Howard Roark
Retired Moderator
NOTE: I posted this thread in the hunting instead of hog forum because of the threat posed to other species by wild hogs.
Wild pigs a big, fat threat
Feral hogs multiply, run amok in farmers' fields
By STACY SHELTON , CAMERON MCWHIRTER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/07/06
ROCKY FORD, Ga. — Bobby Smith Jr.'s family has been farming land along the Ogeechee River in southeast Georgia since the 1940s. Since he was a boy, the 51-year-old Smith has been hunting wild hogs that come up from the swampy banks of the river to eat the peanut and corn crops. It used to be the voracious feral pigs would come into the fields periodically, and even then only on the river side of Ga. 17.
But these days, wild hogs are everywhere, not only on the 5,000 acres he farms with his son, but all over Screven County and neighboring Jenkins County. Farmers and hunters can't keep up with these eating machines.
"They are just constantly walking and eating and rooting," Smith said.
This Sunday, legislators, lobbyists and candidates will belly up to tables piled with feral pig caught and fattened in South Georgia just for the annual "Wild Hog Supper." It's a pleasant way to mark the start the legislative session and is pitched as a quaint tribute of the state's woodsy traditions.
But while the politicos eat pig, wild pigs, by untold tens of thousands, are eating up crops across Georgia, costing farmers money, threatening endangered animals and spreading diseases.
Forget images of Wilbur in Charlotte's Web or Miss Piggy from the Muppets.
From Texas to Florida, smelly, grunting feral pigs are eating anything and everything they can find, from turtle eggs to garbage to rotting carcasses of other animals. They have even been known to eat each other.
Despite occasional cannibalism, nature's garbage disposals are multiplying — fast.
'Ecological threat'
Steve Ditchkoff, an associate professor of wildlife at Auburn University, calls wild hogs "one of the greatest ecological threats to the United States . . . and right now, we have no way to control them."
Ditchkoff is organizing the 2006 National Conference on Wild Pigs, to be held in Mobile this May. About 200 wildlife biologists and others will come from across the country to talk about the worrisome spread of wild hogs.
A 6-year-old report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated there are as more than 1 million wild hogs in the United States. Several wildlife biologists interviewed won't venture a guess at the population today, but they say the problem has gotten much worse.
It certainly has gotten worse in Georgia, with wild pigs now roaming from the barrier islands to the Appalachian Mountains.
Their presence is concentrated on the coast, where they were first brought in by European explorers in the 1500s, and along the streams and swamps of south and central Georgia.
Retired state wildlife biologist Kent Kammermeyer, who has long studied wild hogs and is now a private consultant, said wild hogs are smart and hide to avoid hunters, often only eating at night. He would advise the state to further liberalize the hunting regulations on public land.
"You might see a group of 10 out there in the woods and you might shoot one, but those other nine are educated in what to do next time around, and they can get really, really shy and really difficult to hunt," Kammermeyer said.
Spread like kudzu
The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, a group of state and federal scientists at the University of Georgia, track the spread of feral swine across the country. Recent maps show the animals now live in almost every county in Georgia, including parts of metro Atlanta. Farmers worry about the wild hogs spreading diseases to their domestic animals. Both pseudorabies and swine brucellosis have been found in Georgia hogs. Pseudorabies can be fatal for dogs, cattle, sheep and other farm animals. Swine brucellosis can cause infertility among domestic pigs and infect humans if they eat meat that is under-cooked or handled carelessly.
Because wild hogs are not native to Georgia, rules for hunting them are more lax than for white-tailed deer, bobwhite quails, turkeys, black bears and alligators. But still the wild pig problem is growing. So last year, to help control their numbers, the state began offering special permits that allow hog hunters to use spotlights at night, shoot at them from the trucks, and lure them in with bait.
Only about 300 of the special permits have been issued, some to the same person, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. The majority of the permits went to landowners and hunting clubs in southwest and central west Georgia.
But even with intense hunting, the animal is unlikely to ever be wiped out.
Auburn's Ditchkoff said "Eradication may never be possible. Take a look at kudzu."
