Update on the Super Pigs

[DDB TX]

Those are finished on acorns just not from live oaks, live oaks are a US oak. Old boars taste fine if they haven't been run. Once the adrenaline is flowing they aren't as good in my opinion. Lardo is awesome, if you are able to replicate that you have something good. I have heard that about motor oil before only used in a wallow instead. Not sure why they love it.

You are right, the live or evergreen oaks in Texas are not Quercus ilex, the Mediterranean oak, or Q. rotundifolia, another southern European variety, which are the oaks in Spain, Italy, southern France where those delicious pigs are raised. The Eurpopean live or evergreen oaks are, however, pretty close cousins to Quercus fusiformis or Q. viginiana, both of which I have seen in central Texas. They all have similar oval, evergreen leaves, and their acorns are very similar as well. They are also all generally referred to as "evergreen oaks" or "live oaks" especially by non-biologists.

 

[Buffalobwana]

I have yet to catch yotes feeding on them yet

I often get Bobcats feeding on pigs here. Wildest thing. You can just bait them in.

 

[trapper1954]

An observance, here this last year I had between 105-111 for 45 to 60 days and in a drought for actually several years. Dry tanks dry creeks grass dead and gone, bare dirt and in shallow soil all trees dead yet there's still wild pigs here, water trough pigs I suppose. I have found over the years in a damp soil location say in a drainage, just above a stand of Muley grass or just below a ledge rock on the slope of a caliche hill the pigs will root that damp earth out and develop that spot into a slow filling bathtub size clear water hole. They wallow in it and carry off stuck mud and it just gets bigger and bigger. I usually find the mud on a tree first then search out where it came from. If you go looking be sneaky and keep the wind in your favor,,, I put a small turkey feather on a nylon fishing string with a couple of Indian beads to keep it hanging right on my gun barrel.

 

[Buffalobwana]

An observance, here this last year I had between 105-111 for 45 to 60 days and in a drought for actually several years. Dry tanks dry creeks grass dead and gone, bare dirt and in shallow soil all trees dead yet there's still wild pigs here, water trough pigs I suppose. I have found over the years in a damp soil location say in a drainage, just above a stand of Muley grass or just below a ledge rock on the slope of a caliche hill the pigs will root that damp earth out and develop that spot into a slow filling bathtub size clear water hole. They wallow in it and carry off stuck mud and it just gets bigger and bigger. I usually find the mud on a tree first then search out where it came from. If you go looking be sneaky and keep the wind in your favor,,, I put a small turkey feather on a nylon fishing string with a couple of Indian beads to keep it hanging right on my gun barrel.

You must be in Texas. Dang, we had three rough years in a row!

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Hunting is not an effective management tool for controlling hogs. If you get more than one out of a herd, you have done well. I have managed to take 2 to 3 at a time, but you have to have the right conditions.

Trapping makes a huge difference. Hunting only educates the pigs, but it's better than nothing and great fun for everyone.

Hunting is effective if you have the right circumstances and and effective hunter. For example on primarily open lands, low crops, etc., 3 nights a week, hunting can work very well.

Where hunting fails is in high crops and heavily forested areas where the hogs are harder to spot in the first place and harder to shoot once you find them. For most landowners, where hunting fails is by having a hunter that hunts out of convenience.

Traps are great. Each has its advantage and shortcoming.

If we put a decent bounty on ferrel hogs, you would start to see the situation change. I don't know if anything short of a good bounty would do it.

Sadly, bounties are bound to fail. They sound good in theory, but the problem is with the participants who will lie and cheat and import hogs to get bounties. Sadly, this has been documented time and time again.

Recently, I have been reading about the Cobra Effect and Perverse Incentives (not what it sounds like).

Perverse incentive - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What Is the Cobra Effect and Its Unintended Consequences?

What is the 'Cobra Effect' and how does it lead to unintended consequences? Learn what is the meaning of the cobra effect on A-Z Animals.

a-z-animals.com

Basically, there have been lots and lots of examples from all over the world where the institution of bounties has resulted in actually making the problem worse. The 'cobra effect' is an anecdotal story about trying to get rid of cobras in Dehli and a bounty being offered for the snakes. Instead of getting rid of the snakes, the bounties incentivised a cobra breeding program by locals. Once this was discovered, the bounty system ceased, and the breeders turned loose their stock and the local cobra problem ended up being worse than being better.

The same happened with rats in Vietnam where a program was instituted to pay for rats. Proof was the tail. Then officials started noticing a lot of live rats running around with no tails. The locals would cut off the tails, but let the rats continue to breed in order to get more tails.

At Fort Benning, GA, the same was found for hogs, but more with the process. Prebounty numbers were lower than post bounty numbers.

Hog-Tied: Why Bounty Hasn’t Solved The Feral Hog Problem In Guadalupe County

Farmers and ranchers are still searching for ways to eradicate the animals that plague their land.

www.texasstandard.org

Here is the scientific paper showing the failure...
https://www.jstor.org/stable/90013549

It just seems that either intentionally or not, bounties are not apt to help the issue.

