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USDA kills pig at Naperville-area forest preserve

A male pig that spent weeks roaming Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve near Naperville was shot and killed Thursday by a hunter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The pig, which first was sighted last month, was slain after it was deemed a nuisance animal.

Officials with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County say the pig had to be removed because parts of Springbrook are protected.

"The Illinois Nature Preserves Commission really wanted this to be resolved and to remove the animal because of the damage it could cause," said Brian Kraskiewicz, an ecologist with the forest preserve district. "It was a very serious matter."

No one knows where the pig came from. It's possible someone didn't want the animal anymore and left it at the preserve.

But domestic pigs can quickly become feral swine and cause damage to natural areas by rooting and wallowing.

"They can damage young trees," Kraskiewicz said. "They can damage agricultural crops and plants."

Feral swine also can carry 30 different diseases, many of which are transmissible to humans.

DuPage County Animal Control officials did an investigation to determine if the pig belonged to someone. When they couldn't find an owner, they concluded the pig was a nuisance animal that could be removed by the USDA.

Authorities then set out looking for it. The effort to find and remove the pig took a couple of weeks.

"Pigs are very smart, and this is just a single pig in a large landscape," Kraskiewicz said. "It could move around a lot."

To remove it, the pig needed to be attracted to a safe area. The hunters used bait and trail cameras focused on the food to determine when the pig was coming to eat.

Using that information, the hunters made several attempts to remove it before succeeding on Thursday afternoon.

Kraskiewicz said this was his first experience dealing with a pig on the loose.

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