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JJHACK Offline OP
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I hunted hogs in California last fall. They provided an information booklet at the license office In that booklet it said that 40 plus states have wild hogs and in the next 20 years all of 50 will. They seem to think it is a very fast growing population of animals that will become a problem if not controlled.

I have seen token animals in a few states like Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Nothing to call huntable, or a problem. I do know they can survive almost any environment, as long as there is water. Water seems to be the biggest limitation to the wild hog survival, they can eat and grow on just about anything. So those PNW states I've mentioned Should be loaded with hogs if there is really a problem with them. There is plenty of water, and an endless supply of food for them.

In California I've seen lots of hogs on private ranches, but hunting on Public land has such low success that it's not really a practical way to spend your time. California has some of the best habitat on earth for wild hogs to thrive. So does Texas, but again mostly private land.

How strong is the wild hog population in America? Is this Brochure from California accurate in that wild hogs will be huntable in all 50 states in the next 20 or so years?


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We've got them here in TN. They've been in the eastern part of the state forever, but haven't seemed to spread as far as I know. I'm not sure what the limiting factor on their expansion is, as I would have expected them to spread.

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Originally Posted by jds44
I'm not sure what the limiting factor on their expansion is, as I would have expected them to spread.


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Originally Posted by pullit
Originally Posted by jds44
I'm not sure what the limiting factor on their expansion is, as I would have expected them to spread.


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LMAO!

P.S. And the proliferaton of BBQ shows on "The Food Network" ...

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Rednecks with spotlights indeed! America's deadliest predator!

How well do hogs do in the cold of the northern states? I imagine some can survive, but will they flourish? Am thinking that long cold winters and deep snow could be problems for them.

Another limiting factor could be predators. Washington has a large population of black bear. Wolf numbers are growing throughout the west. Cougar are common. Heck, even our coyotes are pretty darned impressive, I've got one hide that measures 5' from nose to tip of the tail. Am certain our 'yotes take a toll on the deer population. A wild boar can be a tough critter, but there are a fair number of big predators up in the northern states that might take a liking to pork!

I haven't hunted hogs in a long time. It sure was fun though!

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They have been in southern New Mexico since the homesteading days. There are still folks who trap feral hogs and ear-mark them and then turn them loose to forage for themselves until fall mast crops fatten them up. However, in my experience, they are not common anywhere on public land. Most of the live water and riparian habitat in New Mexico is private--except for the high mountain ranges, most public land is arid and poorly watered, compared to the private land.

I managed a large ranch in southern New Mexico that had abundant feral hogs, especially during the years when our El Nino winters boosted our annual rainfall totals. I used to get requests for access from as far away as southern Colorado and the urban areas of Phoenix and especially Tucson.

Initially, I looked on it as a good way to thin their numbers a bit, but it turned out that most of the "hunters" wanted to drive their jeeps and ATVs around the ranch for a few days, and maybe shoot a hog on their way out. I would direct folks to areas where the hogs were causing problems with their rooting, but the only hogs that would get taken were pretty much shot from a vehicle or an ATV in chance encounters.

I ended up limiting the hog hunting to a few ranch families in the area that would take a few hogs to supplement beef and venison in their larders. Even though I have been gone from the ranch for over two years, I still get calls and e-mails from folks who want to hunt hogs...


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I do a lot of boar/hog hunting. Note your post referencing "WILD" hogs. Many states have hogs penned/preserved which is quite different from truly free roaming hogs. Virtually the entire south from South Carolina to Florida to Texas & of course California has hogs. Then the NW that was mentioned. Most land owners wish they didn't have them. I have shot about 125 mostly in Florida but some is Texas,SC, & Georgia. Lots of sport.


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Originally Posted by pullit
Originally Posted by jds44
I'm not sure what the limiting factor on their expansion is, as I would have expected them to spread.


Rednecks with spotlights smile


Shhh. Quit giving away our secrets. grin

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Missouri has a scattered population. Our Conservation Department is attempting to get a handle on numbers, expansion, and control the things. The MDC estimates we may have somewhere between 5,000 - 10,000 scattered across the southern Ozarks. The MDC has trapped them, and, is now going to gun them from a helicoptor this winter. Hogs are scattered around in many of the areas I hunt and I have seen a few of them, plus lots of sign. I have some friends who have killed a few. One of my friends tracked one in the snow and jumped it from a clearcut, killing a 275 pound razorback. Hard looking critter for sure... Big hogs occasionally make some of the rural papers. A couple of years ago a squirrel hunter had a pair of big boars come by and he misplaced a head shot on one of them. The wounded boar treed the guy and kept him up in the tree until his hunting buddy came looking for him around lunch time. The bud killed the hog which was still hanging around and after getting some help they weighed the hog in a local butcher shop. 400 pounder with 4" or 5" tusk IIRC from the newspaper account. I jumped a huge old boar about like that out of a clearcut while scouting for bobcat sign one winter day. Walked right up on it as it slept at the base of a huge white oak tree. Startled the crap out of me as it rolled to its feet about ten yards away and busted through the brush down the ridge.


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JJ, where in Idaho have you seen wild free ranging hogs? I'm just curious, because I've lived in North Central Idaho all my life and have never heard of any wild free roaming hogs. This part of the state with relatively mild winters, agriculture, and brushy canyons with water might be the best place for them to have a chance.

Back to the origianl question. Unless on private land where access and hunting is limited I really can't imagine hogs getting established here where most people carry a rifle when out and about. A few years ago, a couple dozen escaped from a guy who was raising some of the feral looking hogs(not the domestic variety). The F&G informed the public to shoot on sight if encountering the hogs. It didn't take long and the hog escape scare was over.

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In Wisconsin, we have hogs in pockets all over the state. Year round season, 24/7, and no bag limits.




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Is this Brochure from California accurate in that wild hogs will be huntable in all 50 states in the next 20 or so years?


Knowing the rate in which these hogs can breed, I do indeed believe that.


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North Carolina has both feral hogs and Russian Boars. The boars have a normal hunting season while the hogs, I believe, are yar round.

West Virginia has had Russian Boars for a few decades now. But it issues 'resident only' permits. Not legal for out of staters to hunt.

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How under hunting conditions do you distinguish between a feral hog and a so called "Russian boar"

I suspect the origin of most hogs in the USA is not "russian boar" but rather some European country. I think that the term "Russian is suppose to make them seem somehow superior or bigger?

A quick check in SCI shows there is not even a boar from Russia in the top 100 listed! All the biggest hogs are from Iran and Turkey. With most of the remaining from Germany Austria, Poland, spain, etc. Even India and Pakastan have hogs listed ahead of Russia.

I've always been curious about this "Russian hog" term. As if that is some kind of super hog? In California and Texas you can see hogs running in groups which have long thick black hair and a long flat snout. Next to them are white and black spotted hogs, and red and black hogs and hogs of every color and shape. All very likely related in some way over generations of breeding. They are just different looking. It would be impossible to say which is feral and which is "european, Asain, or "Russian" for that matter. I very much doubt there is a single free ranging born in the wild hog in the USA today that is a pure European strain of wild boar. What would be the odds of this pure strain after all this time still breeding with only other pure strain Eurpoean hogs?


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im guessing by Russia they are just talking the old eastern Europe before it fragmented......Russia is a simpler word, besides who wants to hunt something called a Polish pig grin

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Good point rattler. Although maybe polish pigs make better polish sausage. I don't know. smile

JJHack, it would be hard for me to make the call as I am not at all familiar with what a whole lot of the hogs of other areas look like. But I can describe the West Virginia ones pretty well having seen them up close many times and even helping to cook a couple. They are a pretty large hog, all black with long black hair and usually have long tusks. These descend from imported stock, that much I do remember, but I don't know exactly where the stock was originally from. I have never seen a feral hog in West Virginia. Not to say they don't exist, but any free ranging hog would be living on borrowed time there. Too many people with rifles and a liking of free meat. smile

In North Carolina, where I live now, I am less knowledgable. But I have read that the Russians here are from a farm on the western side of the state. They were raised there and eventually got lose and just started doing what hogs do. There is some level of interbreeding according to the fish and game department. From what they have told me, the appearance of the hogs here ranges from the description I gave above for WVs Russians to regular old barnyard hogs which can be red, white, brown, black or spotted.

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Originally Posted by Lonny
JJ, where in Idaho have you seen wild free ranging hogs? I'm just curious, because I've lived in North Central Idaho all my life and have never heard of any wild free roaming hogs. This part of the state with relatively mild winters, agriculture, and brushy canyons with water might be the best place for them to have a chance.


Lonny, although your question wasn't directed to me. I am aware there WAS a population of free ranging hogs in the Brownlee area something like 20 years ago. I hunted them once but found absolutely not sign. And like you pointed out, it didn't take long to erraticate them. I know of no other hog popuations in Idaho, my experience is with the southwestern, south central, and central Idaho.


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Here in Kansas there are wild hogs to be sure, but, the state of Kansas made it illegal to hunt or shoot them. Instead, the Department of Agriculture uses choppers find and shoot wild hogs, at least around Clinton Lake they do. Clinton Lake is just outside of Lawrence. Other than that, Kansas denies any other wild hogs. Evidently, hogs from neighboring Missouri and hog rich Oklahoma do not cross state lines as they apparently know that there are no other hogs in Kansas. I think with the vast majority of land in this state under private ownership and in agricultural use the state is worried out of its mind about hogs setting up shop. The hunting ban, though, defies logic. I think the ban was put into place to keep enterprizing farmers from bringing in wild hogs and turning them out on their land for paid hunting purposes. Tom Purdom

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JJACK -
I can understand your skepticism about there being a difference of wild hogs vs feral hogs in North America, but there is.

The original wild boar stock from Germany and the Russian Caucasius were stocked into a high fenced preserve of 19,000 acres in NC in the 1890s, outside Asheville. After the owner aged and he and his friends stopped hunting the game (Red deer, boar, and other European game), he left the estate to his gamekeeper, who was egged on by local friends to let them hunt it. The yokels chased the game into the fence and the hogs tore it down and escaped, populating the western mountains of NC, SC, and Tennessee. TN has a mix of some feral hogs interbreeding with these hogs. NC and SC have a pretty pure stock in the mountains, with more feral hog interbreeding as the hogs migrate down the rivers into the Central Piedmont and midlands along the Savannah, Saluda and Broad rivers.

I can send you some extensive studies by biologists. Now, with DNA processing, it is possible for new studies to match them up to the strains of European stock, if someone wants a PhD thesis topic.

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JJ,

You are spot on in your assessment of the origins of most hogs in the US. I've had several long talks with the F&G Biologist in this area, and he tells me that even domestic hogs will start to look like "Russian" boars after only three generations in the wild.

The way hogs breed, I'd be shocked if there were ANY pure wild strains left anywhere in the US.


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Interesting stuff Boise.

Maybe I'm underestimating the feral hog and overestimating the hunters here in ID, but I just can't see wild free ranging hogs getting much of a foothold here unless they have some sort of sanctuary to build numbers and to escape trigger happy hunters. I have no doubt with some protection wild hogs could survive here.

With the shoot onsight recommendation by the F&G concerning the escaped hogs several years ago, hunters flooded the local F&G office with calls about where the pigs might be found and shot. By the time the word got out about the escaped hogs, they were dead.

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