By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Conservation District held a workshop on Tuesday educating residents on the threat of feral swine entering Montana.
Feral swine pose a threat to land, animals and the environment. Agencies across the state are working to prevent them from reaching Montana, but have plans in place to respond if they do.
Assistant State Veterinarian for the Montana Department of Livestock, Tahnee Szymanski, was one of the speakers. She says that feral swine could enter Montana either by people illegally transporting them in their vehicle or by the swine crossing the Canadian border.
“We’ve already had an instance in the state of Montana where somebody trucked up a small group of young pigs with the intent of feeding them up to a mature size and releasing them on their property to hunt. In that instance, we’ve already had an incursion of feral pigs into Montana. Certainly when you look to the border to the north of us, and how rapidly that population and range is expanding, I do think it’s only a matter of time before we do start to get some incursions down from the north of us into Montana.”
Only authorized personnel are allowed to shoot feral swine unless they are threatening your property. Szymanski says hunting them for sport, as is legal in states like Texas, can actually lead to them spreading.
“If you put unsuccessful hunting pressure on them where you hunt a small number but don’t get the entire group, which is called the sounder, you disperse them, so you can spread them out over a much larger land area. You also make them a little bit wiser to hunting pressure so they become harder to control down the road.”
To report feral pig sightings, call 444-2976.