 

[Lee7588]

Hunting is effective if you have the right circumstances and and effective hunter. For example on primarily open lands, low crops, etc., 3 nights a week, hunting can work very well.

Where hunting fails is in high crops and heavily forested areas where the hogs are harder to spot in the first place and harder to shoot once you find them. For most landowners, where hunting fails is by having a hunter that hunts out of convenience.

Traps are great. Each has its advantage and shortcoming.



Sadly, bounties are bound to fail. They sound good in theory, but the problem is with the participants who will lie and cheat and import hogs to get bounties. Sadly, this has been documented time and time again.

Recently, I have been reading about the Cobra Effect and Perverse Incentives (not what it sounds like).

Perverse incentive - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What Is the Cobra Effect and Its Unintended Consequences?

What is the 'Cobra Effect' and how does it lead to unintended consequences? Learn what is the meaning of the cobra effect on A-Z Animals.

a-z-animals.com

Basically, there have been lots and lots of examples from all over the world where the institution of bounties has resulted in actually making the problem worse. The 'cobra effect' is an anecdotal story about trying to get rid of cobras in Dehli and a bounty being offered for the snakes. Instead of getting rid of the snakes, the bounties incentivised a cobra breeding program by locals. Once this was discovered, the bounty system ceased, and the breeders turned loose their stock and the local cobra problem ended up being worse than being better.

The same happened with rats in Vietnam where a program was instituted to pay for rats. Proof was the tail. Then officials started noticing a lot of live rats running around with no tails. The locals would cut off the tails, but let the rats continue to breed in order to get more tails.

At Fort Benning, GA, the same was found for hogs, but more with the process. Prebounty numbers were lower than post bounty numbers.

Hog-Tied: Why Bounty Hasn’t Solved The Feral Hog Problem In Guadalupe County

Farmers and ranchers are still searching for ways to eradicate the animals that plague their land.

www.texasstandard.org

Here is the scientific paper showing the failure...
https://www.jstor.org/stable/90013549

It just seems that either intentionally or not, bounties are not apt to help the issue.

I agree that bounties are not the way to go. Unfortunately a lot of farms rotate crops. And in our area our farm is planted in cotton most of the time with heavily wooded edges with creeks running through them. So controlling the population isn't easy. Traps work great for someone who lives close, our farm is in Georgia and I live in central Florida, so checking traps isn't easy. Then if we let pigs stay in the traps to long we get in trouble with the wardens for not having water in there (they turn over the trough). And here in Florida I see people hauling them around in trailers like they were just removed from a trap, which is Illinois Florida without a permit. But I believe they are moving them to other areas not their freezers. It is a tough problem, a smart animal that breeds rapidly and is tough as hell. I use the spray and pray method a lot of time to do what I can to help.

 

[Phil Rizzo]

i sure hope this promising chemical compound works, for bait stations.
We don't have to try to eradicate the species necessarily but it appears the first effective method to make up
some ground with them. In conjunction with every other existing method of course.
At least until they wise up to it too.

They can be fun as a bonus animal. But that doesn't last long, once they get a foothold.
as others mentioned they can convert dang near anything to nutrition. and with adequate cover and water populations explode and spread. In no way are they anything but detrimental to existing desirable species. The added stress and competition is real.

 

[AGGRO]

Think of them as the illegals on 4 feet. They invade, destroy everything and breed like flies....

4 times a year. They screw like people do but have litters.

 

[victor3ranger]

You must be in Texas. Dang, we had three rough years in a row!

It's been like that pretty much for 20 years now just across the panhandle border in Oklahoma.
Just enough moisture to turn the grass green sometime but that's about it

 

[P7M13]

Michigan does not have a problem.

Yeah they do. <wink-wink>
DNR getting grants....

I've traveled, hiked, camped, back country skied and snowmobiled a lot of BC Canada, and never seen even 1 wild pig. So if they are here, they sure are hard to spot.

Look for the damage to the land.

 

[mrbigtexan]

It's been like that pretty much for 20 years now just across the panhandle border in Oklahoma.
Just enough moisture to turn the grass green sometime but that's about it

What part of the Ok panhandle are you in? I'm in Dumas, work in Dalhart. Definitely getting hogs here just not too thick yet. You got some up there?

 

[rdr59]

If canada doesn't issue them passports they can't cross the border.

 

[VinceMule]

Maybe some Californians can make pets out of them, and let them wear diapers in the house, as they did for chickens.

 

[GSRetrievers]

Being in the pork industry here in NC, the biologist have finally got it right the last few year. The most effective control is traps followed by shooting/killing. Not hunting, it is dead last. The biologist that gave a presentation this past year said it correctly about hunting, the issue is hunters wont shoot the 10 pounders because they want that big hog or boar for meat. Those little one come in to breeding age quickly.

Side note, big boar is terrible, there is a reason they are 5 cent a pound market price and are used for very processed products. Butcher boars still have tainted meat you can smell when it's being cooked and taste.