In conversations with folks who’ve been in the front lines of hog depredation, there’s a pretty common thread of disdain (or at least cynical amusement) when anyone broaches the topic of these “reality” hog hunting programs.  Beyond the ridiculous histrionics, there’s a knowing wink and grin from the guys in the business.

Maybe the programs are great entertainment to some people, but what they’re showing as “depredation” falls a bit short of the mark.  Rounding up one ugly boar with your hog dogs does not put a dent in the population anymore than trapping a handful of youngsters in a box trap.  Oh, I’m sure that the pros who are featured in some of these programs are probably a little more adept than the viewers actually get to see, but it’s all about perception, right?

So when I popped over to Ammoland.com, I was tickled to find an awesome piece about the challenges that face wildlife managers across the country when it comes to controlling feral swine.  The article quotes professionals from the Wildlife Management Institute, feral hog expert, Dr. Jack Mayer, and other sources to describe the extent of the problem (45 states and four Canadian provinces), and the challenges involved in controlling the spread.

To date, no single technique used to control the spread or overall numbers of wild pigs has proven successful—a fact not lost on disease specialists and wildlife managers. According to West, 50 to 70 percent of a wild pig population must be removed each year to stabilize or begin reducing it. Unfortunately, hunting and other lethal control methods account for only 20 percent a year on average. Even more frustrating to wildlife managers is the fact that hunters are the one’s largely responsible for the viral spread of wild pigs to new geographic regions across the country.

Key point… sport hunting isn’t getting the job done.  What’s worse… sport hunters are getting a big chunk of the blame in regards to perpetuating of the problem.

None of this is news to you, Hog Blog readers, or to anyone who’s been following the feral hog issue over the past eight or nine years.  But the answer is still unclear.  Paid sharpshooters?  Poisons?  Introducing new predators? I guess we’ll see.

Currently, significant research is being conducted on swine-specific toxins to aid in the control of wild pigs. Ironically, the most promising of these new products, commercially known as Hog-Gone, is a concentrated form of sodium nitrite, the most common pork preservative used worldwide. While initial results look promising, it is likely that no silver bullet exists to rid North America’s diverse habitats of the wild pig. According to West and other wildlife biologists, only constant monitoring and unified efforts between hunters, landowners and wildlife management agencies can protect native ecosystems from the invasion of the wild pig.

Feral pigs have been reported in Illinois since the 1990s, but there hasn’t been a lot of noise about them.  I’d expect that, with the reputation for big, plentiful whitetail deer in that state, not to mention the huge agricultural interests, there would be a much more vocal response. That’s not to say that all is quiet on the Illinois front.  As I read in this article from the McDonough Voice online, the Prairie State is working on solutions.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are trying to get a handle on just how many feral swine are in Illinois so control measures can be developed.

So far, feral swine have been confirmed in 14 Illinois counties, including Christian and Sangamon, although officials suspect they are present in as many as 18 counties.

…

New rules are in the works, but it will be at least a 100-day trip through the administrative rules process once the regulations are drafted.

The first order of business, Buhnerkempe said, is to work with landowners to locate and begin controlling feral swine.

“We have to take on this problem right now,” he said. “Or we could be faced with something much more serious in five, 10 or 20 years from now if we don’t.”

Any legal firearms owner in Illinois may shoot feral hogs on sight, as long as they have the permission of the landowner.

Much has been made of the threat that invasive non-natives, such as feral hogs, present to the environment and agricultural interests.  While I sometimes think things get a little blown out of proportion, I can’t argue with the general principal that invasive non-natives can be a problem.

But what I hadn’t thought about, at least not seriously, is the idea that invasives could potentially be used as biological warfare agents.  I mean, really… the idea that some terrorist might plant a few zebra mussels in the nuclear plant cooling tower intakes, or sabotage the entire corn crop of Iowa with a parasitic worm is sort of James Bond-ish, no?

Well, according to a recent doctoral dissertation submitted at Atlantic International University, the risk is both real and relevant.  The article in the BusinessWire, references PhD. candidate Lawrence Roberge’s dissertation on the possibility that these plants or animals might be used in an attack on the US.

Roberge’s research for AIU, which is based in Honolulu, HI and specializes in distance learning, builds upon ongoing studies by researchers at colleges and universities, the U.S. government and ecological research centers. Roberge began his research by examining if this type of threat was possible and realized it was a clear and present danger. He says that invasive species could be used to selectively destroy parts of a society potentially causing fear, social chaos, food shortages, and other forms of mass destructions.

