Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game How many states have huntable wild hogs?

Some pure strain European wild boar were imported and released about 1910 in California's Carmel Valley near where I grew up. Those pigs are very obvious when you see one: I saw a pair in a field at sunrise this month.

Much of the early stock were pigs brought in by the Spaniards for rations. Obviously all these strains can interbreed, and they do. Pigs can have litters year around, and they have many piglets per litter.

I know they are being farmed in Quebec, so I think they can handle a pretty cold winter.

I haven't heard of any huntable populations in Alaska yet.

The California DFG had the Legislature enable pig licenses a few years back to improve the hunting. You could buy a book of tags for $5, formerly they used to be a free hunt and you could hunt them year around. The pig tags allowed DFG to check returns to learn that 93% of pigs are killed on private land. We still have the pig tags, but DFG fired the pig staff and the $ go into their general fund now.

jim

We have them in places here in Texas. If there are any, there are a lot, and they are worse than pests. They are not everywhere yet, but they are expanding their range. If you drive West on 380 you better keep your eyes open after dark. A big hog will mess up a car.

I was thinking about hog hunting this weekend and I found this map from 2004. If you click on the upper map it shows the progression from 1988. The lower 2004 map looks impressive but it's highlighting entire counties instead of hog population pockets.

It looks like there are some in the canyons of the John Day and possibly the Deschutes. JJHACK please give me a report if you see any there.

http://www.uga.edu/scwds/dist_maps/swine04.html

That is my firm belief as well, after researching feral hogs, to no end. I had a Wisconsin state biologist tell me to my face, that they are all geneticaly the same. I've no reason to doubt that. Reminds me of Alaskan griz, brown, and Kodiak bears - all geneticaly the same.

Different states have taken on different methods to rid themselves of the hogs. Kansas and Nebraska (Missouri may follow)are two that come to mind where they do not allow hunting. USDA-Wildlife Services has taken charge of that management issue. Sounds crazy to me not to let hunters in on the killing. My only guess is that those states are trying to stop any sport hunting interest before it starts. Here in Wisconsin, the DNR, after holding public meetings, has adopted the position that feral pigs are exotic, non-native wild animals that pose significant threats to both the environment and to agricultural operations. I say that is a good move, as it now affords us hunters another game animal to pursue, year round.

Good, bad, or indifferent, the feral hogs are here to stay.

Here is what they look like in Wisconsin. I killed this boar back in May. And yes, here in Wis they are 100% freerange (Fenced operations for wild hogs are illegal)

He looks as wild appearing as they get.

While we may get feral hogs in all 50 states, I don't think that they will ever be very prolific in the northern states. While they're fully capable of surviving the temperatures, it takes them a lot of energy to do so. Foraging in the winter is slim pickings in the north. Farmers, ranchers, etc won't want them around, and it will be easier for them to keep them under control than it is in the south.

Great Map!!

Who is telling a tall tale here though? How do the hogs know there not suppose to be in Oregon? The Oregon DFW is ignoring the truth or California is overstating the distribution.

It seems odd to me that they only go north to the exact line of the border of the state?? I've shot two in the area shown near John Day. One about 500 lbs looking just like a giant farm pig, and the other much more wild looking like a true wild boar. We were actually near Ashwood and Prineville. I shot both on a private ranch which the land owner gave me permission to hunt Elk. He told me to shoot every pig I saw, and I could just leave them lay dead if I wanted to. He also had feral goats and sheep which he told me to shoot everyone of those I see as well. I shot about 5-6 in a couple years of hunting there. Nobody seems to know how these feral hogs and other animals arrived there. There seemed to be hundreds of sheep and goats, we saw them frequently. The hogs we saw were in groups of 4-10 or so and were always on the move. We did see them rooting across a canyon one afternoon. We watched them for while, but there was no way we were gonna waste any time to shoot them with limited time for elk hunting.

I think today I would just as well hunt the hogs rather then the Elk!

I dunno buck. There is a cell here in extreeme northern Wisconsin that have established themselves quite well, near Superior. The winter climate is almost as brutal as it gets in the 48. Maybe not quite International Falls brutal, but close.

