Wild boar hybrids are raising hell on the Canadian prairies

It seemed like a good idea at the time. When Canadian pig farmers were told in the 1980s that their animals’ gene pool was thin, they turned to wild boars from Britain for fortification, crossing them with an improved strain of domestic pig. This yielded a longer creature with an extra rib, and more meat per beast.

Then, in 2001, the boar-meat market plunged. Some farmers, unable to sell their stock, simply released their hybrid pigs into the wild.