A nation in this state would be vulnerable, and perhaps unable to respond, to an outright attack. “We must prepare for the use of invasive species as biological weapons,” says Roberge. “These types of weapons are inexpensive to produce and hard to detect immediately, so they can cause extensive damage before they can be controlled.”

It sounds pretty dire, and I suppose it could be.  However, in light of the biological warfare threats such as anthrax, I’d be surprised if the possibility hadn’t been pretty thoroughly considered by our defense agencies.  Then again, who knows?  It’s an interesting thought at any rate.

Kinda makes me want to go shoot a hog or two.

One thing to bear in mind is that Utah is one of the top pork-producing states in the US.  It’s a huge industry there, which means that there’s a lot of sensitivity around the threat of disease.  And we all know by now that feral hogs present a risk of transmitting major diseases, such as pseudorabies and brucellosis.  If feral hogs showed up in the state, you can bet there’d be an outcry.

And maybe that’s happening now.

According to this article from KSL.Com in Salt Lake City, there is a population of wild pigs on an island in the Great Salt Lake.  It appears that the pigs are Eurasian wild boar, descended from stock that were imported for a hunting operation on Fremont Island.  However, at least one hog has escaped the island and was found on a nearby causeway.  That animal drowned during capture attempts, but it illustrates the possibility that more of the swine could escape the island and spread to other areas.

From the tone of the article, I’d say the presence of these animals comes as a surprise to Utah wildlife managers and biologists.  Now that the light has come on, though, it looks like there may be movement afoot to find a way to get rid of them altogether.  Apparently, Utah law prohibits the importation, possession, or collection of non-native species such as sheep and wild boar, which means the hunting preserve is already in violation of the law.  However, as explained in the article, no one seems to know whose jurisdicition the hogs fall into.

Curiouser and curiouser…

The grants are primarily based on participation and the number of feral hogs taken between 10/01/11 and 12/31/11.  According to the Tx Dept. of Ag website, the grants will be awarded as follows:

In order to be eligible for a grant, counties will be required to submit a completed Grant Application in January 2012.  Participating counties will be required to document the following results for the period of October 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011:

*Number of feral hogs taken in the county, as certified by the county.
*Number of participants at a TDA-approved education program about feral hog abatement technologies.

Based on the criteria above, awards will be made in the form of a grant that the county will be able to use on feral hog abatement related expenditures during the 2012 calendar year. Awards will be made as follows:  The highest scoring county will be awarded $20,000; the second highest will be awarded $15,000; the third highest will be awarded $10,000; and the fourth & fifth highest will be awarded $7,500 each.

If you’re in Texas, is your county taking part in this?  How?

If you’re not in Texas, how’s this sound to you?  A good way to help manage the hog population or a boondoggle?

The one tactic that has not been permitted, so far, is the use of dogs for hound hunting.  However, according to this piece from local news station WTVF NewsChannel 5, that issue may be back on the table for discussion.  From the report:

The one restriction that has mobilized hunters across this state: the TWRA won’t allow them to hunt the hogs with a hunting dog.

Senator Mike Bell, a Republican from Riceville, disagrees with the restriction. He has drafted a new piece of legislation.

“It would remove TWRA’s authority to regulate the taking or hunting of hogs on private land. Now TWRA has the authority to regulate that on state owned property,” said Sen. Bell.

TWRA officials said the use of hunting dogs makes the problem wild hog problem even worse. They believe hunters have taken the hogs from county to county to grow the sport.

I’m not well-versed on the entire situation with this, but on the surface I’d be a little concerned about taking away the TWRA’s authority to regulate hogs on private land.  From my point of view, it looks like that would really open the door for more hunters to transport and release hogs on private land, and could actually make the hog problem worse, rather than better.  If the only reason for Senator Bell’s legislation is to help farmers get the hogs off of their property, then it should probably focus on the dogging restrictions rather than removing authority from the State’s fish and game law enforcement agency.

Personally, I don’t know that dogs are the best tool for eradication, but they are an effective way to catch and kill hogs.  I’m not sure what the justification is for the prohibition on hog dogs, but in light of the hog problems TN and other states are seeing, I think it would definitely bear review and revision.

Anyway, guess who’s gonna be down there shooting with them next week?

