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Alberta provides wild boar update

Alberta provides wild boar update
Feb 09, 2026
By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content, Farms.com

Professional trappers removed 108 wild boar in 2025

More than 100 wild boar are no longer wreaking havoc on Alberta farms and in nearby communities thanks to the province’s Wild Boar Control Program.

Professional trappers in Alberta removed 108 wild boar, an update from the Alberta government says.

“In 2025 we received 72 reports through Squeal on Pigs!: 11 confirmed wild boar or wild boar hybrids, 32 escaped domestic pigs, 10 non-swine, and 19 we were unable to verify. All the confirmed wild boar reports are in known areas where response activities are already underway,” Hannah Mckenzie, a wild boar specialist with the Alberta government, said in the update.

Alberta launched its enhanced wild boar control program in 2022.

Since then, more than 500 wild boar have been eliminated in the province.

And in December 2025 the government implemented three changes to wild boar management:

  • Wild boar are considered a pest in all circumstances, and no new wild boar farms will be allowed in Alberta.
  • Hunting and trapping wild boar is illegal, with certain exceptions.
  • All wild boar kills and pertinent information must be reported.

These boar are found in multiple communities with at least 28 rural municipalities in Alberta documenting sightings.

These invasive animals and their rapid reproduction, intelligence, and vectors for disease can cause significant agricultural and wildlife damage.

Collaboration is important to keeping wild boar populations down, Mckenzie said.

“We could not have done this without the support of landowners who participate in the program by providing access to their land for wild boar control,” she said. “Feedback from trappers and landowners suggest we are making good progress towards eradicating wild boar, and we are working with researchers at the University of Calgary to get the data to prove this.”

 


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