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Alberta’s Wild Boar Control Program Had Removed 595 Animals Since 2018

Group of wild boar foraging together in grassland
Conservation · Management

Alberta, Canada’s Wild Boar Control Program reported that professional trappers had removed 595 wild boar (Sus scrofa) since the program began in 2018. The total included 108 animals removed during all of 2025 and nine more by the 10 April 2026 update; the 2026 figure is therefore only a partial-year total and is not directly comparable with the full 2025 count.

595 removals do not yet show the population effect

The program is intended to eliminate invasive wild boar from the province through coordinated monitoring and trapping. Program staff said observations from trappers and landowners suggested progress toward eradication, but that the effect on the wider population was not yet known. Alberta has begun working with researchers at the University of Calgary to develop presence–absence and population models that can provide a more quantitative measure of changes in distribution and abundance.

Alberta shifted from public hunting to coordinated whole-group trapping

The update followed regulatory changes that took effect on 1 December 2025. Wild boar are now classified as a pest in all circumstances in Alberta, and keeping, importing, selling or transporting live wild boar or hybrids generally requires a permit. Public hunting and trapping are also prohibited apart from specified exceptions, and all wild-boar kills must be reported.

Alberta says ordinary hunting is poorly suited to eradication because wild boar reproduce rapidly and surviving animals can respond to hunting pressure by becoming more nocturnal, moving to new areas and becoming harder to approach. The province instead emphasises coordinated professional trapping designed to remove whole sounders, or family groups, at once.

As spring progressed, trapping teams were approaching the end of their most effective winter trapping period. The program said summer work would shift toward scouting, camera deployment and contact with landowners to prepare for the following winter’s control operations.

Sources and image credit

  1. Saddle Hills County. (2026, April 10). Wild Boar Control Program Update.Municipal government publication relaying the April update from Hannah McKenzie, Wild Boar Specialist with Alberta’s Wild Boar Control Program. Reports 595 wild boar removed since 2018, including 108 in 2025 and nine so far in 2026, and notes ongoing work with University of Calgary researchers to quantify program effects.
  2. Government of Alberta. (2026). Wild Boar Control Program.Provincial program page confirming professional trapping, expanded monitoring and the regulatory changes in force from 1 December 2025.

Image: N. A. Naseer — group of wild boar photographed in Kerala, India, 2 February 2010; representative image, not animals from Alberta. Source: Wikimedia Commons. · CC BY-SA 2.5 IN · Source

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