Pickering wild boars caught with marshmallows and peanut butter sandwiches

A month-long hunt to capture a group of wild boars ended with the sweet treat for animals who were roaming rural properties in north Pickering.

A group of 14 boars was first spotted at the beginning of November, and the City of Pickering and Ontario's Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry worked to capture them.

Wild boars are being spotted roaming around near Toronto and officials are concerned https://t.co/InwA9mVyHm #Ontario #Boars

— blogTO (@blogTO) November 15, 2021

Wild pigs, the ministry says, are an invasive species, and compete with native wildlife for food, destroy agricultural crops through rooting and trampling, and can prey on native plant and animal species.

The wild boars were finally captured in traps using a mixture of marshmallows, oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches, according to local news reports.

"It was 'fluffernutter' on a stick and a mash of oatmeal and sweet stuff," said resident Mary Delaney told the Pickering News Advertiser. Delaney saw the pigs on her property twice and she was concerned about the environmental devastation the boars would cause.

#LATEST: The wild boars were "humanely euthanized and will be sent for necropsy and research." @NWestoll.https://t.co/U7D79VivS5

— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) December 8, 2021

The last three of the 14 boars were finally trapped this week, Morgan Kerekes, an Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry spokesperson, told CityNews.

Kerekes said the boars were  "humanely euthanized and will be sent for necropsy and research."

It is not known where the pigs came from. There is speculation that they were raised in captivity and dumped in the area.

According to the City of Pickering, the animals were Eurasian Wild Boars, which are not native to Canada. They came here in the 1980s and 1990s to diversify local farming. All wild pigs in Ontario today have either escaped, been released, or are the offspring of rogue boars from farms.