LANSING, MI (AP)-- Scientists plan to trap up to 18 feral swine and fit them with radio collars in a five-year project to learn more about the unwanted critters' movements and habits in rural Michigan.
Researchers with Michigan State University and the University of Michigan at Flint will participate in the $500,000 study funded by the state and U.S. agriculture departments.
Michigan State wildlife professor Gary Roloff says getting rid of the animals requires a better understanding of how they spread and how their rooting behavior damages woods and farmlands.
Scientists experimented with trapping and collaring one swine this summer. The larger trapping effort will begin in January.
Officials say Russian boars and other exotic swine numbers are growing rapidly in the U.S., which could spread disease to domestic hogs.