Wild Pigs in the Pacific Islands

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are perhaps the most abundant, widespread, and ecologically significant introduced large vertebrate currently found on oceanic islands in the Pacific basin. They have been most studied in the Hawaiian Islands, where they are most commonly known as feral pigs, and are representative of many other Pacific islands. The spatial and temporal distribution of wild pigs in the Pacific islands coincides almost entirely with the prehistoric discovery and contemporary human occupation of these islands. Wild pigs in Hawaii today represent a mixture of several strains of domestic swine, Asiatic wild boar, and European wild boar (Diong 1982, Tomich 1986). Pigs now occupy all but the most arid regions of many Pacific islands and are especially abundant in densely forested landscapes.