natural Preserve, Santa Rosa, demonstrated tree damage and death from pigs girdling trunks. Allium, Brodiaea, and Calochortus bulbs were highly regarded (100 bulbs were found in a single pig's stomach), and from October to March acorns were their main diet (the key food source for many other mammals and birds). Feral pigs also competed with coyotes, vultures and eagles for carrion.
How did this pig predicament come about? There were no pigs (Sus scrofa) in the Western Hemisphere prior to Columbus. Pigs thrived as companions to European colonizers of the New World, but were still not naturalized in California before the 1920's when a hunting group in Monterey County brought in European wild boar from a game reserve in North Carolina. Sport hunters trucked individuals from this population into other areas of the state. Feral descendants, having interbred with domestic pigs, are now resident in 33 California counties. Today the wild pig is second to deer for sport hunting in California.
Ironically, preserves that are making special efforts to protect native plants and animals are particularly liable to pig damage, as many prohibit hunting, the only regular control on feral pig populations. Management of the problem is complicated by the economics of hunting and the issue of eradicating individuals of one species to protect other species.
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