Canadian Wild Pig Invasion

[WyoDoug]

It is a matter of time and the U.S. especially the northern states like Montana will be invaded by feral pigs adapted to cold weather environments. Now I have seen the damage in Texas and in Arkansas this invasive species does to the terrain and habitat, let alone farming crops. They make wide swaths of land not usable to agriculture or even big game animals. Hopefully, the USFWS and state game departments put a bounty on these creatures to prevent them from taking over the terrain.

Feral hogs headed for US from Canada; wildlife officials warn of widespread damage

An underreported threat along America's northern border has U.S. officials and local residents warning of widespread damage due to the reckless invaders: Feral hogs from Canada.

www.foxnews.com

 

[WildWill]

Always wondered how they got Canadian bacon.

 

[RockinU]

We've tried bounties...they don't really work.

 

[Werty]

We've tried bounties...they don't really work.

Bounties work, they just haven't figured out what the price point is.

 

[RockinU]

Bounties work, they just haven't figured out what the price point is.

You'd like to think so, but we've been doing this in Texas a long time now. Pretty much you can't shoot enough to make a real difference unless you do it from a helicopter, which costs more than bounties pay. You can start to see a little difference with intensive trapping, if enough ranches are involved, but if you're gonna trap, you're better off selling to a kill plant than collecting bounties.

It's hard to understand how prolific these things are once they are established, I was once part of a helicopter crew that shot 118 off of 2k acres in 2 hours, 30 days later you would have never guessed we'd killed 1.

The bounty would have to reach a point where it would pay the $600/hour helicopter, and still give reasonable profit for the shooters...and as many hogs as we have, that kind of money would jack our license costs up substantially I'd guess....

Best bet is to do your damnedest to keep them out of your state.

 

[KipCarson]

You just can’t kill them fast enough. Years ago when I was much more naive I thought, sure would be nice to have a few pigs around here to bow hunt occasionally... little did I know there’s no such thing as “a few pigs” When they showed up it did give me a year round bow season, but it’s also changed the ecology around here, not for the better. The extra hunting opportunity is not worth the problems that come with them. Unfortunately controls like helicopter shooting are only effective at herd reductions in open country. Most of the southeast is too densely forested for that to work well. 8 pigs coming down from Canada seems almost laughable when in context with what we’ve got scattered through the country, however, knowing how they are it’s a problem to take very seriously. As I tell anyone I take hunting with me, “If you see pigs don’t stop shooting until they’re all dead or you run out of ammo, whatever comes first”

 

[RockinU]

Usually you run out of ammo...

 

[Werty]

Helicopters are not the the most effective tool too be used, trapping is. It is by far the the most cost effective tool too.

The other side is not everyone down south wants these pigs gone. There is too much money being made from hog hunts, selling dogs, traps, food, lodging, etc.
I laugh, I hear farmers crying " these pigs are eating me out of house and home." Call them up to ask to hunt. Ya, I charge " blank" per day. You can't get it both ways.

With all of that, you'll never hear me say that their not destructive animals. I've seen their handy work. It's still figuring out what the price point is for their eradication. One thing that could be done in states is require you to shoot a hog in order to get a deer tag or something like that. I understand that something like that would make people loose their minds.
I do agree, I dont want them in Montana.

 

[F250]

My friends who live and farm in northern Saskatchewan have been battling wild hogs for a few years now. They describe the hogs as big, mostly black, long snouts, and destructive.

 

[Bigjay73]

I wonder if these cold weather pigs reproduce at the same rate as their warm climate cousins?

 

[RockinU]

Helicopters are not the the most effective tool too be used, trapping is. It is by far the the most cost effective tool too.

The other side is not everyone down south wants these pigs gone. There is too much money being made from hog hunts, selling dogs, traps, food, lodging, etc.
I laugh, I hear farmers crying " these pigs are eating me out of house and home." Call them up to ask to hunt. Ya, I charge " blank" per day. You can't get it both ways.

