A new study recently revealed that wild boars have been mating with pigs, producing new hybrid species.
As indicated in a Mail Online report, the 2011 Fukushima disaster of Japan has resulted in a unique "boar-pig species."
Researchers examining the effects of the nuclear disaster on animals in the region reported that radiation had had no negative effects on their genetics.
Nevertheless, wild boars, also called Sus scrofa leucomystax, as described in the National Library of Medicine, have multiplied in the area after being left to freely roam from the lack of humans.
Boars Reproducing with Domestic Pigs
The boars have reproduced with domestic pigs, also known as Sus scrofa domesticus, that fled from nearby properties after farmers needed to escape, developing a new hybrid species.
The study has been led by Donovan Anderson, a Japan-based Fukushima University researcher, who has been driving through the land exclusion zone around the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
For this study, "Introgression dynamics from invasive pigs into wild boar following the March 2011 natural and anthropogenic disasters at Fukushima", published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Anderson, together with colleagues, examined DNA samples from muscles of over 240 wild boars, pigs and boar-pig hybrids collected from local slaughterhouses.
Results specified that 31 wild boars or 16 percent of the wild boars from the excavated zone were hybrids. The study authors said their work shows hybridization between pigs and native wild boars in the area.
The researchers also said they recommend that future studies examine these hybrids and better characterize their environmental niche.
Radioactive Boar-Pigs
The research team explained the domestic pig's genetic legacy has been "diluted" through time because of the breeding.
Whereas boar-pigs are radioactive, the research did not associate radioactivity with the development of the new hybrid species.
According to Anderson, the wild boars and pigs have cross-bred has nothing to do with radiation. While board and hybrids, the researcher continued, are technically retroactive, the radiation did not have anything to do with the genetic changes, and this was the fault of the pigs.
As detailed in the World Nuclear Association site, the wild boar in Fukushima is still comparatively contaminated and can range from zero-detection of radionuclides to 30,000 becquerels per kilogram.
The researcher explained, the wild boar in the area moved to more "diurnal behavior." Meaning, inside the evacuation site, the wild boars are, in general, more active during the daytime compared to other boars, which tend to be more nocturnal. This, he added, is more than possible as there are fewer human threats or disturbances.
Initiatives to Reduce Radiation Levels
The Japanese government approximates that the boar populace has risen from 49,000 to 62,000 boars from 2014 to 2018, although Anderson's team is expecting the figures to be higher than that.
Since 2018, humans have been going back to the exclusion zone of Fukushima, although the hybrid boars may prove difficult to shift.
The majority of the site is now reopened, and people are slowly coming back. Nevertheless, some regions still stay evacuated or closed, especially nearer the nuclear power plant.
Anderson added it would be interesting to find out how the wild boards and hybrids respond as humans go back to the area.
Future dangers for wild boar in this site, including the new boar-pig hybrid, include disease outbreaks and human-associated disruptions being revitalized, the researchers caution in their study.
Related information about boar-pig hybrids is shown on Peter Scheid's YouTube video below:
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