Thermal drones combined with fledgling artificial intelligence programs are showing promise in strengthening Alberta’s defences against invasive, destructive wild boar.

“We’re trying to bring a lot of different tools to bear on the problem. And drones are one of them,” said Hannah McKenzie, the Alberta government wild boar specialist who helped lead a government study called the Wild Boar at Large Detection Project.

A new report details a collaboration between Alberta Agriculture and the University of Calgary, aimed at testing a new form of aerial surveillance to track the animals, which are considered a mounting agricultural and ecological threat across the Prairies.

The report, published in late March on the Alberta government website, said automated drones equipped with infrared cameras offer an “innovative and non-invasive” alternative to traditional detection methods.

In spring of 2024, researchers deployed thermal drones that had sensors to detect heat radiation from boar bodies. Thermal imaging works best at night, when the heat signatures captured on camera are more distinct from their comparatively cold surroundings.

The researchers then trained artificial intelligence programs to analyze the footage and accurately identify wild boar and record how many were spotted.

“It really helps with maximizing efficiency in terms of field work, but also gives us just a different tool to monitor a species that is difficult to monitor,” McKenzie said.

‘A huge part of the battle’

Traditional tracking methods — like ground tracking, helicopter surveys or even trail cameras — often fall short because wild boar are nocturnal, intelligent and wary of any human activity. 

“When pigs see any sign of human activity, they get into heavy, heavy cover and just disappear. So being able to look down from the air is just invaluable,” said Ryan Brook, a University of Saskatchewan professor and the lead researcher for the Canadian Wild Pig Research Project. 

“As the cameras get better, the technology improves, we’re just going to see better capacity to find these pigs … and that’s a huge part of the battle.” 

Brook said thermal drones have shown promise battling wild boar infestations elsewhere in Canada and the United States. 

Sows and piglets usually travel in groups known as sounders. The technology provides a view of these roaming families across vast landscapes, without pushing them into hiding. 

An elusive beast

Alberta’s feral pig population includes Eurasian wild boar but also hybrids of the Eurasian breed and domestic pigs — escaped farm animals and their descendants.

Classified as a pest species, these hybrids — often described as super pigs — are incredibly destructive. 

They are highly adaptable omnivores, which usually weigh between 55 and 115 kilograms — roughly 120 to 250 pounds. They are also prolific breeders, with sows capable of producing two litters every 12 to 15 months. 

Herds trample natural habitats, devour crops and harass livestock. They contaminate water sources by wallowing in wetlands, and carry diseases, including African swine fever, that can spread to domesticated pigs.

“It would be immensely destructive to Alberta’s pork industry if there was a case detected in Alberta,” McKenzie said. “That’s why people are pushing hard now to eliminate wild boar, before that happens.”

Up until now, the provincial government’s wild boar programs have been “reactive,” according to McKenzie. These include a “Squeal on Pigs” tip line for sightings and a now-defunct bounty program. 

Alberta’s current eradication efforts are focused on monitoring, trapping, new regulations tightly restricting wild boar farms and a ban on wild boar sport hunting.

The drone project could open the door for Alberta to go on the offensive.

The project had three main goals, according to the report: train AI programs to effectively detect wild boar; create a standardized database for sightings; and harness AI to construct a digital habitat map that will predict where feral herds are most likely to be found in Alberta. 

A tale of two farms 

Two Alberta boar operations were used as testing grounds, with drones covering more than  3,000 kilometres during the course of the field work in the spring of 2024.

Thermal images from the first farm, located in the Peace River area about 390 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, were used to train and validate the AI models.  

The second farm, closer to Edmonton, offered more natural cover for testing how the programs would perform in the wild. 

To gather movement data, researchers also equipped a wild sow — dubbed a “spy pig” — with a GPS collar to lead them to active ranges in the wild and used drone footage from researchers in Manitoba to help train the AI programs.

The project tested two AI models, feeding them footage from the drone flights as well other datasets filled with aerial images of wild boar. Researchers were able to access additional thermal imagery of wild boar from partners in Manitoba and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to the report. 

Both programs were able to scan the herds with a detection accuracy of over 75 per cent. 

Despite the promising results, some challenges remain, McKenzie said. Both models struggled to detect small piglets and occasionally misidentified groups of wild boar as a single large animal.

Thermal sensors can be tricked by warm rocks or branches, while dense tree canopies can block heat signatures. Additionally, the AI programs sometimes struggled to distinguish wild pigs from other wildlife, like deer, said the report.

McKenzie said future research should focus on training the programs to better differentiate wild boar from different species and to identify boar across a variety of landscapes.

“We realized that we also need to collect data of a lot of other species so that we’re not just training the model of what wild boar are, but we’re also training it what wild boar aren’t.”

McKenzie said the technology, once perfected, could be used to survey wild boar populations in the event of a disease outbreak, assist in GPS tracking of sounders and eventually help Alberta get a better handle on the total size of its wild boar population. 

Mapping their territory

The project also developed a habitat suitability map to predict where wild boar species are most likely to live in Alberta. 

Mathieu Pruvot, a veterinary epidemiology expert at the University of Calgary, said the modelling layered public sightings with habitat information to help map potential hotspots, including areas surrounding Edmonton and Grande Prairie.

Pruvot said areas where wild boar farms have operated or still operate have a history of pig escapees. Access to water and crops can also make certain areas more susceptible to infestation, he said.

He said the model will remain a “work in progress” and will help inform future mitigation efforts, by making it clear where resources are needed most to combat wild boar.

It’s all part of an increasingly collaborative, long-term monitoring program, he said.  

“We’ve learned over the years that wild pigs are very, very cryptic,” he said. “They hide away very well and there is no single method that  is sufficient to detect where these things are.”

Brook said the drone project and Alberta’s recent change in strategy should be applauded.

But he warned that true eradication of wild boar is decades away and requires a national, science-based strategy to outsmart a species that does not respect provincial boundaries.

“In a lot of ways, Alberta is in the front of the pack.”