Posted on 01/24/2010 6:30:19 PM PST by NCjim
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — National park biologists are trying to come to grips with a hog infestation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
In 2009, the park's hog team removed 620 wild hogs, the third highest since the hog control program started in the late 1950s. Biologists say the hog population spiked last year because of a bountiful mast crop that enabled the sows to produce more than one litter.
Park biologist Bill Stiver told the Knoxville News-Sentinel the introduction of wild, semi-domesticated hogs into the park has made hog control even more difficult.
"The speculation is that hunters are illegally releasing feral pigs that eventually make their way inside the park," Stiver said. "It's a major problem not just here, but all over North America."
He said numerous hogs killed this year had spotted markings and curly tails associated with domestic pigs.
"We're getting a handful of animals that morphologically look different from our traditional wild boar," Stiver said. "Some of them act different, too. Instead of running away, they let you walk up to them."
Hogs in the park date to the early 1920s, when a herd of European hogs escaped from a game reserve on Hooper's Bald in the mountains of Graham County, N.C. The wild hogs moved into the park by the 1940s and began to wreak havoc on the ecosystem by eating rare plants and salamanders, defecating in streams and turning up the ground.
Biologists believe the wild hogs that invaded the park already had crossed with free-ranging domestic pigs. Their appearance, however, retained the lean hips, large tusks, straight tails and black hair of their European ancestors.
Since hunting isn't allowed in the Smokies, the park employs a seasonal hog control team that keeps the population in check through hunting and trapping.
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
:raises hand:
They need a hunting season but I don’t expect the liberals to admit it.
Same issues going on here in Arkansas - a quickly growing scourge. Folks calling themselves hunters have thought it wise to release pigs into the wild (against the law) for many years. Well - pigs can and will eat anything and everything - pushing out native critters, and causing widespread damage.
Are they fun to hunt - sure. They can get pretty difficult to hunt - and they can become very dangerous.
But by being selfish, those so-called hunters have cause a major problem for all.
*snort* Me?
I knew some folks who had a cabin up in Elkmont. One of them was charged by a wild boar while they were out jogging. Apparently they can be pretty aggressive.
Interesting...
Me 'n' my Winchester 54.
you have a delightfully intriguing plan.........now to put it into action....hmm.
The most expensive pork in the world comes from acorn fed hogs. If you can find a medium size sow or a shoat that's been feeding on acorns it will beat anything you can buy at Winn Dixie! A big boar's meat can be so rank the stink will run you out of the kitchen.
The old timers around here ran hogs pretty much on an open range basis. They would catch hogs every so often, earmark them and castrate most of the boars. The meat from the castrated boars is good.
When I was a kid I'd get invited to go when they "cut hogs". They wanted kids for speed and agility. We were expected to jump in with the hog dogs and hang on through the operation. It was a hoot, but I didn't have much good sense back then anyway, LOL. In exchange for our work we could go in and shoot a few hogs the rest of the year.
Its a bit surprising that the animal rights wackos that have no care for the wild horse carrying capacity of the arid rangelands of the western/southwestern states; and who also seem to want to restore the wolf populations of the northern Rockies (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho) to numbers at least as large as existed there 150 years ago, have not taken up the cause of protecting wild pigs.
Here in Wisconsin hunters are freely allowed to shoot wild hogs. They are becoming very numerous in parts of western Wisconsin.
The solution is so simple that only the federal government could miss it.
Open season on wild hogs with a $500 bounty for each one killed.
In two months there won’t be one hog within 50 miles.
Been meaning to answer your freep mail, things have been crazy here, so I haven’t been on here much.
My Mom has cancer, and we’ve had a rough go of it.
I’ll freepmail you later and fill you in.
Good to hear from you.
I hope things are improving for her, and that you’ve been doing well.
Shoot me a note when you get a chance, look forward to hearing from you!
Wow! Thats a whole lotta hog.
Probably because it is the most visited park in America and there are a lot of visitors there at any given time. Stray bullets and all that.
We have wild pigs here in central TN as well. My neighbor told me he saw a number of them behind his house. He is a hunter, and eventually got a few, and they seem to have moved on.
About 20 years ago I had a great big (I mean BIG!) pig wander down my driveway. I called animal control, and the first question they asked me was “is it pink or brown?” It was pink. They never did show up, and the pig wandered off after a while.
Now, since I live in the country, one might assume he wandered off from a neighbor’s farm. However, we had no pigs on any farms anywhere near us! I still have no idea where he came from.
(Nice to see you girl)
Let the big hog eat
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