How You Know That Dummies Are Making Suggestions About Containing The Feral Hog Problem
BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 6 months ago
I didn’t respond to this comment at the time because I wanted it to “soak” a while first. Here is Steve Kellmeyer’s comment on a previous post.
Shooting individual hogs is a VERY bad idea. The only way to eradicate feral hogs is to capture an entire SOUNDER, the whole thing, at one time. If you just kill individual hogs, they break into multiple sounders which all go their separate ways. You turn them into quicksilver and they spatter everywhere.
There are ways to catch whole sounders at once. Do that. You get more meat for the poor, you actually eradicate the population.
Steve isn’t a thinking man. No one is going to “eradicate” the feral hog population. Hear me now and hear me good. Feral hogs are around for good. They will not be eradicated. Period. Full stop. But this comment goes further by asserting that “If you just kill individual hogs, they break into multiple sounders which all go their separate ways.”
Steve has never hunted hogs before. That isn’t how any of this works. Hogs sometimes travel in sounders, sometimes not. Sometimes if there is a sounder, it might consist of a few hogs, mostly sows, but even sows run alone sometimes. I’ve seen it. Boars mostly run alone. They may come back to a sounder from time to time for copious mating, but they don’t necessarily stick around other hogs all the time. When you see hogs, you may see one, or you may see two, or you may see twenty at a time. The boars that are alone aren’t in some sort of panic to get around a sounder because he loves his pigs. Wildlife biologists are anthropomorphizing hog behavior.
They travel in the day, they travel in the night time hours. They adapt and adjust rapidly, and no one tactic will be successful all the time and in all circumstances. They feed in the day, they are nocturnal feeders. They defy strict categorization, regardless of what “Steve” says. Ask me how I know. I know partly because I’m not a pointy head wildlife biologist who thinks he can write a journal article or be interviewed for the newspaper, or contract a hired hand, and make things okay.
That seems to be the way of things at the moment while time is ebbing away to cap their population. Witness this article concerning Canada’s exploding feral hog population.
What Manitoba does have are provincial rules that allow wild pig hunting any time of year with no bag limit, or restriction on number of animals they take. In B.C., “hunting is the only control measure,” the Invasive Species Council wrote in 2019. In Saskatchewan, although “wild boar may be shot by Saskatchewan residents without a licence to protect their property, hunting is not a recommended control measure,” Sharks explained in an email.
Alberta’s strategy incentivizes hunting directly, offering to pay hunters $75 per set of ears. The CBC reported last fall that zero kills had been made in the bounty program, but Brook is not a fan of the idea.
“I have been vocally saying that a bounty is a great option if you want more wild pigs. That is a fantastic strategy — if you want to double your pigs,” Brook said sarcastically.
He explains that research shows hunting actually accelerates the spread of wild pigs, as they flee to new areas to evade hunters.
Instead, the wildlife biologist recommends hiring a professional trapper. Next up, this stupid article.
An open hunt intended to eradicate Alberta’s wild boar population may instead make the feral swine more elusive to bounty hunters, a researcher warns.
The province has placed a price on the heads of wild pigs — re-establishing a bounty program designed to root out stubborn populations of the invasive species.
The hunt must be carefully managed, said Ryan Brook, an associate professor in the agriculture department of the University of Saskatchewan and director of the Canada Wild Pig Research Project.
Sporadic hunting will make the animals harder to track, Brook said. Wild boar quickly learn to disperse and evade threats — and will pass these tricks onto their young.
They already know those lessons, Ryan, and if they don’t, they’ll learn them in a single day when your local trapper puts out corn feeders and drops cages on them. I could go on and on with these articles, but you get the picture. Some of them want to hire professional “sharpshooters,” as if he can do something that a hunter can’t or his shot won’t scatter a sounder while a hunter’s shot will (by the way, neither will happen). They want to use tactics that will be equally found out and learned by the hogs. Additionally, those methods are affecting the known, visible hog population, not the ones we know are there but not cataloged by the pointy head wildlife biologists.
I repeat, feral hogs won’t be eradicated. It’s not going to happen. It’s far too late for that. These hog cages dropping on corn feeders require expensive material and construction, cameras, people watching and patterning them, and they’re good for about as long as one or two catches, and then it’s over. The hogs won’t come back after investing weeks of patterning the hogs and ensuring that they are healthy with good food. And the trappers charge a lot of money. Besides, this video shows what happens fairly well – the catch of this massive operation is about 50 hogs with two cages.
There are more than 1.5 million feral hogs in Texas alone. That estimate is probably very low. At 1.5 million hogs, 50 per massive nighttime operation, and assuming 10 such catches per night over the state (consider the cost of an operation like that), it would take 3000 days or 8.22 years to make your way through the population assuming no reproduction at all.
Do you see the scope of the problem?
