‘They eat everything’: Wild pigs increase around the Bay Area, causing headaches for homeowners, parks and water agencies

The wildlife you see on your next hiking trip? The rustle in your backyard at night? It might not be a raccoon or a deer.

A steady increase in the population of wild pigs — a marauding, non-native animal that can grow sharp tusks and weigh 250 pounds or more — is causing growing problems for parks, water districts and homeowners across the Bay Area.

The hogs wallow in streams, dig up lawns and gardens, eat endangered plants and animals and occasionally charge at people. They carry diseases like swine fever and can spread pathogens like E. coli to crops in farm fields.

“We’ve seen the impacts increasing,” said Doug Bell, wildlife program manager at the East Bay Regional Park District in Oakland. “They are omnivores. They vacuum up California quail, Alameda whipsnakes and other wildlife.