As wild hog populations spread across the United States, they are establishing permanent populations in more and more parts of the country.
Research by Jack Mayer, a wild hog expert at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, has documented and categorized that spread.
When a wild hog community is large enough, it reaches a critical mass and gains what scientists say is a permanent foothold, Mayer said. Twenty-one states fall into that category of having an "established" hog population.
When the population is smaller, it can still be removed by hunting and trapping. These 12 states have so called "transitional" or "emerging" populations.
States where a feral hog or two has been reported to be on the loose have the best chance of staying pig free, if the states stay vigilant. Mayer labels these 11 states as having "recent releases/escapees."
Six states are considered hog-free.
Established wild hog populations:
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii; Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia.
Transitional/emerging wild hog populations:
Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
Recent wild hog releases/escapees:
Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Dakota and Vermont.
Hog-free states:
Connecticut, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Utah, Wyoming.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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Wild Hog
Maybe we should start eating them, I think it's pretty much healthier than regular pig because of their leaner body.
Hog Problems
These wild hogs are strong and they can travel long distance too, so if this problem doesn't get solved soon, they will start migrate to other state.
Wildhog problem
What serious damages can these Hogs do to our society?
Wild Hogs are probably the
Wild Hogs are probably the worst animal you can have running around in your area. They attack people, livestock, destroy entire fields of crops, cause wrecks and are a menace. You nor your family are safe if Wild Hogs are around. They have been known to attack people in the yards and in one case a Hog actually busted through a front door and attacked a man sitting on his couch. Wild Hogs are getting bigger these days as well. Where they once weighed 150 to 200 pounds, they're not getting up to 400 and 500 pounds, probably from some sort of cross breeding with Eurasian Wild Hogs or Domestic Pigs that escape.
Wild Hogs on TV
This past Sunday on the Animal Planet channel (I believe) was a great, informative special on wild hogs in the US. Scarey what these creatures can do! The most disturbing news was that they (the US Parks & Services?) do not know what to do about it...They breed like rabbits!
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