Oh yeah…

I spotted the article in my Google searches, but thought it was just another negative blast about Texas permitting hog shooting from helicopters.  There are a bunch of those rolling out all of a sudden, as the new law (allowing commercial outfitters to sell “hog hunts” from helicopters) will come into effect tomorrow.   As you might imagine, the whole idea of shooting animals from helicopters as “sport” is rubbing folks the wrong way… hunters and non-hunters alike. 

At any rate, after Holly sent me the link, I decided to give the article a second chance. 

Turns out, it wasn’t a diatribe against helicopter-based hog shooting, or fair chase, or anything that I expected.  In fact, it was a very reasonable column.  In it, the author, Mark Essig, does briefly touch on the idea of eradication from helicopters (and to his credit, he NEVER calls it “hunting”).  He gets the rationale behind it, but doesn’t really think it’s going to be effective in the long run.  There’s a bigger problem, he suggests, and simple management tactics aren’t going to resolve it.

The bigger problem Essig calls out is the transport and release of wild or feral hogs into new areas by hunters.  I’ve written about this myself, several times, and agree that it’s a huge issue.  When one looks at the phenomenally rapid distribution of hogs across the US, it’s not rocket science to figure out that the cause isn’t some sudden explosion of fecundity and a pioneering spirit amongst feral hogs.  There’s got to be another cause for the population explosion… and that cause is hunters trying to create their own little hunting paradise by releasing swine in uncontrolled environments. 

I’ve had plenty to say about this in the past, so I won’t rehash what I wrote before (just click on the category Feral Pigs to see a listing of related posts).  However, I will share part of the conclusion of Essig’s column. 

Most important, we must deal with the hunters who are helping pigs spread. Laws on the transportation and release of hogs should be toughened so that the penalties reflect the damage done. A new North Carolina law, to go into effect Oct. 1, moves in the right direction by setting the penalty for unapproved transport at up to $5,000 per hog.

Ethical hunters, and their skills not with guns but with words, can help. They must spread the word — through outdoor magazines and in conversations at hunt clubs and gun shops — that helping hogs expand their range is bad for our parks, our farmers and our wildlife.

 I think he’s onto something here. 

Indiana already has some pretty stringent rules about the transportation and release of feral swine, but this article from the Star Press sheds some light on the approach the Hoosier State is taking.  The following snip is what caught my attention here:

While wild hogs, also known as wild boars or feral swine, are already present in Indiana, state officials are tight-lipped about their exact location.

“I can tell you from my own nearly 20 years’ experience, … that providing location information is counterproductive to … control measures, and that impacted landowners are very adamant in their desires not to have the locations made known,” said Steven Backs, a wildlife research biologist at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. “For many of them, the hog hunter problem is sometimes worse than the hogs themselves.”

The “hog hunter problem”…

I’m afraid that’s a pretty telling comment.  The remainder of the article doesn’t let hog hunters off the hook either.  The strategy the state is taking is intended to discourage the idea that wild hogs present a recreational hunting opportunity.  Instead, the affected landowners and state DNR intend to fight the spread of feral hogs through depredation shooting and trapping in concert with the USDA’s professional trappers.

It’s an unfortunate reality that too many hunters apparently don’t get it when it comes to the importation and release of non-native species.  They either don’t know, or don’t care that releasing hogs into the habitat creates a problem for everyone.  Education is a good first step in controlling this, but I’m afraid that selfish greed will continue to trump common sense as hunters continue to try to establish huntable populations of feral hogs around the country.

“The pigs are back!”

“When do you want me there?” was the logical question.

I was sitting on Go, and just needed to know when I could coordinate with T and L to head down.  I suggested that I come in at first light on a Saturday morning, and plan to hunt all day, but that didn’t work for everyone else’s schedules.  By the time the emails had stopped, I was to arrive around 6:00pm, and would be able to hunt until dark (a little after 9:00 at this time of year).  It was hardly ideal, but we had to start somewhere.

The bright side of such a late start was that I would be able to make a fairly leisurely drive down.  I double-checked my gear and hit the road, finally pulling into the gate at about 5:45.  L buzzed me in, and I scanned the wooded lots and draws as I slowly made my way to their driveway.  I didn’t see much fresh sign, but the remnants of winter rooting under the oaks were still quite obvious.  A couple of deer lazily lifted their heads as I drove through, and a big, tom turkey stood at alert on the far side of a meadow.  Pigs, however, were absent.