Like kudzu, wild pigs spread quickly. By eight months old, females are ready to reproduce. They can have two litters a year with five to 10 piglets per litter.
Super-race of pigs
Experts and historians say America's earliest explorers, including Christopher Columbus, brought Spanish pigs on their ships to act as garbage disposals and provide a ready meal when needed. When they landed, they would often leave some hogs behind for their return journey. Some of those pigs escaped into the wild.
Over the centuries, other types of pigs escaped into the wild and interbred with the hogs, creating a super-race of adaptable, fierce and tough species known in parts of South Georgia as "swamp pig."
Wild pigs tend to look much like domesticated pigs, though they can have more hair, and they are generally much leaner. The males have tusks, which they are not afraid to use if cornered.
"A wild hog is not scared of you," said Smith in Screven County. "They'll fight."
Smith said he and his sons could easily kill 70 to 80 in a winter season. They eat a lot of the them, usually making sausage.
"Wild hog is great eating," he said.
Smith sets enormous traps, which he builds himself. The 16 feet by 10 feet contraptions, with a trapdoor, can hold most swamp pigs, but he has seen males — some weighing more than 250 pounds — break out of the enclosures.
The largest wild hog ever killed was shot in June 2004 in Alapaha, in south central Georgia. Labeled "Hogzilla" by the plantation hunting guide who shot him, the animal was confirmed by National Geographic experts to be 12 feet long and 1,000 pounds.
Farmers' nemesis
Smith said he has never seen anything that big, but the hogs in Screven County cause him enough trouble at one-fourth that size. Just recently, he had a sow and several piglets root up part of a peanut field. His friends shot 15 pigs in two weeks. Driving out to the field, he pointed out rows that weeks earlier had been dug up and ruined by the pigs.
"They'll ruin a good-size area in a few nights," he said.
Smith, a tall and broad man, said he will not get close to a wild hog without a gun or bow and arrow. He said trapping wild hogs is safer than stalking them, because the dirty, smelly and ornery animals will charge you if they can.
His advice to hunters: "Aim for the head, or they will come at you."
His advice to other farmers and the state wildlife officials: Kill as many as you can as fast as you can.
"They can multiply on you in a hurry."
Wild pigs a big, fat threat
Feral hogs multiply, run amok in farmers' fields
By STACY SHELTON , CAMERON MCWHIRTER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/07/06
ROCKY FORD, Ga. — Bobby Smith Jr.'s family has been farming land along the Ogeechee River in southeast Georgia since the 1940s. Since he was a boy, the 51-year-old Smith has been hunting wild hogs that come up from the swampy banks of the river to eat the peanut and corn crops. It used to be the voracious feral pigs would come into the fields periodically, and even then only on the river side of Ga. 17.
But these days, wild hogs are everywhere, not only on the 5,000 acres he farms with his son, but all over Screven County and neighboring Jenkins County. Farmers and hunters can't keep up with these eating machines.
"They are just constantly walking and eating and rooting," Smith said.
This Sunday, legislators, lobbyists and candidates will belly up to tables piled with feral pig caught and fattened in South Georgia just for the annual "Wild Hog Supper." It's a pleasant way to mark the start the legislative session and is pitched as a quaint tribute of the state's woodsy traditions.
But while the politicos eat pig, wild pigs, by untold tens of thousands, are eating up crops across Georgia, costing farmers money, threatening endangered animals and spreading diseases.
Forget images of Wilbur in Charlotte's Web or Miss Piggy from the Muppets.
From Texas to Florida, smelly, grunting feral pigs are eating anything and everything they can find, from turtle eggs to garbage to rotting carcasses of other animals. They have even been known to eat each other.
Despite occasional cannibalism, nature's garbage disposals are multiplying — fast.
'Ecological threat'
Steve Ditchkoff, an associate professor of wildlife at Auburn University, calls wild hogs "one of the greatest ecological threats to the United States . . . and right now, we have no way to control them."
Ditchkoff is organizing the 2006 National Conference on Wild Pigs, to be held in Mobile this May. About 200 wildlife biologists and others will come from across the country to talk about the worrisome spread of wild hogs.
