War Against the Wild Hog

Feral hog, Eurasian wild boar, and hybrids that are a result of crossbreeding the two, are all found in the United States. And it appears that this fifth most intelligent animal in the world is taking over!

At the moment there is an estimated population of 6 million feral pigs in the United States and 2.6 million are located in Texas! Since hogs are highly adaptable animals and can survive in all sorts of different climates and terrain, it’s not unusual that they live in a variety of habitats ranging from the moist pine forests in East Texas to the brush country of South Texas.

Hogs are not picky eaters, in fact they are omnivorous consuming both plants and animals. Their insatiable appetite has strongly influenced the decline of quail populations, destruction of wild turkey nests, plant species and generally disrupting the entire food chain. Unfortunately attempts to keep the growing hog population under control has shown little to no result. To make matters worse, hogs easily contract infections and diseases like swine brucellosis and pseudorabies that can easily be transmitted to domestic pigs. Just another issue to be concerned about.

Hogs are medium sized, nocturnal animals, with razor-sharp tusks living in groups called “sounds.” Trapping, for example, has proven to work well in areas with low populations, but has one major fault. Since hogs travel in groups (sounds), rarely all are caught at once and being quick-witted, the hogs that were lucky enough to escape, learn to avoid the area.

They have extremely sharp hearing and eyesight, sensing a hunter from a hundred yards away. Hogs will rarely attack unprovoked but this is not a pig you want to injure. They are fast and will charge using their powerful tusks to inflict harm. Possibly the only way out of this tricky situation would be to climb a tree.

Wildlife agents in Texas have turned to hunting wild pigs from helicopters as the most cost-effective method of pig control even though the prices reach up to $1000. Still, their reproduction rate seems to be winning the war despite all efforts to control the population. Stalking or still hunting over baited areas and parts with recent hog activity such as wallows are also commonly used techniques.

Feral hogs are exotic, un-protected, non-game animals therefore there is no season for hunting them and they can be taken by any means throughout the year. Considering what a destructive force they have proven to be, hunting them is encouraged. They are a challenging quarry and their mean appearance combined with their huge tusks makes them a fine trophy.

You are free to hunt feral pig all year round, so why not make the most of it? It’s the perfect opportunity to improve your hunting skills and spend some time in the field. More importantly, you will be helping prevent a feral pig apocalyptic takeover from taking place.