Is there any time or place in the history of mankind that wild pigs have been caught like this?

Where do you get the corn from? Presumably in your pre-industrialized society you aren’t trucking it in from another country so you would actually have to grow it fairly close by. If you are growing it close by the pigs will find your cornfield anyway. I understand this is actually the reason why wild pigs are pests in agricultural communities in the southern US today. I don’t think this is a thing that happens “in the woods”.

I’ve heard of the same process in a non-political context for sheep. It’s basically long-term shepherding - take advantage of something like a cliff or lake, put an obstruction in the way of one of the other natural thoroughfares to it. Ambush tactics, basically. If you do it all at once the animals will get spooked and run away, so you slowly make them think that the area, and you with your fence stakes, are safe.

Have you never tried to catch an ant or a money spider in your hand? Try to cup it and pick it up, and it’ll avoid your hand. Give a gentle promontory to climb, wait patiently, and it’ll climb it.

But, as an analogy, that applies to many kind of politics, but not libertarianism. Libertarianism is lying your palm flat. The ant falls off.

nm

Nor I! Trapping is way more efficient than hunting.
Although, hunting them is more fun. :smiley:

Posted by njtt

(bolding mine)

I agree, besides… the OP’s method is usually reserved for “sheople”. :wink:

Perhaps a better explanation, would be a description of how my kinfolk in North Central Louisiana have been trapping hogs for decades. :cool:

First of all, the hogs in that part of the country are all ‘feral’ hogs, domestic hogs that have gone ‘wild’, and have been that way for many generations.
People don’t ‘keep’ hogs, “per se”.
My uncle for example, usually has 15 to 25 (or more) hogs at any one time, that are ‘marked’ as belonging to him. The hogs roam the woods and aren’t kept penned up in any way.
He has a couple of different places that he regularly goes to and feeds them, as do others.
He pulls up in his truck, gets out and ‘calls’ them a few times, for about a half hour to 45 minutes. This is done by blowing a cows horn and loudly hollering, “Suuuuuue pig! Suuuuuuuuuuuue pig!” (I swear, I’m not making any of this up.)

As others have pointed out, hogs are very intelligent and soon learn to recognize his ‘particular’ call, and what day and the time of day he comes to put out feed.
This is not a daily thing, the frequency of feedings is determined by the breeding season. Once or twice a week during breeding, once every 4-6 weeks (or more) when they’re not.
This accomplishes a number of different things: The hogs get/stay used to ‘humans’, and it allows him to monitor the sows, to see when they’ve ‘thrown’ a litter.

After the sows have had their litters, he’ll set up a temporary trap (that’s checked daily) close to where he’s been feeding them. This consists of ‘hog wire’ that’s formed into a circle of sorts, approx. 15’-20’ in diameter, utilizing some convenient trees for posts.
Where he intends to put the gate/trap door, a couple of fence posts are set to hold the ends of the hog wire. The trap door is a pretty simple affair, it’s a door that’s held up by a rope strung thru a pulley, the rope is tied to a stick with an ear of corn wired to it. The stick/ear of corn is placed behind a couple of short ‘stobs’ or posts at the far side of the trap.
The sow goes into the trap enclosure, (and of course all of her litter follows along close beside “Momma”) she ‘roots’ the ear of corn up from behind the stobs, the door falls and there ya’ go, you got yourself some hogs! (Pretty damn efficient, IMHO! :D)

AND… (Now comes the “fun” part! :dubious:)
It gives him an opportunity to ‘mark’* the unmarked shoats, with the boar shoats getting castrated, as well as marked. (Which is part of the way they keep the overall hog population “in check”.) And also, to “cut out” those that he wants to fatten up for slaughter and butchering.

*Marking in this instance, refers to the ‘notching’ of their ears. Everyone that practices this, has their own ‘mark’ or series of notches. My uncle cuts a small (1" x 1") half-circle in one ear, with a triangle shaped (1" x 1") notch in the other ear. Some put two notches in just one ear, etc. Everyone has their own different combination of notches.
That way, if you happen to catch a sow with somebody elses mark, you know to mark her piglets with the same mark. If somebody catches yours, they’re supposed to do the same. It works pretty well. (For the most part. ;))

Well, when you live out in “the country”, people tend to have a little more time to devote to this sort of thing. But it’s really not all that time consuming or complicated, once you’ve learned how. Plus, it’s generally a group/local community endeavor.
Everybody else that lives close by that has hogs “in the woods”, is doing the same thing at about the same time, so they generally help each other.

Posted by voltaire

If you want to count 20-30 or more as a “herd”, yes sir, they most certainly do. :eek:

::nitpick:: Personally, I’ve never heard 'em referred to as a “herd”. That’s a term that’s most commonly associated with cattle, around these parts.:wink: