Feral Hog Hunting:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Truth
By: Dan Gaskins
Extension Assistant
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.
The hyper-linked resource document below will provide you with quick access to many of our online feral hog resources including publications, fact sheets and videos.