Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima's exclusion zone

[Klaralven]

...

However, the scientists were not prepared for the true prospect that awaited them, as related in a report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal.

The local wild boar – a subspecies endemic to the region known as the Japanese Boar (aka Sus scrofa leucomystax or the White-Moustached Pig) – having created a fiefdom covering all of the locale vacated by over 160,000 displaced humans, became cocky and aggressive, and also lost their natural wariness.

The marauding boar also began interbreeding with escaped domestic pigs that had made good with their trotters from local farms after their human keepers had been forced to flee. The pigs, for their part, were ill-suited to life in the wild in a radioactive, post-apocalyptic hellscape and presumably threw in their lot with the tough, wily boar as their best chance of survival.

The result was a new kind of boar-pig hybrid that originated in the initial exclusion zone within 20km of the site of the nuclear plant, where radiation levels were presumably highest. The study found that the hybrids did not display any signs of mutation, despite the doses of radiation they were subjected to. Indeed, surveys of the local boar population found they are contaminated by up to 300 times the safe human dosage of the lethal isotope caesium-137 [PDF]. In other words, they are highly radioactive and seemingly virtually indestructible.

These hybrids now comprise up to 10 per cent of the local population, evidently combining the wild-smarts of their boar ancestors with an enjoyment of the finer things which human civilisation can bring, inherited from their domesticated forebears.

https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/01/radioactive_hybrid_terror_pigs_fukushima/

[Ocelot II]

1. I can imagine a really interesting Japanese horror movie based on this.

Giant radioactive wild boars. It will be awesome, better than Godzilla or Mothra.

[royable]

2. There are some pretty nasty wormy-evil-infested giant wild boars in Princess Mononoke. n/t

[Ocelot II]

3. But are they radioactive?

[Hekate]

8. Godzilla and Mothra were part of a post-Hiroshima genre. Are we now expecting a ...

…post-Fukushima genre?

Sure, why not?

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Or, in another direction, it makes the pig transformation at the end of Animal Farm

more plausible.

[panader0]

19. I was thinking 'Lord of the Flies'

"kill the pig, slit his throat, bash him in"

[BlueSpot]

4. Sign them up for a death match with the murder hornets n/t

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. First thing I thought of when reading the subject line...

Boar God from Princess Mononoke.

[Hekate]

9. Fabulous. I love Princess Mononoke. nt

[Ferrets are Cool]

16. It is a classic. Spirited Away is also.

I just watched Mugen Train, and while it is good, I think the pandemic had a lot to do with it breaking all the prior anime box office records. It certainly is not as good a movie as Mononoke, Spirited Away or Akira. IMO

[Hekate]

25. I collected just about everything I could from Studio Ghibli & watched them with my grandson...

…Several times each. Miyazaki was a genius.

The only disappointment in the lot was Earthsea, which was an artistically-rendered botch — his son seemed to be working out some deep Oedipal issues, and Ursula LeGuin was the victim.

[Ferrets are Cool]

28. I agree with every word you typed

[Klaralven]

11. +1

[GulfCoast66]

6. Take away the radiation and lack of humans are you have wild pigs in America.

When I’m deer hunting deep in the woods the only animals I’m prepared to shoot besides deer, are feral
Dogs and feral hogs. Because they can be a threat.

I’ll would only shoot dogs if a threat. But wild pigs are a menace and not native to North America.

The rules in our family camp, even if it messes up your deer hunt, is you shoot every hog you see. They are as bad as pythons in the Everglades. And can be dangerous as well.

I’ve not seen one since maybe 2016 or 17. Best pork I’ve ever had.

Once they go feral they quickly revert to their natural state. They are smart and big. Even a bear or panther will not mess with a grown one. Big assed gators will! A friend took photos of a 12 footer taking a full grown hog.

[littlemissmartypants]

7. That was an entertaining read.

Thanks for sharing this, Klaralven. Matt Dupuy is an interesting writer, very colorful. ❤

[KY_EnviroGuy]

10. But are they being guided by Jewish space lasers?

If so, they could be responsible for shifting 2020 election results via abandoned computers in those villages.....

Ya gotta admit that OP title reads like the intro to a right-wing conspiracy theory.

(snip)

The future of the Fukushima terror pigs is hard to predict. If they had the intelligence to team up and combine into one unstoppable force, an indestructible boar army of that nature would surely be able to overrun the rest of the Japanese archipelago and, The Reg fears, possibly the whole world.

Seriously, it's hard to believe the DNA of those animals has not been altered by radiation which may result in some serious problems long-term even if they return to their natural habitat in the mountains.

KY.......

[Renew Deal]

13. How do I get some of that tasty nuclear bacon?

[LiberatedUSA]

14. That was an entertaining read. Thanks!

[Buns_of_Fire]

15. And yet, out of this simmering goo of boiled DNA came our new champion:

[Botany]

17. @ a drive in near you, The Attack of the Radioactive Japanese Hogs & Jewish Space Lasers of Death

[smirkymonkey]

26. LOL! I thought this was going to be an Onion article!

The headline just seems too out there too be real. Man, this planet is so screwed!

[hatrack]

18. I, for one, welcome our new radioactive porcine overlords!!

[TxGuitar]

20. Radioactive hybrid terror pigs

Saw them in the 80s at a small club in Houston. Really intense show!

[hatrack]

21. I remember that show - Murder Hornets were the opening act!!

.

[TxGuitar]

22. The were all the buzz that summer too!

[hatrack]

23. Some stinging guitar leads, too . . .

[Marrah_Goodman]

24. I welcome our new Radioactive Hybrid Terror Boar Overlords!!!

[DFW]

27. Coming soon to a theater near you

Teenage Mutant Ninja Swine