Why are feral hogs more of a problem now then in the centuries since they were introduced to N. America? More food/fewer predators/less hunting or what?
As reported in Scientific American, U.S.A. Today, and The Smithsonian Magazine.
From the articles:
So… maybe deliberate spreading by hunters? Possibly but I don’t see why the hogs needed help. Apparently the answer is “nobody’s sure”.
more or less. they breed prodigiously, are stout and aggressive so they don’t suffer much from non-human predation, and they eat pretty voraciously. I don’t know about “less” hunting, but IME hunting generally seems to be geared towards traditional game such as deer and relatives.
What’s the problem - free meat?
yeah, but most people aren’t willing to get their hands that dirty to get it.
Can you even eat feral hog? I would guess the experience might be vastly different that a tasty tender porkchop from the butcher.
I have a friend who hunts them–from a helicopter. If that’s what it takes no wonder they’re running wild.
They destroy land and even whole ecosystems badly. Some of them get to be extremely large and they can also be aggressive and dangerous towards other animals or people.
This is a good question and I don’t know the answer either. There were a few wild pigs when I was growing up near the Louisiana/Texas border but they weren’t a significant problem even 20 years ago. Now my farming friends have to have regular wild pig hunts just to keep control of their land. They aren’t doing it for sport or meat (although they do BBQ some). They have to do it because there are so many now and they dig very large holes, destroy fences and threaten other animals, crops and woodlands.
I do know that people aren’t putting them there intentionally at least in that area. It is just the opposite. Most of the pigs have been there for generations now and people can’t kill them off fast enough to keep up with their reproduction rate despite constant eradication efforts.
I have a friend that posts his efforts to eradicate the wild pigs on his land on Facebook. He has been doing it for years and gotten rid of hundreds of them but there is still no end in sight. It is like a bad horror movie.
why not? They’re basically either 1) domestic pigs which have escaped/been released, and within a generation have regained wild behavior, or 2) a cross-breed of domestic pig and wild pig. To me, most farm/feedlot raised beef and pork is so devoid of taste I rarely buy it anymore.
yep. rule #1 is “don’t try to take one down like you would a deer (i.e. shot right behind the shoulder.) That’ll just piss it off.”
If you search YouTube, you should be able to find a clip from Gordon Ramsey’s F Word show, where he comes to the US to help us deal with this very tasty ecological disaster.
They hunt one, getting so close they can see a pat of mud on a tree, musky, where a boar has just wiped the mud off of it’s, as Gordon would say, “Arse.” They lose it, someone cough Gordon cough has made too much noise. Or ya know, maybe the film crew is the problem.
They find one trapped. It is large, angry and mean, it wants to charge, even confined in a cage. The US military man leading the hunt states his intention – jump up on the cage, and put a 45 cal point blank into its brain stem. This happens off camera, at least in the US. Some other resources I’ve read suggest you need a 50 cal rifle to kill a feral hog from a distance, if you want to put a slug in its rib-cage and reach the heart, its hide is tough enough to waste much of a smaller cal’s momentum.
Gordon butchers the hog, washing it in the river. This is the darkest of the dark red meats I’ve ever seen, almost purple. I’m afraid if I ever try it, supermarket pork will be forever ruined for me.
There are a number of fascinating youtube videos on hunting and trapping methods.
Lots at once
Snares
Hunting
I just find it an amazing bit of de-evolution that a a domesticated animal could so quickly evolve back to its roots.
Hard to believe there’s something humans can’t hunt to extinction.
California has had them for a long time, too. The Spanish brought in domestic pigs in the 18th century, which created a feral population to begin with. Then, in the 1920s, a landowner introduced Wild Eurasian hogs into Monterey county specifically for sport hunting. They interbred with existing population, of course. As noted, the number has climbed in recent decades. They really make a mess out of the oak woodlands - pigs love acorns, and root around under the oak trees for them.
Wait … you can get a license to hunt relatives? Quick, tell me where!
Maybe we have finally found our equals.
the people I’ve talked to (and the vids I’ve seen) say if you can make the shot, aim for the ear or slightly in front. brain stem gone. Supposedly it’s harder to make a lethal rib cage shot on a pig due to its physiology. you’re more likely to hit the leg or shoulder and deflect the bullet.
LOL 
The scary thing is most experts agree that we cannot eradicate wild pigs even with unlimited hunting. All you can do is try to control them. They are the kudzu of the mammalian world. They are an invasive species that will destroy anything and everything they can. Domestic pigs are smart but this isn’t Babe we are talking about. Hoards of them can decimate whole fields, kill ancient old oak trees and threaten pets and livestock.
Here are some examples of what they do but that is only a small sample:
https://www.google.com/search?q=hogs+destroy+crops+photos&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY-I7KrMvMAhULpB4KHRnbDysQsAQIHA&biw=761&bih=369
Smart, invasive mammals that can weigh more than 800 pounds are not something that you want to foraging around like they own the place. They dig holes so large that it makes it difficult for even heavy equipment to operate. They can change the ecology of whole ecosystems so much that they fail.
Like nutria, Kudzu and other very invasive species that threaten the Southern United States, there is no final solution other than to just keep popping the wild pigs off like a zombie movie. Sorry Babe.
Regarding eating them, aren’t wild hogs full of trichinella and trichinosis and lots of other nasties? IANAParasitologist but I’m pretty sure that those things are a concern even in domestically-raised pork, so one shudders think what hitchhikers the wild boars are carrying.
The CDC warns of trichinellosis in bear, wild or domestic pigs & walruses. Proper cooking will kill the larvae. The Broken Arrow Ranch says that freezing can also do the job.