I live in the densely populated West Side of San Antonio. The thing about this city is its flat and prone to flooding, hence where they ain't been channelized you can't build adjacent to creeks and such. Which means you get wooded creek bottoms extending through town....

...and hogs, which might be our most common urban mammal, or at least in the running.

Ain't seen any near my house in a while, IME its droughts that drive 'em out of the creek bottoms and into neighborhoods.

Found these tracks along a footpath near my house coming home from work last night, which is odd since its been warm and wet lately.



Gonna have to be careful about leaving pet food out.

Birdwatcher

Why is it odd? Do you not work when it is warm and wet?

The few times I visited Mom and Dad in S. A., I was struck by the resemblance of S.A. to Morocco in the 50s. I'm not surprised there's feral hogs loose in the city.

Jim

I guess you would have to ask the hogs.

More than many places in the US, the difference between wet and dry years around here is like night and day. In wet years the weeds are six feet high by May and it seems like there's enough productivity going on in the woods to feed the hogs, whatever it is they are eating.

Dry years; go back in the woods and in those same areas where you needed a machete to navigate all you see is open understory and dry, cracked dirt (this place is warm enough that leaf litter doesn't accumulate much), dry years even the hogs get skinny.

And that in my experience is when hogs start wandering through the neighborhoods. Mostly small ones like this. I ain't all that familiar with feral hog social dynamics but I'd guess in hard times the bigger hogs dominate whatever natural foods are left, ain't no crop fields to raid around here.

Birdwatcher

Took wifey out to Cabelas in Buda (south of Austin for those unfamiliar with area). This was Wednesday after all the rain we had. Was on toll road (SH 45) about 4 or 5 miles east of IH-35 and there was a field over by Creedmoor loaded with all sizes and color of hogs! Mostly them big black ones! Broad daylight. Hadn't seen hogs out like that in a while. Figger they was run out of their adjoining creekbottom by the localized flooding. Close to 50! And they were still there when we headed back toward Bastrop! About 2:30 in the afternoon.

Just a rootin' up the field and having a great time!

You mean like Michael Moore or Amy Schumer?

Ones we saw were respectable hogs!

My first thought was 'Rosie '

The MF's come in my yard too. Bought suppressor and a savage hog hunter to screw it on. Lot of them have perished. Couple neighbors dogs too. Can't have dogs growling at grand babies. Best thing I ever bought. With sub sonic it makes noise like a BB gun. There are millions of pigs in Texas. Come visit, kill you some.

Can you kill them and eat them in the city?

Traps and snares for awkward legal conflicts would be my suggestion.

I don't want to eat Amy Schumer or Rosie.

Keep a watch (and heavy artillery ) out for Crisco aka Michael Moore.

I'm sure a good case of "mistaken identity" could be made if you find him rooting in your back yard.

Would it be considered wanton waste if you wasted your kill?

Gee, you're no fun at all, are you?

if a large lo (landowner) doesn't control the feral pigs running loose on his/her property, then the surrounding subdivisions might experience tremendous loss of landscaping from the free-running feral pigs. they love to eat established, well-fertilized landscape, and escape back into the swamp come day light.

maybe all the swamps could be fenced, as one possible solution?

They come out on the football practice fields, f...k them up sometimes. Golf courses, SOB are everywhere. I don't eat them, 30% of them carry brucellosis! I drag them to the bone yard at the lease. Those I kill at home I give to the democrats I went to high school with. They eat cshit out of them.