| Summary: | Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are now the most widely distributed wild large mammal in the world and they cause dramatic impacts on agriculture and the environment. Wild pigs were first introduced to the Canadian prairies in the 1980s and are now present in all Canadian provinces except those in the farthest east in Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador). A telephone survey was conducted with 3007 rural Canadians in all ten provinces in order to quantify the level of awareness and concern regarding invasive wild pig impacts in their province. Rural Canadians have overall low awareness of the presence of wild pigs in their region. As expected, awareness of wild pigs was lowest in provinces where they were absent or rare (<10% of respondents aware in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada), low in the two provinces where wild pigs are well established and relatively widespread in rural areas (22% of respondents aware in Alberta and Manitoba), and moderate awareness in the one province with by far the most expansive distribution of wild pigs (42% of respondents aware in Saskatchewan). In Atlantic Canada where there are no known wild pigs, 2% of respondents incorrectly indicated that they were aware of their presence. Concerns regarding impacts were overall moderate to low, with no province having a mean concern level ≥ 7 out of 10) for crop damage, livestock predation and harassment, structural damage, environmental impacts, threats to native wildlife, disease transmission to humans, or disease transmission to wildlife and livestock, and threats to human safety and well-being. Since rural Canadians experience the direct and indirect impacts from invasive wild pigs, our findings will inform management efforts and help to effectively engage rural Canadians in this rapidly emerging crisis. Communication and collaboration efforts through a range of conventional and social media are needed to help inform rural Canadians about the presence of ...
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