Following up on our out-the-door link to Rome's troubles with wild boars in "Italy’s authorities refrain from capping the price of pasta".
From Hakai Magazine, May 5:
Wild pigs roam the globe. Originally from Eurasia and North Africa, they’re now one of the most invasive species worldwide, trotting from the pine forests of North America to the wetlands of Oceania. Despite their world domination, we know little about how they’re taking over or the impact they have on ecosystems.
A multi-institution collaborative study conducted by researchers from Singapore, Australia, and the United States tracked the movement of wild pigs in Singapore, in particular the speed and geographical distribution of their dispersal. Integrating interviews with local wildlife researchers and park employees with camera trap data collected across the country’s fragmented green areas, researchers made a surprising discovery: the pigs were entering the country via sea and quickly recolonizing the green spaces across the island nation.
Hunting and urbanization wiped wild pigs from mainland Singapore almost four decades ago. But since the 1990s, the pigs have staged a remarkable comeback by swimming across the one-kilometer Johore Strait from Peninsular Malaysia and the offshore islands of Pulau Tekong and Pulau Ubin. Since their resurgence, the porkers have steadily journeyed southward along the edges of regenerated forests, eating human crops and garbage while sheltering in natural vegetation....
....MUCH MORE
And fly. Apparently"When pigs fly" is a common phrase. I have heard it more than once.