So follow the pointy head wildlife biologist’s advice and trap if that’s what you want to do. Also, hunt them, individually and collectively, alone and in sounders. Don’t poison them as I’ve seen some idiots suggest because that poison will make its way into the ecosystem. That may be the dumbest solution I’ve seen floated.
But to assert that killing a hog will make the problem worse is the most asinine advice I’ve witnessed. Feral hogs don’t fit neatly into your Aristotelian categories. Your error is in trying to categorize them at all. Don’t categorize them – kill them.
They don’t do what you would predict, and they won’t do what you want. If you want to cap the feral hog population, do everything possible to kill as many as you can by any means you can wherever and whenever you can. Hunters are not the problem and the solution isn’t another tax and public works project.
Got it?
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On May 2, 2023 at 11:31 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel Smith
Feral hogs are somewhat reminiscent of the Burmese python problem in Florida, but only worse because of how widespread and distributed is the problem, not just in the American Southeast, but all over North America.
Invasive species are a very big problem when it comes to wildlife management. Feral hogs qualify, depending upon which authorities and experts to which you talk. I’d err on the side of calling them an invasive species since naturally-occurring wild pigs and hogs heretofore had not posed a problem on this scale, except perhaps locally.
Javelina (collared peccary), which are similar to wild boar in appearance, have been endemic in the SW U.S. for a long time, but since their arid habitat does not intersect too much with large-scale agriculture, whatever problems they pose have been fairly easy to handle.
Feral hogs are another problem entirely. Escaped domestic hog species have crossed over into the wild population, hybridized, and produced species of hogs which are very large, quite rapacious, fecund, and have few natural predators within their current geological ranges.
Prior to switching to biochemistry and other fields of laboratory science, I was once an “outdoor biologist” in my youth, mostly in forestry, forest-fire prevention and land management. I was not a mammalian biologist or a vertebrate zoologist per se, but do have some knowledge of the issues involved. However, I’ll admit that I was somewhat stunned to read the scope of the problem. I didn’t realize it was so extensive as to be an issue in Canada.
Herschel, IMHO you are entirely correct that halfhearted feel-good measures like trap-and-release stand little chance of working. The time for that passed a good while ago. An aggressive no-bag limit and no-seasonal restrictions hunting program would be a start.
One technology of which I have some knowledge is using tainted baits to train conditioned taste aversions into nuisance species. The idea is simply to pair a noxious (illness-causing) stimuli or agent (typically an additive in the food baits placed out) with the consumption of a preferred food, thereby causing the animal to associate the consequent severe (but not fatal) episode of illness with
that formerly desired food choice.
Conditioned taste aversions have worked in controlling coyote predation, to name one example of which I am familiar, as well as in other circumstances. Said aversions, however, are not always permanent and extinction of the sickness-food pairing can occur, which means that reinforcement is needed.
The difficulty in this case, too, is that it takes a good bit of preparation and work to devise a set-up which appeals to the targeted species, and does not instead get consumed by other species with similar dietary habits.
Of course, poisoned food sources can be used which are lethal to feral hogs, but you run into the same problem: lack of specificity and carry-over into other species which are not being targeted or managed.
A large feral hog – “Hogzilla” some wag called them! – can run upwards of 800-1,000 lbs. A creature that large and heavy is a tough out for any of predators now common in the south. A panther or puma might take one, or a black bear -maybe – but since those creatures are fairly low in numbers, that leaves things like coyotes and the occasional wolf. Not enough. Doesn’t seem promising.
A veterinarian might be able to comment on this or someone with a background in mammalian pathology: If there exists a disease or pathogen with specificity to those hogs, and not much else, that might be a tack worthy of exploration. Or something which, upon ingestion, interrupted their natural hormonal and reproductive cycles. TDB….
But in the meantime, let the good old boys hunt hogs until they don’t want to anymore!
On May 3, 2023 at 12:15 am, Chris Mallory said:
State law in KY is that if you trap a feral hog, you must kill it. It is illegal to remove one living from a trap/cage or transport it.
On May 3, 2023 at 6:12 am, Herschel Smith said:
I should have been clearer. I’m asserting that trapping alone will not cap the population, even if done aggressively, and even when coupled with killing trapped hogs.
It must be combined with aggressive hunting.
On May 3, 2023 at 7:23 am, Latigo Morgan said:
In the state of New Mexico wild hogs are in season year ’round with no limit and no hunting license needed. The problem is there just aren’t enough folks interested in hunting anything, let alone hogs.
Yet, everyone seems to want a deer and elk tag – which I’m beginning to think are being purchased by the bunny huggers to keep actual hunters from thinning the herds. I’m the only person I know in my circle of hunters who drew deer and elk tags this year – my odds were increased because I put in for muzzleloader hunts, and the cow elk hunt instead of rifle hunts.
I’m rambling. But I always figured if there were no hunting regulations, deer and elk populations would be eradicated in 6 months in this state by a certain demographic that doesn’t care about wildlife ecology. However; with the above stated no limits on hog hunting, the hog population keeps growing, so maybe my theory isn’t very sound?
