It had been centuries since boar roamed wild in England, but a few dispatches this week tell those of us elsewhere that this has changed. Just ask the people near the Royal Forest of Dean and the Vale of Leadon in the nation’s west, near Wales. It’s also near Malvern Link, home of Morgan sports cars, one of which I once owned and whose birthplace I visited as a young man, but never mind that. It’s the pigs, and some other reintroduced and just plain alien species that are in the news.

At Reuters, Alexander Clare reports on the trouble that hungry boar – escapees from a farm and their descendants – are getting into as they raid garbage bins, rototill gardens, and do their natural piggy things.  The recent snows may be a factor in their sallies lately from the woods and into neighborhoods. Plus, the picture is striking – what a profile. A question: One not only didn’t know England has boar farms, but wonders whether the ones now are genetically close to or identical to those that were originally wild in the country.

Some of the same news is at the Mirror, which has a picture of a houseyard raid in progress, and where Richard Smith adds to his story a short list of other, but fully introduced creatures now wild in England. They include a wallaby and a parakeet. One wonders how some of them are doing in the cold.

Speaking of cold weather and invasive species:

• Christian Science Monitor – Patrick Jonsson (Jan 9, one of several stories on this): Snow in Florida: Big chill culling unwanted iguanas and pythons ; Let the lizards die and shoot the big snakes while they’re out sunning, say some of the same state officials who are running campaigns to rescue chilled natives such as manatees and sea turtles.

- Charlie Petit

This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2010 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Environment & Energy Stories, Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.