All about feral hogs....

[welsh]

Just ran into this great long-form piece on feral hogs from the New Yorker, from 10 years ago. Great read on the American hog problem. For those who think hogs might be a great hunting opportunity, it goes into detail on just how much damage they do ... we don't want them here.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...social_twitter

If you've got the time on a lazy Sunday you might want to pour a fresh cup of coffee and read the whole thing.

[Snowwalker]

Says if I want to read the article I have to subscribe....A small tease and then the hand out for money.

[MikePal]

Pops up OK on my PC..

...it was written in 2005, so they better not want any money for it

[welsh]

Hmmm ... since I'm a subscriber I can't test that.

[MikePal]

Interesting info on their lineage :

In the United States, the wild hogs with the longest pedigree are descended from ones that escaped from Polynesian Islanders who first brought pigs to the Hawaiian Islands in about 750 A.D. This strain eventually reinvigorated itself by crossbreeding with escapees from later Hawaiian settlers; many places in the Islands have a vexing wild-pig problem today. The first feral pigs in continental North America deserted from the expedition of Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer who crossed the Southeast to beyond the Mississippi River in 1539–42. Wild pigs that got away from Spanish colonists in Florida survived in the woods and swamps so successfully that today some of their descendants represent the only modern examples of old Spanish breeds that long ago disappeared in domestication.
In frontier times, farmers let their hogs run loose, then collected them with the help of dogs on butchering day. Many hogs chose to skip this event, naturally. After America became rich, circa 1890, sportsmen with money imported Eurasian wild boars to stock hunting preserves. When these animals escaped and crossbred with feral swine, they created a tougher and even better-adapted (some say) feral hog. The fact that wild swine have been living in America for centuries does not dissuade wildlife biologists from referring to them as a “non-native” species. Feral hogs of the species Sus scrofa live on every continent but Antarctica, and also on many islands and archipelagoes. Except in the original range of the Eurasian wild boar, feral hogs are non-native everywhere.

[Species8472]

Hmmm ... since I'm a subscriber I can't test that.

Worked fine for me and I am not subscribed. It did not ask and there were no other annoying pop-ups

[DGearyFTE]

I have been witness to the damage that they can do while I was in Florida for a year. There is not a lot of reporting that goes on in Canada but in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan they are becoming a real issue. In Texas (in many counties) they are ripping up huge tracts of land.

[Splaker]

but if they do establish themselves, hunting will be the only way to control them, correct? Unless you can sterilize them? I don't want them either, but if they do get here, I suppose the only consolation is that we can kill them and they are tasty.

[trimmer21]

At $3.99/lb at the butcher shop,I'll take all the chops,hams and bacon I can get for the price of a box of shells. I'd even invest in a smoker.

[jaycee]

At $3.99/lb at the butcher shop,I'll take all the chops,hams and bacon I can get for the price of a box of shells. I'd even invest in a smoker.

The escapee I shot a number of years ago was very tasty , and I already have my smoker and used it back then.
Our daughter was at Uni.of W.O. back then and when she came home on weekends always asked "are we having wild boar to eat this weekend "?