WEBVTT

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Texas has a problem.

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And what we're doing here is one solution.

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We're out here searching for feral hogs –

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animals that cause

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tons of economic and ecological damage.

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And if we find them...

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These hogs are invasive.

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And actually better for the environment

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dead than alive,

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so it's open hunting season all year in Texas,

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to get rid of as many as possible.

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And you can also eat them –

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this is wild hog just breaded and fried.

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Invasive species impact

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many different ecosystems all over the world.

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They're super destructive, and hard to control.

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A lot of the time there aren't many options

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for how to deal with them.

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So is what they're doing here a good solution?

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Should we be eating invasive species?

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As almost always,

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it was no fault of the animals

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that they became an issue.

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Pigs were brought to the United States

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by colonizers from Europe.

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Some of those pigs escaped, and went feral,

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eventually interbreeding with Eurasian boars

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that were intentionally released for hunting.

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"So there are essentially no natural checks

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 on this animal

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in the Western Hemisphere.

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The ecosystem is not built for it.

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We don't have native pigs

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in the Western Hemisphere."

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John Tomecek is a wildlife biologist

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at A&M University in Texas.

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"And so now we're living in the reality of

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this animal.

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This hybrid has the characteristics

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of a wild animal

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but has as many offspring as domestic pigs."

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That's one of the reasons that feral hogs

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have spread so much in the United States.

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Sometimes they are also transported

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to create hunting opportunities,

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leading to the establishment

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of new populations.

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And as more land is used for crop production,

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the hogs get more opportunities

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for easy food and shelter.

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It's estimated

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that there are at least

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six million animals in the US.

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Nearly half are in Texas.

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And they cause a lot of problems.

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"We know that every year there's

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in excess of $500 million of damage done

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by pigs

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or feral hogs, excuse me."

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And that's mostly to agriculture and property.

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It doesn't even include environmental damage.

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For comparison, all tornadoes in the US in 2022

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cost around 700 million dollars.

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One way the hogs cause problems

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is by foraging for food.

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With native animals it can be beneficial,

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but it can also cause damage –

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especially in areas where soils are fragile or dry.

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They also prefer to eat native species,

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chomping through oak,

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pecan, hickory and walnut trees,

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as well as birds and sea turtles.

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And because pigs can't effectively sweat,

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they gather around water sources,

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contaminating them with feces.

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These piggies are also tough.

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They have incredibly sharp tusks

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and hard skin on their shoulders

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that makes them difficult to kill.

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In Texas, they have no predators.

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But invasive species aren't only a problem

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in Texas or in the United States.

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Wild boar are causing an uproar in Italy,

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lionfish have invaded

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the Caribbean and Mediterranean,

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Norway's waters are full of red king crabs,

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and Canada is plagued

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by Chinese mystery snails.

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The list goes on and on.

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"They are a species that

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is able to reproduce very fast,

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tolerate different temperatures,

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and sometimes

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they are better at acquiring resources,

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say food or refuges."

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Morelia Camacho-Cervantes is a biologist

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and the director of the invasive species lab

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at her university.

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"Catastrophically we could end

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with a population that is huge

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of a species that has never been there,

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and it's the only thing you find there."

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Like with these lionfish.

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They eat other fish and crustaceans,

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have painful poisonous spines,

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and can lay thousands of eggs every few days.

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By outcompeting or eating everything else,

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they can destroy whole ecosystems.

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It's not their fault, but like the hogs,

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they don't belong

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and they're destroying the environment.

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"I'm not mad at these animals.

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I'm really not.

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But I don't have a choice.

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And in terms of conservation,

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they have to go.

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And our options are fairly limited."

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And one of those limited options is hunting.

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"This ranch about an hour outside of Austin

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has tons of feral hogs running around on it,

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and the owner is happy

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for people to come out here and kill them."

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We met with a hunter

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to see what it was all about.

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"Amanda"

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"Jeff"
"Nice to meet you."

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"Good to see you, Amanda."

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The hogs are nocturnal,

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so we had to wait until it was dark

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to try and find some.

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In the meantime we went to go fill up feeders

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used to attract animals.

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"How do you know where the hogs are?"

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"We typically have game cameras

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on those feeders,

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and we can basically see

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what's been coming into that feeder

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and about what time.

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And that can gives us some clue.
to hunt that animal.

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If you see something that came in yesterday,

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there's a lot better chance

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that it'll come in today,

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than if they did'nt come in yesterday.

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But it´s never a guarantee."

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It's less than 50/50."

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"Pretty smart then?"

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"Yup."

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"If they see some hunters,

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then they won't come back the next day

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to that same area?"

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"If a hunter took a shot at a pig yesterday,

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there's virtually no chance

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that pig will come anywhere close

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for a long time."

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Even though they're everywhere,

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it can be really hard to catch them.

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"Did you say pig pipe?"

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"We call it a pig pipe."

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Which naturally requires some target practice.

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"You shoot using your right eye?"

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"Uh, yes."

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"You're not missing it by much..."

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"Boom!

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There you go."

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When it got late enough

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we loaded up the gun

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and drove to where the hogs had been yesterday

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and waited.

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"Wow, these are really good binoculars..."

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And waited...

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And waited...

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In the end we only saw a couple of turkeys

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and left,

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but when we checked the cameras later...

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we were outsmarted.

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This is a serious downside

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to hunting individual animals:

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it's not super effective.

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The hogs obviously knew we were there

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and avoided the area until we were gone.

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But I was a bit relieved –

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the idea of killing an animal,

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especially such a smart one,

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did make me nervous.

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And I'm not the only one.

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"The closer species are to us,

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the more difficult it is to eradicate them.

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Once they have arrived where they don’t belong,

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you would have to

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eradicate them pretty quickly.

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And by eradicating I do mean killing."

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This is the case with all invasive species.

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Relocating them doesn't work

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because they will just cause a problem

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somewhere else.

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They can also be trapped or poisoned.

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People in Texas also enjoy shooting them

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from helicopters with machine guns.

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But while that seems ridiculous,

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it's what experts do,

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because the whole group of hogs is killed,

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so can't teach others how to avoid humans.

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If carcasses are heavily diseased,

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they're landfilled,

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but otherwise they're left

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for other animals to eat,

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gone within a few days.

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Even so, mass shooting animals

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and leaving them

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seems like a waste.

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So some people get creative.

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"Hey."

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"Hey."

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"Amanda."

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"Jesse."

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"Nice to meet you."

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"So nice to meet you."

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"Should we go on inside?"

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"Ya."

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Because where you find edible invasive species,

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"Wow. I'm going to get out of the way here."

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you also find people who are eating them.

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"So this is a hog that they got in this morning,

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and he's about to break it down."

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"So, how did you come up with the idea

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to serve wild boar in your restaurant?"

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"They're delicious, they're underutilized,

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they need to be controlled.

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We have to kill something like 70% of them

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every year

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to keep the population where it is,

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which is not going to happen.

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If we don't do something with them

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we're going to have a far worse problem.

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It's kind of an inarguable source of protein.

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Every pound of feral hog that we're able to serve

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is also one less pound

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that's coming out of

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a broken industrial meat system."

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"So this is the cut I want you to try."

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"Do you use everything?"

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"Yes. Of this carcass everything will be used –

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the bones will go into stock,

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a lot of it will go into stuff like sausage."

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"I spoke to somebody from A&M

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who said that they need to basically go out

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and shoot a bunch of them all the time.

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How do you kind of feel about that situation?"

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"My role, our role,

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is what do we do with the dead pigs.

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Other peoples' role is making them dead.

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A&M, they're approaching it –

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they're not thinking like

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'Oh can we make chorizo out of that',

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or 'Is it a nice acorn-fed one

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that we're going to get chops.'

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They're thinking

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'This sounder came in last night

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and devastated this farmer's fields,

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we need to eradicate that species at all costs.'"

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I haven't eaten pork in over a decade

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for environmental reasons

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but decided to try this one.

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"Just take this mallet, and pretty gently,

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you don't want to use it...

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not like a hammer."

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"This is much harder than it seems."

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"If it came down to just one meat

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that I was forced to say

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is the best one for us to consume,

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I wouldn't even pause.

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It's this one, right here."

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"Oh it's really good."

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"Good?"

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"Ya it's awesome, yea, it's really good.

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I can definitely see

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why you serve it in your restaurant."

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In Mexico, invasive lionfish

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also end up on plates.

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"Locals started fishing them

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with the purpose of consuming it.

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And then they were very creative

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with the recipes they were making

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 and they were selling a lot.

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So they were fishing a lot.

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And now they have populations

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that are very small."

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Eating them doesn't just solve

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what to do with the dead animals,

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it also provides an incentive

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for people to kill them.

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Without it, people need to be convinced.

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"We have to think about preserving

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what we already have out there,

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which is already pretty threatened.

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It is difficult for a lot of people to understand."

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There isn't much of a choice when it comes to

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getting rid of invasive species.

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And while hunting them for food

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isn't the most effective solution,

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it is a palatable one.

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And if the protein can replace industrial meat,

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it's doubly sustainable.

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In the end, it's humans' fault

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these species are there in the first place,

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but that doesn't make killing them any easier.

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I for one am happy I didn't have to do it,

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but also that someone out there is.

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So should we be eating invasive species?

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Let us know what you think

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and subscribe for new videos every Friday.