Inconclusive sighting

Pig (feral) at Bruce, ACT

Sus scrofa at Bruce, ACT - 18 Aug 2024
Sus scrofa at Bruce, ACT - 18 Aug 2024
Sus scrofa at Bruce, ACT - 18 Aug 2024
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Identification history

Comments from moderator

Seeing the comments I think this one cannot be confirmed as a feral pig. CarbonAI has got the wrong ID and should be overruled.
Insufficient or inconclusive evidence 9 Sep 2024 MichaelBedingfield
Sus scrofa 18 Aug 2024 CarbonAI
Sus scrofa 18 Aug 2024 ConBoekel

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User's notes

Did not see an animal. Typical pig style of digging... I considered alternatives... wombat, birds like White-winged Chough and rabbit. None really fit. Checked for faeces and tracks but could not find any. The depth of digging suggests that the animal(s) may have been young rather than adult. Digging estimated to have occurred inside the past fortnight.

5 comments

   18 Aug 2024
Highly unlikely to be pigs in that location.
ConBoekel wrote:
   18 Aug 2024
I agree. I would be more than happy to be wrong on this one.
DonFletcher wrote:
   19 Aug 2024
@ConBoekel @SteveBorkowskis , I find scale is difficult to grasp with these types of things, even when the photo includes a scale bar, but for me, this digging seems to be in the overlap zone between species, including domestic hens, lyrebirds, pigs and cockatoos, except the digging in the first photo may be too deep for cockatoos. And it does not seem to be within the NORMAL range for either rabbit, echidna, bandicoot, or kangaroo, but perhaps could be due to some exceptional aspect regarding those species. Which all is vague without supplementary evidence. To me it seems more like a lyrebird than anything else, but that seems unlikely in this location. Both pigs and Lyrebirds have been recorded on Black Mt so they are not completely, utterly impossible. But what about a stray rooster or hen from the nearby suburb?
ConBoekel wrote:
   19 Aug 2024
Hi Don
Thank you.
I doubt domestic chicken. Some of the holes were deeper, longer and broader than normal Su Crest Cocky diggings. I was aware of the Lyrebird records for Black Mountain. They might just be Lyrebird but the diggings are in open grassland.
The photographs are not good indications. There were what seemed to be single scoops which were up to 6-7 cm deep and 11-12 cm long. There were continuous patches of digging of up to 2 sqm, quite unlike echidnas. No rabbit scats in the vicinity. Some very old kangaroo scats in the vicinity. No wombat scats in the vicinity.
danswell wrote:
   19 Aug 2024
Doesn't look anything like pig sign to me. Diggings of a bird perhaps?

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Sighting information

Species information

  • Sus scrofa Scientific name
  • Pig (feral) Common name
  • Sensitive
  • Exotic
  • Minor weed or pest
  • Up to 1945m Recorded at altitude
  • 122 images trained Machine learning

Record quality

  • Images or audio
  • More than one media file
  • Verified by an expert moderator
  • Nearby sighting(s) of same species
  • GPS evidence of location
  • Description
  • Additional attributes
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