With all of that, you'll never hear me say that their not destructive animals. I've seen their handy work. It's still figuring out what the price point is for their eradication. One thing that could be done in states is require you to shoot a hog in order to get a deer tag or something like that. I understand that something like that would make people loose their minds.
I do agree, I dont want them in Montana.

We’re just going to have to agree to disagree on a lot of that. I’ve been quite involved with hog control efforts for a good long while now, and my personal experience coupled with the available research leads me to different conclusions on much of what you say. Your deer tag idea is particularly bad for a myriad of reasons, one being it’s potential to interfere with important deer management. Like most complicated problems, there’ll not be an easy solution.

 

[Sytes]

There was a topic on this subject not too long ago. One of the few... and very few threads that had reasonable dialogue on the debate between listing as a varmint for year round sight kill or keeping it to contractor trapping / killing. While I am not totally sold on the basis contract trapping with the required elimination of hunting is the best course of action, it does make some reasonable sense... My initial position was to kill on sight. open year round... with no tag - reasonably close or equal to the same as 'yotes.
Disturbing via open year round hunt/kill has been reportedly found to disburse the hogs. This challenges the trapping success, apparently... Basically (and this is speaking from a noob's perspective from simple reading) instead of nailing the collective group - trappers now have to target several smaller groups that grow in multiple locations.
For sake of our (MT) farming community, et al, I would like to see the strongest and most lethal response take precedence. Chop their bobbitts off. Kill 'em all.
They are a lethal hit and if ever there's a time to get rolling on these farkers - we're a few days late to the party though not by much.

Best thought... release the Canadian Super-wolves on them... I'm sure MT FWP will ensure our minimal count stays a valid measure to the quantity we manage...

 

[kmott]

don't worry they will be taken out in the zombie appocolyps

 

[KipCarson]

I wonder if these cold weather pigs reproduce at the same rate as their warm climate cousins?

They might reproduce at the same rate but the survival rate is drastically different I suspect. Since they do not have a breeding season that is in sync and can breed and drop piglets year round my guess is that only the litters that are born late spring/early summa will survive and Winterborn piglets will die. They are all over northern Europe so they are obviously pretty adaptable for the cold.

 

[ignorethefringes]

Rinella has talked about pigs several times on his podcast. Whenever he has someone on that's involved in the industry in any way (trapper, landowner, etc.) he always like to ask the question (paraphrased), "If I gave you a magic wand right now and said that if you wave that wand all wild hogs in your area would disappear immediately, would you do it?" To the best of my recollection, all guests have opted not to wave the theoretical wand. That reasoning typically seems to involve the economical impact on those that work in the industry, effect on the local economy, etc.

All in all, I don't buy that they are as much of a nuisance as people say. If they are really devastating to one's way of life, you'd be trying to get rid of them any way you could, not charging $200/hog (plus trophy fees of course). I'd think you'd spend some money on a few feeders and bait and open the gates to a 5-acre section of your property every Saturday/Sunday or so and say "have at 'em!" You might not kill enough to matter but you might make them shy. Obviously I'm coming from a place of at least a little bit of ignorance since I don't own land and don't live in any of the areas y'all are talking about right now. But I see what's going on down here in Florida and I don't buy the "nuisance" argument. Wild pigs are a money crop for people down here.

 

[JTHOMP]

They might reproduce at the same rate but the survival rate is drastically different I suspect. Since they do not have a breeding season that is in sync and can breed and drop piglets year round my guess is that only the litters that are born late spring/early summa will survive and Winterborn piglets will die. They are all over northern Europe so they are obviously pretty adaptable for the cold.

That is the one benefit people up north have is pigs probably (hopefully) can't breed as fast with winter kill. Which is not the case in the south. The last pig I killed while hunting was in late February. Big sow with worn teeth and 4 or 5 little ones. She was a large framed pig, but she was lean. Yet she still raised a mess of pigs that had recently weened through the winter. I'll be chasing those soon.

