Countywide : Pig Extermination on Island Delayed

The first phase of a program to kill 4,000 wild pigs on one of the Channel Islands off Ventura County has been postponed until the beginning of June, officials said Monday.

Channel Islands National Park officials are planning to hunt and shoot the entire wild pig population on Santa Rosa Island in three years.

The program was to begin May 15, but was delayed two weeks to allow the wildlife biologist on the project to finish his master’s degree, said Gary Davis, park service research scientist.

“We’ve already purchased some of the equipment for the biologist and hunters,” he said.

The feral pigs, which were first brought to Santa Rosa Island in 1850 by European settlers as livestock, are a “serious nuisance” to the island’s native plant and animal communities, Davis said. The island oak and ironwood trees are especially endangered, and the pigs feed on ground-nesting birds, amphibians and reptiles.

The first phase of the program, expected to cost up to $100,000, will begin with the biologist going to the 54,000-acre island and estimating how many pigs are there, where they are living and if they are in good health. Then about two-thirds of the population will be trapped and killed, and those that evade the traps will be hunted, Davis said.

About two years ago, the park service estimated that 1,200 to 1,400 wild pigs were living on the island, but that number is probably lower now because of the recent drought, Davis said.

“We’re at the end of a four-year drought, and this is a good time to push alien species off the island because the native species are adapted to these periodic droughts,” Davis said. “We want to make a hard push before the winter rains come.”