The pig has feral populations all over the world, including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. Pigs were introduced to the Melanesian and Polynesian regions by humans from several thousand to five hundred years ago, and to Australia and the Americas within the past 500 years. While pigs were brought to New Zealand by the original Polynesian settlers, this population had become extinct by the time of European settlement. All feral pigs in New Zealand today have come from European farm animals. Many European wild boar populations are also come from escaped domestic pigs and are technically feral animals, although they live in the native range of the ancestral species.