These things live in as cold weather as any deer will and have greater survival skills then Deer. I shot one with my Bow in Northern Alberta a few years ago. Everything was frozen solid and the warm temps during the day were only 7 deg F! at night it was way below Zero.

In All of northern Europe the weather is easily as cold as it is in the USA, maybe colder. Yet the hogs thrive and grow. They also live in the tropical heat of Asia and the jungles all around the world.

This is probably one of the most resiliant and weather proof big game animals in the whole world. The Giant forest hog is the biggest species which live in the thickest jungles on earth with the highest rainfall on earth. The world record hogs all come from Iran, one of the driest locations on earth.

I think if they have some escape routes into wilderness or private unhunted areas they will dig in and be difficult to remove!

The European or Russian hogs were imported to their Western NC hunting preserve (Near present day Asheville) by George Vanderbilt and his cronies in the late 19th century. Sometime in the early 20th century (1910-1912 ?) these critters escaped and flourished in the mountains.

HBB

JJHACK look at my post again. I found some more information on the original site so I linked to it instead.

It's quite possible that hogs actually predate even the "Indians" (missnamed by Europeans)in the Americas. I saw a TV program a year or so ago and have done some reading about it since, evidently the Polynesians were here 5-10 centeries before the natives of Siberia crossed over into North America. They colonised the South American coast and parts of the Amazon but were pushed south by the more numerous newer immigrants to the far south tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego. They found remnent populations there and traced thier language, stories and DNA to Polynesians, futher back to the aboriginal Austrailins, and then furthur back to Africa. It's not too surprising really when you remember that Easter Island is only 800 miles away from Equador.

I found this humorous for two reasons.

First, apparently blacks were here first. I mean seriously those guys crossed the Pacific Ocean in little canoes. Not only that, they traveled between little islands, which they could FIND in the vast ocean, with thier families along, and pigs, in 2000 BC. Amazing talent.

Second, being half Native American myself I think it's hilarious that at one time someone said to my ancestors 'Hey Indians, we were here first, go back where you came from'.

East Texas has right at a million hogs....they breed at 6 months and can/will have 2 litters per year. From the age of 2 months to 6 months they gain almost a pound a day. Once established they cannot be eliminated by trapping, hunting, or poisoning.

I love hunting 'em. Great eating, but they are a problem.

No limit, no season and we can't stay on top of 'em.

Edit to clarify: staying on top in a 'controlling the numbers' way......not in any way an Alaskan may think.

Here's a 175#

This thread is a good read for someone like myself who has never seen a feral hog/boar stateside. Seen plenty in Europe though. Wonder why they are not in Northern reigons such as New England anyways. As mentioned before, winters in their European range are just as, if not more severe than here.

In NC, SC and TN they have the sanctuaries of the National Parks in very rugged mountains. After Jimmy Carter hoodooed the people into confiscating the Biedler timber farm as a "virgin uncut forest", it hunting ended, which had been controlling the hogs which migrated down the Saluda from the mountains.

The Congaree National Forest, later Monument, now Park, is bordered on one side by a farm which grows hybrid seed corn. The hogs went after that and flourished. The only controlling force is flooding which traps and drowns them.

There are also some pure stock European wild boar in Ontario, for those of you you like hunting in snow and really cold weather.

Yes, domestic hogs gone wild will look more and more wild with each generation, even without breeding with wild pigs. Dogs will do the same. I have shot wild dogs that were killing my cattle which looked like they were from Africa.

You cannot stop the migration of pigs. That was proved in Australia. Even when a scientific study was commissioned in the 1970's whereby, an area was divided by fence and all the pigs shot out on one side, the buffalo thrived where the pigs were removed and caused to buffalo to migrate where they were left.

The only way currently to control pigs is with the bullet. That was a major influence on the government in NSW, an eastern state in Auatralia, to validate the formation of a proposed Game Council run by hunters to permit the culling of feral animals in national parks, something that never occured in Australia's history.

Public land was always forbidden to hunters which is the complete opposite of what happnes here in the US.

Pigs will spread and they can only be controlled at this stage, by the bullet. Aussie hunters killing a couple of hundred over a good weekend or a week is not rare.

