Star file photo More than 5,000 pigs like this one were systematically killed to preserve native species on Santa Cruz Island.

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In an effort to save the endangered Island Fox, the National Park service hired professional hunters in the Spring of 2005 to rid the island of feral pigs.
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Thousands of wild pigs on Santa Cruz Island that destroyed plants and dug up Chumash archaeological sites over the years have been killed in one of the largest pig eradication projects in the world.

Officials announced Tuesday that 5,036 pigs were systematically killed in a $5 million, two-year effort to restore the island to its natural state.

"This is a huge milestone," said Kate Faulkner, chief of natural resources for Channel Islands National Park, which co-owns Santa Cruz Island with The Nature Conservancy.

More than 150 years ago, farmers ferried pigs to the area as they tried to eke out an existence on California's largest island.

Over the years, the pigs escaped from their pens, bred with non-native wild boars and settled into a life of rooting through the vast grasslands for acorns and grubs hidden underneath an array of plants — some found nowhere else on earth.

As the pig population swelled into the thousands, the hairy, tusked creatures' effects were broadly felt as they destroyed plant populations and archaeological sites, and on occasion had run-ins with hikers.

Last pig killed a year ago

Although the last pig was killed in July 2006, scientists have been monitoring the island since then to make sure no others were left that could re-establish the population there. The project was the second largest of its kind in the world, bested only by one on the storied Galapagos Islands.

The effects of removing the pigs are already apparent, said Lotus Vermeer, the conservancy's project director for the island. Without pigs rooting through the soil and eating acorns and roots, oaks are starting to spring up and lilies that were once scarce are being seen in dense patches, she said.

"It's so exciting to be able to go to the island and see a lot of the native flora make a comeback," Vermeer said. "This is one of the more successful restoration programs anywhere."

Other native plants are expected to do better without the pigs spreading non-native seeds or disturbing the soil. "The pigs were like rototillers," Vermeer said.

Plants aren't the only things benefiting from the absence of the pigs. Non-native golden eagles were lured by the baby pigs, which were easy prey. While there, the golden eagles also feasted on foxes, which are about the size of a house cat. The foxes, found nowhere else in the world, are on the endangered species list, and biologists have captive-breeding programs to boost their numbers.

In recent years, biologists have been trapping and relocating the golden eagles while reintroducing bald eagles, which prey mainly on marine life as adults.

Dogs, helicopters used

The process of eradicating the pigs was a highly orchestrated affair, complete with packs of dogs and helicopters.

A professional hunting company from New Zealand, Prohunt, was brought in to kill what was initially estimated to be about 2,000 pigs. The island was fenced off into five sections, where pigs were methodically taken from each part.

As many as 30 dogs were used to track and corral the pigs, which were then shot twice in the head. Hunters would sometimes shoot from a small helicopter, always using non-lead bullets to avoid contaminating young eagles, which often eat dead animals.

Unless they were shot in a riverbed, the pigs were left where they were killed, Faulkner said. Eagles and ravens quickly picked over the remains, and most of the skeletons are now hard to find, she said.

At the start of the project, animal rights groups opposed the hunt, calling it inhumane and an unnecessary solution to the problem.

During the process, the hunters found a few archaeological sites as well as a few old human remains, which were reburied by people in the Chumash community, Vermeer said.

Pigs multiplied rapidly

The final count of 5,036 pigs represented the upper limits of the historical pig population, Vermeer said. As recently as 2002, there were only about 1,000 pigs on the island. But with the females having as many as three litters a year, with as many as 10 piglets in each litter, the population quickly mushroomed.

The pig eradication came on the heels of a project to remove and transport thousands of sheep from the island in the early 1990s. The sheep chewed parts of the land bare, killing native plants and severely changing the landscape.

Now, with both the sheep and pigs gone, the island is expected to start returning to its natural state.

"We have all these stories of gloom and doom" about the environment these days, Vermeer said. "This is a story about hope and success and species making a comeback."