Not to hijack the thread or anything but. I was hoping that they would have shot their director of natural resources from a few years back. If you are local to the Smokey Mountains you might know who I am talking about.
The movie Hannibal was filmed partly in Asheville NC (probably an hour or so from the NC side of GSM)
I don’t blame the Biltmore Estate for not signing their name to the credits.
There’s a rather graphic scene featuring wild hogs.
Donate to FR please
Round them up and drop them off in Mecca and Tehran.
Projection?
I have long suspected the rapid spread of cougar in the intermountain west and Northern Plains was 'aided' by releases of breeding pairs.
Some genetics would clear up just how closely related these animals are, and whether they were seeded.
I think I found where your Pings went...
I live near the park.
To answer all your questions, these populations of European wild boars were established before the park was, when they were imported and kept on a hunting preserve nearby.
They have no predators to keep the populations in check, so the numbers have exploded. The hogs also move into the nearby Cherokee National Forest, where they can be hunted.
The U.S. Park Service has very few properties where hunting is allowed, and the Smokies doesn’t allow it. Therefore the USPS, which is always whining about needing more money, has to pay sharpshooters to thin these, when they could charge permit fees and let the public do it.
I think this biologist is WAY off base suggesting hunters are releasing domestic pigs to breed with these. There are not enough hunters to hunt these now, and they are plentiful in the Cumberland Plateau and public hunting areas all over the eastern part of Tennessee.
Therefore, boar hunting guide operations have increased (along with the hog population) up on the Cumberland Plateau. But still more needs to be done. These are being very destructive to the native flora and fawna in the Smokies, but political correctness will never allow the problem there to be solved.
Personally, I think we have a nation-wide pork problem.
Ok. So why isn’t hunting allowed in the Smokeys?
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.
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.
With the unemployment numbers coming out of that region this may be a good thing. Southerners may need to use them for food if things keep up.
The enviro-whackos won’t enjoy hearing this (or maybe they will — even worse) but we humans do play an important role in the natural order of things.
When humans settle an area, they tend to wipe out the big predators — bears, wolves, big cats. (The greedy bastards want their children to grow up without being eaten!)
But in order to enjoy that peace of mind, constant hunting is REQUIRED, for two very good reasons.
First, the hunters kill the big predators.
Second, they limit the FOOD SUPPLY for the big predators. And there’s the rub!
Hunters are now fading away — who could hurt those adorable animals on Disney and the Discovery Channel? — and we are going to pay for it.
We no longer have predators big enough to feed on wild hogs (and beavers, moose, etc.). But we will. They will return. There’s too much food going to waste in the woods.
Somehow, I don’t think the grizzly bears will be wearing little vests and hats when they return. Nope, probably not ...