Then I turned into the long driveway, and as I came within sight of the front door, I caught movement in the bushes beside the road.  A big sow stood by the edge of the road, and about eight or ten pigs pushed and rooted a few yards away.  The sow was watching as I drove by, but the rest of the pigs seemed completely unfazed by my presence.  I considered jumping out right then and there, but figured it wouldn’t be good manners to start blazing away before I even said, “hi” to my hosts.

I drove the last 20 yards into the driveway, and pulled up in front of the house.  T was coming out to greet me, and I pointed into the bush and stage-whispered, “the hogs are right here!”

“Well, let’s get ‘em!” T replied.

He ducked back into the house, and I figured he was going to fetch the slug gun.  I stuffed five 180gr ETips into the Savage, and waited for him to come back out.  Meanwhile, the hogs were slowly but surely making their way toward the fence line.  I’m sure it was only seconds, but it felt like minutes before T reappeared, slug gun in hand.  I waved him over, and then slipped across the yard toward the pigs and found a good rest against an oak tree (not that I needed a rest, as the pigs were only about 30 yards away).  I looked back, and T was still standing at the driveway’s edge. I don’t think the pigs were alarmed, but they were definitely aware that I was there.  I made the decision not to wait any longer, and found the big sow in the scope.  She was feeding on the edge of the draw, head down, and I put the crosshairs behind her ear and touched the trigger.

The sow went down hard, and I tried to get another pig in the scope.  Unfortunately, between the small size of the pigs and the tall grass, it was impossible to get a solid shot on any of them.  The initial startle response wore off, and the whole sounder lined off across the back of the property.  I hoped they hadn’t gone under the fence to sanctuary.

T waited for me to lower the rifle, and then came over to where I was standing.  “Come on,” I whispered.  “We might be able to get another shot at them.

He slipped a few slugs into the magazine, and we trotted off down a horse trail.  Unfortunately, I picked up the tracks making a beeline to the fence.

“Oh well,” I mumbled.  “Let’s go dress that sow, and then we’ll go see if we can find another group.”

I field dressed the sow and T helped me drag her up to the driveway and put her in a shady spot.  Then we spent the next couple of hours walking the property, checking some of the areas where T said he regularly saw pigs on his daily run.  There was plenty of sign, some deer and some turkeys, but no more pigs.  We made a big loop to the edge of the accessible property, and he called L to come pick us up.

Back at the house, we grilled some hot dogs and ate.  As the sun dropped behind the treeline, I got antsy to get back out there.  These hogs hadn’t been hunted for a while, and my thinking was that they might just come on back out at sunset.  Having shot the matriarch out of this group, I hoped they’d be a little disoriented and make their way back onto the property.  I was sure we could get at least one more opportunity, and I really wanted to see if I could get T a shot.

We roamed the property until dark.  Just as the last light faded, I thought I heard the shuffle of swine in a thicket.  We edged up to the area, and the noise stopped.  Everything seemed to go suddenly quiet, and I figured the pigs would break out any second.  We waited.  We waited some more.  I heard the rustle of leaves.  I heard a branch crack.  And then the squirrel jumped into the trees and took off across the branches.  Not a pig.

Back at the house, we enjoyed some coffee and pie while we talked and planned the demise of the invading swine.  At this point, I was still hunting on my regular pig tags.  L was going to update the depredation permit so that I could expand my efforts, and also so we could start trapping.  We discussed the possibility of some night hunting as well, but considering the other neighbors, that wasn’t an approach I was eager to take just yet.

Finally, I realized that it was nearing midnight and I still had a two and a half hour drive back home.  We called it a night, tossed the sow in the back of the Dodge, and I headed for home.

Postscript to this one… I usually dress and skin my animals in the field, but this time I hadn’t skinned the pig.  I got back to my suburban home, and realized I didn’t know where the heck I was going to skin this sow.  I didn’t want to hang her in the garage, as it’s pretty warm in there and I didn’t think Kat would care much to have pig blood all over the concrete.  Finally, I got the bright idea to take the pig around back and set the gambrel up on our gazebo.

I hung the pig on the groaning structure, and got her skinned as quickly as I could.  Butchering would have to wait until morning.  I stumbled into the house, threw my bloody clothes out in the garage, and poured myself a scotch nightcap.  Somewhere around 04:00, I crawled into bed without a second thought to the fact that a bloody pig carcass was swinging in the breeze in my backyard.

Thank goodness for privacy fences.