One method of containing wild boars is to net them from the air. (Ryan Brook/BlueSky)

By Susan McNeil

Feral pigs

Four feral pigs reported near Prince Albert

Mar 10, 2025 | 4:04 PM

The Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation is investigating a report of four feral pigs, also known as wild boars, just north of the City of Prince Albert.

Feral pigs are an invasive species that the province is trying to eradicate and can cause significant damage to crops and gardens.

“We did receive a report of some sighting of some wild boar close to proximity of Prince Albert. Our team has been on site already and we’re working on a strategy to remove those animals if it is verified that they were pigs,” said Darby Warner, executive director at SCIC.

This map, shared by Prof. Ryan Brook (U of S) shows the location wild boars were reported north of Prince Albert.

The investigation has so far found a lot of deer tracks and signs of wildlife in the area but have not actually spotted one of the animals.

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“The one thing about wild pigs as elusive as they are, they do leave an easily recognizable sign of their presence,” Warner said. “They’ll eat just about anything.”

The first thing they will destroy is gardens and they eat small nesting birds.

A hunter north of Montreal Lake spotted and killed a feral pig last week, a response that is sometimes correct and sometimes not.

If the animal is on its own, the correct action is to kill it. If they are in a group, killing one scatters the rest and makes them wary. That in turn, makes them harder to catch in the future.

Ideally, sightings of the animals should be reported to SCIC, which can be done online or by calling 1-833-PIG-SPOT.

The animals have adapted well to Saskatchewan winters, but the babies tend to die in higher numbers due to cold and predation.

Wild boars will normally run away when they are confronted but if backed in a corner will react like any wild animal.

Warner said they have four reported hotspots of activity for wild boar in the province and have successfully eradicated two and are working on the two others. One of the two others is in the Tisdale area.

Brook shared this map of boar spottings across Canada.

Ryan Brook, a professor with the Department of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Saskatchewan, told larongeNOW last week that he wasn’t surprised to see the feral animals moving north.

He disputes the notion that the animals have been eradicated in any location and maintains a map of sitings as they are reported to him.

“I have been working on wild pigs here in Saskatchewan and across Canada for 15 years now and I have been predicting this, and I’ve been calling for action to prevent this and I think that one thing that I will say is that it didn’t have to be this way,” Brook remarked.

“I think we could have prevented this. I think it was entirely preventable, but this has been a tidal wave in slow motion.”

Brook reports the information he gets on wild boar sitings on his BlueSky account, ‘Ryan Brook, PHD, Chairman of the Boar’.

Feral pigs were deliberately brought into Saskatchewan in the 1980s as food and for the potential of recreational hunting.

Some farmers released their unwanted animals to the wild and now they have spread. According to Warner, one animal can easily walk six or seven miles in one night.

They enjoy being in certain environments, like slough grass. People will know they are present because they root up the dirt and grass.

As of January 1, 2025, a moratorium has been placed on wild boar farms with no new applications accepted.

Farmers are required to have annual inspections, fencing or enclosures, report any escapes and maintain their records.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social