I haven’t done a Porcine Press in a little while, so today seemed like a good opportunity to get one together. And it’s off to a somewhat fishy start…
OK, so that was pretty corny, but this story about the Kiwi fishermen who boated a 140kg wild boar almost a quarter mile offshore rates some kind of snappy intro. I’ve seen deer swimming some pretty open water, so I’m not totally surprised to read about a big hog doing the same thing. But this still must have been one heck of a shock to our fishing buddies down there.
This one isn’t quite as quirky… rather it’s a pretty interesting read that I stumbled across in the Hawaii Reporter online. The author has the opportunity to host a fellow from the National Wildlife Federation, an organization that has long been accused of close ties with some pretty questionable groups. Without creating an outright conflict, the author describes how he seeded the conversation with information about how the environmental extremist organizations would like to use the NWF as leverage for “conservation” projects that would work against hunters’ concerns. There’s a lot underlying this story, and it’s definitely worth a read.
Here’s a quick return to a story I linked to earlier this year. In Wisconsin, there was an outbreak of pseudorabies on a couple of hog farms. The outbreak was possibly caused by contact with feral hogs. Anyway, after quick reaction from the farmers and state officials, the final tests are in and there is no sign of further pseudorabies in the state.
In a couple of other notes, it looks like the NC State Wildlife Resources Commission has approved an extended hunting opportunity for nusiance bears and feral hogs on the DuPont State Forest property. Wish I was still back there, because this sounds like a great opportunity.
And finally, here’s an article from the lead ammo ban category. Apparently biologists in Pinnacles National Monument (central CA) witnessed several condors feeding on the carcass of a wild pig that was killed with lead bullets. They captured and tested 17 birds, and found 10 with high lead levels in their blood. Two had to be treated in LA to have the lead removed from their systems.
I’m a little skeptical about this last one…they saw five birds eating a hog, so they captured 17? And ten of those had high lead levels? How many of those ten birds were from the five that were eating the hog carcass?
This doesn’t jibe for me… someone is playing with the facts to make their point. I don’t disagree with getting lead ammo out of circulation, but I do disagree with being lied to about the reasons why.