AGW

Lee, you lost me on this. You shot dogs that returned back to the wild and somehow had enough time in generations (many many years) of having undisturbed wild breeding to generate the original visual look back to an African cape hunting dog or "wild dog" .............not a natural occuring wolf or coyote, but a Wild dog from Africa which has never lived here in North America.

I find this an absloutley stunning observation! That some farm dogs, or orthewise free ranging dogs could run loose joing up, organise a pack or 50. Then live long enough on their own continuing to breed schnauzer to beagle to pointer to lab, to what ever mixed breed and then after (how many years and generations 100-1000 ?) Will all blend together and re-create an animal that looks like something that never lived here to begin with.

Please start a new thread on this don't further screw with this serious thread.

That's intresting JJ. The story here is that the hog's origionated at Ashwood on a private reserve, so did the goats which are actually supposed to be Ibex. I used to have a lot of photo's of the Ibex on a local ranch here but they are now all but gone. There were six as I recall, all nanny's and the guy from Ashwood was going to give the ranch owner a billy to go with them but they never got it. They think old age and our booming cougar's got them.

The hog's were awfully thick on private land between Antelope and Ashwood but according to the rancher's, the government trapper has flown and shot them off from a plane. I have heard of some out around Donnybrook, near Ashwood, and out in Grizzly but I've never seen one. I also hear of them on the old Smith Ranch in Antelope but the new owner's don't let anyone hunt there. One other pocket here is in what's called Sand Canyon, owned mostly by the Borthwick Ranch, all leased hunting. A friend with a small place bordering the Borthwick ranch see's them occassionally.

I have seen the dead bodies of some between Antelope and Ashwood, shot by ranchers. In fact out in an old pickup is the remains of one my ex dragged home years ago. everyone I've seen has been black and fit's the discription of the hog called Russian Boar, probably Eourpean Boar is a better discription.

I have people ask about the hog hunting here from time to time but have nothing good to tell them. Problem is what there are, if there are still any, all seem to be on private property. Lot of that around here. The guy that bought the Smith Ranch say's they are up in the sagebrush now. I doubt that as there's no water up there. There is another place on the ranch that has a lot of water and feeds over into the John Day River.

JJACK -
I cannot tell you how many generations wild some of these wild dogs were. When I was about 16, we had a real problem with several packs of them. The mix consisted of all kinds of dogs, large and small, some of which had probably been dropped off by city people. The leader of one pack was, as I described, as wild looking as anything I have ever seen, in hair, spotted markings, large ears, etc. It had a bit of German Shepherd in it. We had killed a bunch of them by calling them into an ambush at buckshot range, but the survivors never fell for the same trick twice. Getting the leader required moving up to a .30-06 and a 350-yard shot (with open sights, all I had).

I have seen feral pigs killed that had all the markings of domestic breeds, but in one generation or two they had developed coarser hair, longer snouts, larger tusks. Maybe only the ones with recessive traits (or dominant traits) survive, and the pretty ones don't make it.

JJACK -
I cannot tell you how many generations wild some of these wild dogs were. When I was about 16, we had a real problem with several packs of them. The mix consisted of all kinds of dogs, large and small, some of which had probably been dropped off by city people. The leader of one pack was, as I described, as wild looking as anything I have ever seen, in hair, spotted markings, large ears, etc. It had a bit of German Shepherd in it. We had killed a bunch of them by calling them into an ambush at buckshot range, but the survivors never fell for the same trick twice. Getting the leader required moving up to a .30-06 and a 350-yard shot (with open sights, all I had).

I have seen feral pigs killed that had all the markings of domestic breeds, but in one generation or two they had developed coarser hair, longer snouts, larger tusks. Maybe only the ones with recessive traits (or dominant traits) survive, and the pretty ones don't make it.

We'll have them, the question is how many and how widespread. I'm guessing that there will be pockets here and there where they can find enough food year round, but they won't have the high population density all over the upper midwest like whitetails do.

Even the biologist won't/can't answer that question, but the safe money says there will be far more feral hogs decades down the road, then there are now. They are unstopable.

Wisconsin has a million and a half whitetails going into any given fall, so I highly doubt the hog numbers will be anywhere near that in our lifetime (in the midwest). But they will grow in population.

Food/forage will never be an issue with hogs, anywhere. They will and do eat ANYTHING.