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Could this virus help eradicate wild populations of feral hogs? Protecting the pork industry is all well and good, I love ham as much as anybody else, but sacr
by darkpuma 7y ago
Could this virus help eradicate wild populations of feral hogs?
Protecting the pork industry is all well and good, I love ham as much as anybody else, but sacrificing a few years of pork production seems like it could be a good deal if it means the eradication of environmentally destructive feral hogs.
- soulofmischief 7y agoThis is how you destroy an ecosystem. Bringing in one organism to fight or replace another without thinking about the full consequences.
- hnzix 7y agoI mean, foreign feral pigs are a big problem in Oz. They aren't native to the recent ecosystem. But that whole cane toad thing didn't work out so good.
- soulofmischief 7y agoThey were a big problem in my back yard. I've been chased by feral hogs and it's not fun. But we have to be practical about introducing invasive, hardy species into an ecosystem.
- astazangasta 7y agoHere is the matching Simpsons clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpzj1IvEhTA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mpzj1IvEhTA
- caf 7y agoMyxomatosis and Calicivirus worked out OK though.
- taneq 7y agoThe thing is, a few thousand years is all that stands between "feral" and "wild". Witness dingos, our "native dogs".
- darkpuma 7y agoClever how you frame humans not intervening by stopping the spread of this virus as humans intervening.
- soulofmischief 7y agoI'm sorry but I wasn't framing anything as anything, in fact I wasn't speaking about stopping the spread of the virus at all. Reread my post. I was talking about introducing a virus to kill off feral hogs.
- darkpuma 7y agoI don't propose introducing the virus. I propose standing back and letting the virus run it's course, should it make it to the Americas.
- soulofmischief 7y agoI'm confused why you don't take this to the next logical step. If it runs its course things could get worse. What if it jumps species? What if our livestock doesn't recover? If you read the article, it describes how hardy this virus is. That's not the kind of virus we want spreading and evolving.
- EvanAnderson 7y agoThe Bolivian tree lizard cleanup strategy: https://youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc https://youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc Skinner: Well, I was wrong; the lizards are a godsend. Lisa: But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards? Skinner: No problem. We simply release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards. Lisa: But aren't the snakes even worse? Skinner: Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat. Lisa: But then we're stuck with gorillas! Skinner: No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death. Ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2743879 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2743879
- soulofmischief 7y agoHa, thanks for sharing that. The Cobra Effect is precisely what I was alluding to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect In my home state we have tons of invasive species due to similar strategies over the years. It's a serious problem. I've been chased by wild hogs a couple times. It's scary. However the answer is obviously not a massively robust virus which kills any pig it touches.