Feral pigs. Every time I say that, I grin. I heard once that any joke with a duck in it is naturally funnier. I think the same goes for feral pigs. Too bad they’re a top-notch invasive species. The New Yorker ran an entertaining story on feral hogs back in December, including a nice riff on feral hog distribution as it correlates with political leanings. But now it looks like Oregon, too, is going to the pigs. From KTVZ.com:

“These animals have the capability to create incredible damage across a large area,” said Bruce Coblentz, a fisheries and wildlife scientist in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “One pig on one golf course in one night can cause $50,000 to $60,000 in damages. They are extreme generalists with a capacity for tremendous growth.”

Quotes like this can only make you root for hogs all the more, and even fantasize about sending the critters to Phoenix. But this story actually has an interesting core: Hog spread in Oregon also corresponds to global warming.

“They tend to be most successful in warmer, wetter areas and are often found in riparian zones,” he said. “It used to be a population would die off due to freezing temperatures, but we’re not having winters like we used to, and we’re seeing the results in range expansion.”

It seems that we’re completely in the dark when it comes to understanding what the true implications of global warming will be. We talk about doomed polar bears and rising sea levels, but who expected a plague of swine?