Then again, if this state was serious about the hog problem, it would lift night time hunting restrictions and the strict ban on spotlights and such in order to give hunters every advantage possible.
On May 3, 2023 at 7:38 am, Chuck said:
What we’ve found on our place is hunting them makes them go elsewhere where they aren’t hunted. That may be another tool. Of course, they’re so smart and adaptive, they’ll change behavior about the time we decide something’s working well.
Herschel is most definitely right. Feral hogs aren’t going away. They’re a nuisance that will have to be managed to the best of our abilities.
On May 3, 2023 at 9:09 am, Bobby Nations said:
Here in Tennessee, hogs were at one time not considered to be a game animal at all, so no license needed, no bag limit enforced, but that changed a few years back. As it happens, entrepreneurial old boys had been importing them specifically to set up year-round hunting ranches for them. This effectively accelerated their spread. Our wildlife agency (TWRA) then reversed course and implemented a plan to allow landowners (and their friends) to hunt them on their own land, with some paperwork being necessary. I don’t know where things stand now as far as their numbers go, but at least the wildlife wardens will now at least admit that they exist, which they had steadfastly refused to do before the change no matter how many pictures deer hunters on public land submitted for documentation. It’s weird.
On May 3, 2023 at 11:27 am, PGF said:
As others have said, we may well soon need the food source. Perhaps there’s a blessing yet to be revealed. Learning to intelligently hunt and trap them seems prudent.
On May 3, 2023 at 12:11 pm, xtphreak said:
@Georgiaboy61
I do not agree with tailored or targeted pathogens being released into the ecosystem.
What will the effects be decades down the road?
Right.
You don’t know, so don’t do it.
The answer is the application of more force by more hunters.
Set up a program to provide the meat to the needy.
Pay the hunter something to cover his ammo and gas costs.
$1/lb would be incentive.
Lots of guys who love to hunt would love to be out hunting in the woods more.
I like the $75 bounty per pair of ears idea, kinda like the bounty AZ had in the 80’s on rattlesnakes …. except one PROTECTED sub-species which would net you a $500 fine when you took the skin in to the sheriff for the bounty.
On May 3, 2023 at 12:17 pm, jrg said:
Not based in scientific fact, but my own experience with feral hogs are that they appear to be smarter than deer and adjust their exposure on how much hunting pressure there is. When seen in the open or on the road, they don’t waste time just standing there – they are moving to the next patch of cover.
Unless there is another Great Depression which causes a huge upswell of hunters in the woods at all times, feral hog will continue to survive the American rurals. Anyone seeking meat and have feral hog in their vicinity should take the opportunity to hunt them. Fill the freezer and help the farmer and/or rancher rid themselves of their presence.
On May 3, 2023 at 11:50 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ xtphreak
Re: “I do not agree with tailored or targeted pathogens being released into the ecosystem. What will the effects be decades down the road? Right. You don’t know, so don’t do it.”
Whoa, partner, don’t jump to conclusions. I wasn’t advocating those things as policies, just mentioning the fact that they exist and have been used elsewhere. It is germane to note that the methods mentioned have been used successfully in the wild by wildlife biologists, in various places and at various times. Despite what you may believe about scientists and engineers based upon recent news, most of them do in fact know what they are doing, and have the welfare of humans and the ecosystem well in mind when doing their work.
In other words, please take a chill pill, OK?
On May 4, 2023 at 5:46 am, xtphreak said:
@Georgiaboy61
First.
I’m not attacking scientists and engineers. Not do I distrust the intentions of said technicals.
Would be rather silly considering I’m a Nuclear Test Engineer and I do trust my ethics.
The same with most of my coworkers.
But.
The well-meaning work of technicals is often misused by management and politicians who don’t grasp the finer details (or pitfalls) of a product and just want quick “solution”, be it for the ecology or for a schedule or just for name recognition.
I’ve seen the results of well meaning attempts to resolve eco-issues cause other greater issues.
Take kudzu.
Please take kudzu.
Anyway, I’m not ranting, just voicing concerns about well-intentioned “solutions” with possibly detrimental side effects.
Have a good day!
On May 7, 2023 at 6:52 am, Todd said:
It’s interesting how many wild hogs are out there, but I’ve not seem one since the 80’s camping in Florida. I’m thinking they are pretty good at avoiding people, but given how fast they reproduce, aren’t they going o eventually be everyone’s problem? When I lived in Germany, they had one day a year you could hunt wild boars, and only because they were tearing up neighborhood yards and gardens. I’ve never hunted, personally. Just don’t care to. I’d never hunt hogs to eat because they are biblically unclean, but I can see getting involved in eradication efforts, which leads to the question: What do you do with a hog once you shoot it? They’re not small, do you just leave them where they drop? I figure I could drop quite a few as I’m well trained thanks to Uncle Sam spending lots of money on me, but I don’t want to deal with a load of bloody hogs.