Feral Hog Hunting: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Truth (US)

 

By: Dan Gaskins

Extension Assistant

Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service

 

Feral Hogs are an excellent game species. They are abundant, large, and potentially fierce. A large boar can have tusks a few inches in length, making for an outstanding wall mount. They also have tasty meat that is leaner than commercially-raised pork. Some states have few or no restrictions on the hunting of feral hogs, leading to an entire industry of guided hunts, aerial gunning, dog breeding and training, and high-tech hunting. There is no doubt that they are good for hunting, but there is some question whether hunting them is good for us.

The Good: As previously mentioned, they are a good game species. They provide a range of hunting opportunities for people from all walks of life and are often a source for meat donations to those in need. Trophy boar hunts can bring in thousands of dollars for a landowner, and provides a memorable experience for the hunter. Some have even called feral hogs “the poor man’s grizzly bear”. Hunting feral hogs does remove individuals from the population, which is always a positive thing. Potentially, landowners could use the funds from trophy hunts to pay for population reduction efforts such as trapping.

The Bad: Unfortunately, due to the quality of hunting and income they provide, some landowners are more interested in hunting opportunities than reducing the feral hog populations. Since the late 1800s, people have been releasing wild pigs for sport hunting, leading to the introduction of the Eurasian Wild Boar into the landscape. Even today, some people still catch feral hogs and trailer them to new locations for hunting, starting breeding populations in areas that were once pig free. This has been illegal for decades, but still some unscrupulous individuals continue to “aid and abet” wild pigs in their spread. Most hunters are conservationists and do not support this practice, but it only takes one trailer of pigs to establish a new population. A larger number of people will also release sows and/or piglets they capture in traps. This is done to maintain a healthy population, as we would do with any native game animal. Others release boars after castrating them (called “barrs”) to allow them to grow larger for better trophies. For legal, health, and safety reasons, this is also not recommended. While they may not be adding to the population, they are still causing damage, polluting waters, and posing a health risk to humans, livestock, and wildlife.

 

For decades, American hunters have been avid conservationists and the driving force behind many conservation programs. As a result, most hunters grow up being taught hunting practices that promote healthy populations. For example, the idea of killing a fawn or a doe with young offspring is abhorrent to most hunters, as would capturing deer in a trap and dispatching them at point blank range. The problem with this kind of thinking when it comes to feral hogs is we do not want to promote a healthy population. We want to reduce it. Many landowners see them as hundred dollar bills that print themselves, not as a destructive, invasive animal that needs to be removed.

The Ugly Truth: Feral hog hunting is not in itself a bad thing. However, it can lead to negative practices intended to promote their populations. Some states have banned or do not promote hunting feral hogs to try to prevent illegal releases. In 2009, Texas Parks and Wildlife sold a total of 1,130,306 hunting licenses. Studies from 2010 put the feral hog population in Texas at around 2.6 Million and estimated a 66% removal rate would be necessary to keep the population steady. That means every single licensed hunter in the state can harvest an average of 1.5 pigs every year and the population would still be stable. Hunters and landowners need to have the right mindset when dealing with these animals. They do a great deal of damage to our natural resources, compete with (and sometimes depredate on) native game species, and pollute our waters. While they can serve as a source of income, in the long run they are costly creatures, causing $800 Million in both direct and indirect damages (USDA APHIS) annually in the US Consider their effect on the main game species in the US: whitetail deer. They will chase deer away from feeders and eat the corn or supplements intended for growing trophy deer. They will, given the chance, prey upon fawns. How much more is a trophy whitetail buck worth than a dozen feral hogs?

Interest in feral hogs as a game species is not going away anytime soon and neither are the animals themselves. Sport hunting alone will not have enough direct impact on the population to stop the current pig explosion, but it can help pay for other methods. To reach a point where we are even beginning to control the feral hog population, we must utilize every tool in our toolbox. To do this, we must keep in mind that while they are great for hunting, we must also be using other methods to reduce the population. Rigorous trapping efforts coupled with snaring, strategic shooting and catch dogs are vital behaviors that must be implemented to begin impacting feral hog populations effectively. Hunters and landowners are an integral part of a future where feral hog populations are not the threat they are today. We must all intensify our current efforts at curbing the feral hog problem or their populations will increase beyond our wildest dreams. 

 

http://wild-wonderings.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/feral-hog-hunting-good-bad-and-ugly.html