A new website is helping Saskatchewan residents keep tabs on wild boars that are posing an increasing threat to agriculture.
Clinton Hood, a computer technician with the Prairie North Regional Health Authority, designed the website after seeing a TV news segment on wild boars last November.
He says he wasn't even aware of Saskatchewan's boar problem and quickly decided he wanted to do something.
Hood says he realized that having a way to track the tuskers may help hunters and farmers keep boar numbers in check.
The website is a central place to report sightings and to find out the whereabouts and movement of boars.
There's also a mobile app that works on most newer smart phones.
The Wild Boars in Saskatchewan website is located at http://wildboarsaskatchewan.ca
Wild boars arrived in Saskatchewan during the late 1970s when farmers began domesticating them to diversify.
As time passed, some boars were released or escaped into the wild. Their adaptability to new habitats, fast rate of reproduction and willingness to eat almost anything meant that the population of feral boars rose quickly and began to seriously threaten crops.
"The problem with these boars is they are very self-sufficient in the wild," Hood says. "They come from Russia and can easily live through Saskatchewan's tough winters.
"The biggest problem these animals cause is damage to land, lots of damage -- so much so that the (Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corp.) and other insurance issuers had to insure wild boar damage on crops."
The website is completely funded by Hood.