A 6-year-old report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated there are as more than 1 million wild hogs in the United States. Several wildlife biologists interviewed won't venture a guess at the population today, but they say the problem has gotten much worse.
It certainly has gotten worse in Georgia, with wild pigs now roaming from the barrier islands to the Appalachian Mountains.
Their presence is concentrated on the coast, where they were first brought in by European explorers in the 1500s, and along the streams and swamps of south and central Georgia.
Retired state wildlife biologist Kent Kammermeyer, who has long studied wild hogs and is now a private consultant, said wild hogs are smart and hide to avoid hunters, often only eating at night. He would advise the state to further liberalize the hunting regulations on public land.
"You might see a group of 10 out there in the woods and you might shoot one, but those other nine are educated in what to do next time around, and they can get really, really shy and really difficult to hunt," Kammermeyer said.
Spread like kudzu
The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, a group of state and federal scientists at the University of Georgia, track the spread of feral swine across the country. Recent maps show the animals now live in almost every county in Georgia, including parts of metro Atlanta. Farmers worry about the wild hogs spreading diseases to their domestic animals. Both pseudorabies and swine brucellosis have been found in Georgia hogs. Pseudorabies can be fatal for dogs, cattle, sheep and other farm animals. Swine brucellosis can cause infertility among domestic pigs and infect humans if they eat meat that is under-cooked or handled carelessly.
Because wild hogs are not native to Georgia, rules for hunting them are more lax than for white-tailed deer, bobwhite quails, turkeys, black bears and alligators. But still the wild pig problem is growing. So last year, to help control their numbers, the state began offering special permits that allow hog hunters to use spotlights at night, shoot at them from the trucks, and lure them in with bait.
Only about 300 of the special permits have been issued, some to the same person, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. The majority of the permits went to landowners and hunting clubs in southwest and central west Georgia.
But even with intense hunting, the animal is unlikely to ever be wiped out.
Auburn's Ditchkoff said "Eradication may never be possible. Take a look at kudzu."
Like kudzu, wild pigs spread quickly. By eight months old, females are ready to reproduce. They can have two litters a year with five to 10 piglets per litter.
Super-race of pigs
Experts and historians say America's earliest explorers, including Christopher Columbus, brought Spanish pigs on their ships to act as garbage disposals and provide a ready meal when needed. When they landed, they would often leave some hogs behind for their return journey. Some of those pigs escaped into the wild.
Over the centuries, other types of pigs escaped into the wild and interbred with the hogs, creating a super-race of adaptable, fierce and tough species known in parts of South Georgia as "swamp pig."
Wild pigs tend to look much like domesticated pigs, though they can have more hair, and they are generally much leaner. The males have tusks, which they are not afraid to use if cornered.
"A wild hog is not scared of you," said Smith in Screven County. "They'll fight."
Smith said he and his sons could easily kill 70 to 80 in a winter season. They eat a lot of the them, usually making sausage.
"Wild hog is great eating," he said.
Smith sets enormous traps, which he builds himself. The 16 feet by 10 feet contraptions, with a trapdoor, can hold most swamp pigs, but he has seen males — some weighing more than 250 pounds — break out of the enclosures.
The largest wild hog ever killed was shot in June 2004 in Alapaha, in south central Georgia. Labeled "Hogzilla" by the plantation hunting guide who shot him, the animal was confirmed by National Geographic experts to be 12 feet long and 1,000 pounds.
Farmers' nemesis
Smith said he has never seen anything that big, but the hogs in Screven County cause him enough trouble at one-fourth that size. Just recently, he had a sow and several piglets root up part of a peanut field. His friends shot 15 pigs in two weeks. Driving out to the field, he pointed out rows that weeks earlier had been dug up and ruined by the pigs.
"They'll ruin a good-size area in a few nights," he said.
Smith, a tall and broad man, said he will not get close to a wild hog without a gun or bow and arrow. He said trapping wild hogs is safer than stalking them, because the dirty, smelly and ornery animals will charge you if they can.
His advice to hunters: "Aim for the head, or they will come at you."
His advice to other farmers and the state wildlife officials: Kill as many as you can as fast as you can.
"They can multiply on you in a hurry."
