hogbear?

I have heard old-timers talk about actual an bear called a hog bear what the heck is it? Is it just a poor looking southern black bear? Have you guys seen one?
 

Possum

Banned
Bears are referred to as boars or sows, same as pigs. Maybe this is the confusion? Never heard of hogbear
 

Nicodemus

The Recluse
Staff member
I have heard old-timers talk about actual an bear called a hog bear what the heck is it? Is it just a poor looking southern black bear? Have you guys seen one?



It`s what the folks in South-Southeast Georgia from around the forks of the rivers and the Okefenokee called black bears. When I was a youngun I heard my Granddaddy and other elders talk of them.
 

KyDawg

Gone But Not Forgotten
I have heard people in northern Florida that called young bears that.
 

BBowman

Senior Member
I was given a book a few years ago written by a doctor in the mid 1920's who lived in Waycross. He hunted in the Okefenokee a lot. He wrote about there being a difference between the hog bear and the black bear. He said that the hog bear was smaller and brown. He wrote that they were called hog bears because they preferred to eat domestic hogs. He said the black bears were to big and slow to catch hogs but the little hog bear was agile enough to catch the hogs. I gave the book to my brother who does the boat tours at the Okefenokee Swamp park in Waycross. I'll ask him for the name of the book and post it up for you.
 

Nicodemus

The Recluse
Staff member
I was given a book a few years ago written by a doctor in the mid 1920's who lived in Waycross. He hunted in the Okefenokee a lot. He wrote about there being a difference between the hog bear and the black bear. He said that the hog bear was smaller and brown. He wrote that they were called hog bears because they preferred to eat domestic hogs. He said the black bears were to big and slow to catch hogs but the little hog bear was agile enough to catch the hogs. I gave the book to my brother who does the boat tours at the Okefenokee Swamp park in Waycross. I'll ask him for the name of the book and post it up for you.



I`d be interested in that book myself.
 

bullfrog79

Senior Member
i always wondered about hogbears also. i remember the older folks talking about seeing them, but i never got a real explanation of what the difference was in them and regular bears.
 

BassHunter25

Senior Member
I remember hearing about them down here in Ft. stewart. I think they are a smaller black bear that looks more like a hog. Or a hog that can climb trees. One or the other.
 

Echo

Gone But Not Forgotten
No such critter exists. If you see a wild bear in Georgia you can rest assured that it's a genuine 100% black bear.
 

lagrangedave

Gone But Not Forgotten
I heard of the small brown ones being called Honey bears in west central Georgia in my youth.............
 

Nicodemus

The Recluse
Staff member
I heard of the small brown ones being called Honey bears in west central Georgia in my youth.............



Has there ever been a brown or cinnamon phase black bear seen or killed in the South? I haven`t heard of one.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Has there ever been a brown or cinnamon phase black bear seen or killed in the South? I haven`t heard of one.

I have never seen or heard of one, and I live smack-dab in the middle of the densest population of black bears in the lower 48, and come from a line of several generations of fanatical bear hunters.
 

NCHillbilly

Administrator
Staff member
Don’t doubt the existence of hog bears or coywolves around here, 😆

Coywolves are scientifically documented. Hog bears and black painters, not so much :D
 
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