Agriculture and wildlife have always struggled to find a way to co-exist.
In general terms, that has meant farmers have pushed wildlife to the fringe enough that the remaining impact is tolerable to the producer.
Farmers still aren’t thrilled to watch thousands of snow geese feeding on a swathed barley crop.
Nor are they happy if whitetail or mule deer are munching away on a haystack.
Ground squirrels burrowing dozens of holes across a cattle pasture are a nuisance which will have beef producers looking to rid the pasture of the pest.
Livestock producers are not happy to see wolves creeping down from the north, or coyote populations growing locally.
Beavers are seen as a nuisance as they dam small rivers and flood water across crop acres.
The emergence of crop insurance to cover some of the aforementioned wildlife losses have reduced the friction with agriculture producers somewhat, but just barely in a number of situations.
We can now add moose and wild pigs to the list of wild animals which can have an impact on farms.
Moose have traditionally been farther north, but forest fires, human encroachment and other factors have pushed moose south, and they appear to be adapting well.
To better understand the impact of moose the Saskatchewan Farmland Moose Project has been launched.
In terms of moose impacting crops, Amy Wheeler with the University of Saskatchewan presenting at the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation Convention held in Yorkton last week said it does happen, and crop insurance coverage recognizes that. There were 819 reports of crop damage in Saskatchewan where moose were seen as the soul, or primary, cause of the damage.
Another measure of moose moving south is that they can be the cause of vehicular accidents.
From SGI data moose were involved in 478 accidents in 2013 and 488 in 2014.
“Autumn has the highest collisions and early winter,” said Wheeler.
Wheeler said fall makes sense since it is the time of rut for moose, and also hunting season. As a result of both moose are moving around more “and crossing roads and accidents happen.”
And then there are feral pigs, which are not native wildlife, but they are increasingly having an impact.
And that is why there is an ongoing Feral Boars in Canada Collaring Project.
Ryan Brook who spoke at the same SWF Convention pointed to the United States.
“Texas has well over three million pigs,” he said, adding the situation could happen here.
“… About half of all RMs (rural municipalities in Saskatchewan) have pigs,” said Brook. “… We could well be in a position to have more pigs than people.”
In a random telephone survey of 3000 rural residents across Canada it was found “every single province had (wild) pigs … Everybody is reporting them.”
But in this one farmer’s can’t complain too loudly.
“We know farms are the source of this,” said Brook, adding the pigs are either escapees, and in some cases there are reports of farmers cutting fence and letting stock go rather than to continue to look after them.
Even on well-ran wild boar farms it is estimated two to three per cent of stock escapes, said Brook.
And therein lies something that gets forgotten.
Wild pigs are seen as an invasive species, but they are here as a result of the ultimate invasive species, humans.
We tend to forget many of the issues we face are a result of our being here, and things that we have done, and wild boar are certainly an example.
Certainly maintaining the balance where wildlife and farmers can co-exist will be an ingoing challenge for both wildlife management and the ag sector.
Calvin Daniels is Assistant Editor with Yorkton This Week.
