Wild boars are now banned in Cypress County.
County council approved all three readings of a bylaw to prohibit them during a public meeting on Tuesday.
Lisa Sulz, agriculture supervisor for Cypress County, said wild boars are a hugely destructive pest common in central Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The boars aren’t currently an imminent threat in southeastern Alberta, although they continue to get closer to the area.
Sulz said the boars are considered livestock at some wild boar farms in the province, but are unwanted here.
“They do escape, and that’s kind of how this has all come about,” Sulz said.
“When they’re at large, under the Agricultural Pest Act, they are considered a pest. They are a huge problem in some areas where they have escaped, and we’re just trying to prevent the establishment of them in Cypress County if they were ever to make their way down here.”
Wild boars will dig up crops and trees looking for food and can also carry diseases they could transmit .
Sulz said the rivers coming into the county could potentially allow the wild boars to sneak into the area.
“They like to be undercover, so those are great places that they could come in,” Sulz said.
“They’re smart. If people shoot at them or something like that, it is not recommended. They become nocturnal then and can evade, and they’re highly reproductive,” she added.
“Once they’re out and nocturnal and know to stay away from humans, then they reproduce rapidly, and it becomes a real problem really quick. So yeah, just to kind of prevent all that, hopefully, is the idea with the bylaw.”