Pigs have showed up on my family's place within the last couple years. We would see some rooting occasionally then they would move on elsewhere. Someone would kill one here or there. My dad would complain about the end of the world, and I would always tell him that it was nothing and there are places much worse.
This year they have BLOWN UP. So far around our place including some neighbors we are up to 27 killed this summer. I can honestly say we have not put a dent in them because what we have kill has been grown pigs and I have seen easily 30 little ones at one time in a field. And what is bad is there is very little habitat when you look at the large scale landscape. About a 1,000 acres with probably 70-80% pasture, houses and 3 highways. We've caught pigs 2 weeks in a row, and now they are hitting all three of our traps. Killing pigs on the weekend is becoming a chore.

 

[RockinU]

Rinella has talked about pigs several times on his podcast. Whenever he has someone on that's involved in the industry in any way (trapper, landowner, etc.) he always like to ask the question (paraphrased), "If I gave you a magic wand right now and said that if you wave that wand all wild hogs in your area would disappear immediately, would you do it?" To the best of my recollection, all guests have opted not to wave the theoretical wand. That reasoning typically seems to involve the economical impact on those that work in the industry, effect on the local economy, etc.

All in all, I don't buy that they are as much of a nuisance as people say. If they are really devastating to one's way of life, you'd be trying to get rid of them any way you could, not charging $200/hog (plus trophy fees of course). I'd think you'd spend some money on a few feeders and bait and open the gates to a 5-acre section of your property every Saturday/Sunday or so and say "have at 'em!" You might not kill enough to matter but you might make them shy. Obviously I'm coming from a place of at least a little bit of ignorance since I don't own land and don't live in any of the areas y'all are talking about right now. But I see what's going on down here in Florida and I don't buy the "nuisance" argument. Wild pigs are a money crop for people down here.

This is a very common misconception. People are all under the impression that all these landowners are trying to monetize these hogs, just because they don’t let anyone out there come hunt for free. I don’t know of any big ranch in my area that some hog hunters don’t have free access to. With reason ranchers are selective about who they will give that access to.

 

[ignorethefringes]

This is a very common misconception. People are all under the impression that all these landowners are trying to monetize these hogs, just because they don’t let anyone out there come hunt for free. I don’t know of any big ranch in my area that some hog hunters don’t have free access to. With reason ranchers are selective about who they will give that access to.

That completely makes sense. I haven't hunted for pigs anywhere other than Florida and that's just how it seems down here.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Rinella has talked about pigs several times on his podcast. Whenever he has someone on that's involved in the industry in any way (trapper, landowner, etc.) he always like to ask the question (paraphrased), "If I gave you a magic wand right now and said that if you wave that wand all wild hogs in your area would disappear immediately, would you do it?" To the best of my recollection, all guests have opted not to wave the theoretical wand. That reasoning typically seems to involve the economical impact on those that work in the industry, effect on the local economy, etc.

This is exactly why some states (Montana included) have made hog hunting illegal. Hunting alone is too much incentive for some people to want to keep hogs on the landscape. And as others have mentioned, having just “a few” isn’t possible.

As for impacts, they are just as bad for native landscapes and other wildlife as feral horses, if not worse. Very hard on upland birds. Even if we could hunt them, it would not be worth it to me.

 

[ignorethefringes]

This is exactly why some states (Montana included) have made hog hunting illegal. Hunting alone is too much incentive for some people to want to keep hogs on the landscape. And as others have mentioned, having just “a few” isn’t possible.

As for impacts, they are just as bad for native landscapes and other wildlife as feral horses, if not worse. Very hard on upland birds. Even if we could hunt them, it would not be worth it to me.

Sorry, I intended to clarify in my original post that I completely agree with the damage done to native species and landscapes.

In places where they are already settled (they've been in Florida for something like 500 years) I don't think there is any way to get rid of them. I wish others the best of luck keeping them out, but I have a hard time see it as possible.