Irish ‘wild boar’ turns out to be a pig in a poke
The next edition of the Irish Wildlife Trust’s magazine suggests that cross-breeding between boars and domestic pigs has been rife, sparking fresh questions as to the suitability of allowing wild boar back into Irish forests.
A study by University College Cork and University College Dublin of recently shot specimens indicate cross breeding or “introgression” with domestic pigs.
According to the piece to be published in the IWT magazine in June: “Wild boar have been sighted at a number of locations in Ireland over the last three years and have stirred up quite a bit of controversy.
“The species occurred in Ireland in the past but became extinct, possibly because of deforestation and over-hunting.
“However these modern-day piggies are thought to have originated from intentional/accidental escapes from wild boar farms or illegal releases for hunting purposes and have been classed as invasive by state bodies. The IWT objected to this classification due to the history of the species here.
“However, recent genetic research on a number of shot individuals by Dr Allan McDevitt of UCD and Dr Ruth Carden of UCC have shown that these ‘wild boar’ show large amount of introgression with domestic pig in their ancestry. Wild boar are frequently crossed with domestic pigs in captivity to increase litter size and body mass so it is unsurprising that feral individuals would have a mixed genetic signature. Re-introductions of extinct species must follow strict rules laid down by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), including that the source stock must be as closely related as possible to the extinct population. Although it is unknown if a population of these hybrid pigs has established in Ireland, they are clearly not appropriate stock for a reintroduction.”
Dr McDevitt said: “The take home message is ... the animals roaming around Ireland at the moment are pigs as far as their DNA goes.”
