Wild hogs move into Mid-South, Fayette County officer kills 600-pound boar

The Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 12/23/06 | Shirley Downing

[Sybeck1]

Fayette County officer kills 600-pound boar

Fayette County resident John Cocke walked out onto his deck, clapped his hands, and hollered.

He first thought a neighbor's hog was on the loose, but he quickly saw the animal ripping into his chicken coop had long tusks, beady eyes and hair that stood up on his back like an angry dog.

"He acted aggressive, like if you come out here, I'm going to tear you up."

Cocke called for help.

Fayette County Animal Control officer Thomas Petrowski felled the wild porker with three blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun. Cocke's nephew carved the beast into slabs of bacon and mounds of pork chops.

Fayette County folks have been talking about the ferocious hog that weighed 600-plus pounds and spanned 7 feet, snout to curly tail.

Feral hogs are once-domesticated animals that have returned to the wild. Sometimes hogs escape the pen, or people turn them out to forage, or they're stocked for hunting purposes.

Wild hogs have become increasingly common -- and a growing nuisance -- throughout the South, though the exact number in Tennessee is unclear, said Ben Layton, big-game biologist for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in Crossville.

Nationally, feral hogs are increasingly on the radar of state wildlife officials, who note their rapid rate of reproduction and their threat to game and wildlife.

"Feral hogs are very destructive creatures that can destroy native plants and natural resources," said Layton. "Our agency has taken a stand of trying to stop the uncontrolled introduction of these animals into the wild."

Cocke said he hadn't seen any wild hogs on his property before the one that was killed several weeks ago.

"He'd been up the road at a neighbor's house before he came down here. He'd broke in their horse barn or pasture and broke a gate down, and their horses got out. We live 1.5 or 2 miles (east of) Somerville and those horses were so scared they went to Somerville."

Animal Control officer Bill Crook ran the hog back into the woods, but the animal returned.

Then Petrowski arrived.

The hog had literally ripped a pole holding a trash feeder from the ground, he said.

Petrowski said hunters don't comprehend the danger of coming up on a wild hog in the dark.

"They are nothing to play with," he said. "Hunters should be aware in the woods."

-- Shirley Downing: 529-2387

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‘FOREIGN’ ANIMALS MOVING IN

A manatee swims up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico. An Arkansas black bear crosses the Mississippi River and hikes across Northwest Tennessee. Dead armadillos line the roadside and alligators bask in McKellar Lake.

Details

Increasingly, Mid-Southerners see animals once foreign to the area. Reasons vary, but largely involve changes in clime and habitat, free-ranging animals and the return of domesticated animals to the wild.

"You can clump armadillos, alligators and fire ants together," said Gary Cook, regional manager for the Jackson office of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

"Some of those are temperature dependent. The warmer it is, the farther north they will expand their territories. Because we have had relatively warm temperatures for the past 10 years, those animals tend to expand their territories north.

"That's the reason you are seeing alligators in the Mississippi River and armadillos expanding northward."

Coyotes are "a totally different story. We've had coyotes for a long time, from about the mid-1970s."

The arrival of coyotes is due to natural range expansion, he said. "That has nothing to do with temperatures. All species expand their range when they can do so."

University of Memphis biology professor Mike Kennedy said coyotes are drawn to the Mid-South because "our habitat is good. We have abundant rabbit and rodent resources that are the primary food items for coyotes."

Copyright 2006, commercialappeal.com - Memphis, TN. All Rights Reserved.

[ZULU]

Hmmm.

I REALLY like wild boar, Properly prepared, it is superior to domestic pork with darker, moister meat. A German restaurant I frequent serves it often.

Hmmmm.

[FreedomPoster]

Those Germans know how to do pork. A killer meal I had a few months ago while in Germany visiting friends, who used to live here:

http://images19.fotki.com/v33/photos/7/77755/4270289/LinnBerg2-vi.jpg

Roast suckling pig.

[NewJerseyJoe]

that's one of the best photoshops I've ever seen. Thanks for the chuckle!

[No Truce With Kings]

"All over the country people and agencies complain about wild pigs, but generally won't let us common folk hunt them or charge us when they do."

As far as I know, you can hunt for feral hogs at any time in Texas, if you have permission from the property owner. When I lived in East Texas, we would regularly get feral hog carcasses from a friend that hunted them -- generally to get rid of ones making a nuisance of themselves.

Feral hog? In Texas, it's what's for dinner.

[girlangler]

I have a much higher chance of being et by wild hog here where I live than in west Tennessee. The Cumberland Plateau area is full of them, and we have several hog hunting operations running up here.

Also they are in the Great Smoky Mountain Natl. Park and the Cherokee Natl. Forest. They are VERY destructive.

I know both Ben Layton and Gary Cook (Region I west Tennessee TWRA manager). Gary Cook is one of the finest men I know, an expert on coyote hunting and an accomplished writer.

I am also very close here to the TWRA's elk reintroduction area, and about 30 miles from Kentucky's, and bears are migrating into this area of Kentucky just above me (they were reintroduced into the Big South Fork a few years ago, and are making a comeback in Virginia, also near here.

So, I could very well walk out into my woods here and see an elk, a bear (I do have lots of deer) and a host of other critters. My neighbor did see an elk at my gate once.

Hope you have a blessed Christmas.

[billhilly]

Thanks, and you too. I knew there were plenty of wild hogs in your area, but six hundred pounders are not common are they?

[ZULU]

That looks like the right habitat for a wild boar!!!!

I LOVE German cuisine.

[pray4liberty]

Cocke's nephew carved the beast into slabs of bacon and mounds of pork chops.

Shucks. I could give him my recipe for Pork Chops with Garbanzo beans.

[Redbob]

"I have heard that about the larger big boned thick skulled animals and hollow point (expanding round) ammo. But still you got him, although someone that was not as good a shot might have choked and got only one round in on the boar hog."

You put a nice spin on it, thank you!

But the the true story is rather long, and involved two scrawny but fearless hounds, and yours truly running up and down hills and across streams to get in those three shots whenever the hounds would hold the beast at bay. It was closer to a biathlon than to a "hunt."

[RunningWolf]

No the real story is even more impressive. Count 'Wolf on your team ;)

I guess I was projecting there a little bit, with a understanding to the tenacity of a boar hog/the effect of various munitions.

J.