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N.C. feral pigs run wild, killing plants, animals
Associated Press
Four Oaks - They roam freely through 2,800 acres of forest, uprooting crops and native plants, digging potholes in roads and devouring other wildlife in their way.
Nothing – not even the lure of Krispy Kreme doughnuts – has been effective in limiting the herds of feral swine that have made a home in Howell Woods, a teaching forest owned by Johnston Community College.
"We can't kill them all, because they're too wily," said James Sasser, director of the Howell Woods Environmental Learning Center.
Managers of the property in southern Johnston County say the wild pigs, some as large as 400 pounds, are destroying the natural habitat of the Neuse River bottomlands. They eat salamanders, snakes, birds' eggs, even other pigs.
Rooting for food, they have destroyed butterweed, purple milkweed and the Carolina bogmint, found in only 13 other places in the world.
Wherever the pigs have been, "it looks like a tractor came through with tillers," Mr. Sasser said. "It just tears up the forest floor real bad."
For two years, the staff at Howell Woods has tried to control the porcine epidemic the old-fashioned way: by shotgun. Hunters have tried to bait them with Twinkies, fish heads, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, even cherry Kool-Aid.
Last year, hunters killed more than 100 feral pigs in Howell Woods. But biologists say the population of 100 to 200 is steady or growing.
This year, with the permission of the Johnston Community College trustees, they plan a half-dozen feral pig hunts this month through April.
In their wild state, the pigs have coarse black hair and razor-sharp tusks. Agriculture officials monitor blood samples from the feral swine because they can quickly spread diseases devastating to pigs and people.
"They're amazing," said hunt organizer Kinchen Taylor, a biologist at Howell Woods. "They're super-smart. They have a super sense of smell. They're immune to poisonous snake bites. They can eat anything."
They also reproduce too quickly to be eradicated – or even counted.
Sows can get pregnant as young as four months of age, and each sow can produce up to three litters a year, with up to 12 piglets in each litter. Two generations of swine could be born in a single year.
Some think the pigs near Howell Woods descended from wild Russian boars, imported generations ago by a local landowner. The imports intermingled with domesticated swine that farmers once allowed to roam the Johnston countryside.
In North Carolina, state wildlife officials do not regulate feral swine, so hunters do not need a license and are not bound by a hunting season.
Property owners are allowed to shoot the pigs if the animals venture onto their land. But tangling with the sharp-tusked feral pigs is treacherous.
"Some people are just stupid," Mr. Taylor said. "Some people try to kill them with spears or knives, in close range. Some people try to kill them with dogs. That kills a lot of dogs."
If you want to kill a pig in Howell Woods, you climb a tree and hunt from at least 10 feet off the ground.
"If you wound a big boar, he may go off and hide and wait for you to come after him," Mr. Taylor said. "They know they're one of the baddest animals in the woods. They're not going to back down."
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I'm up for it, anyone else?
Associated Press
Four Oaks - They roam freely through 2,800 acres of forest, uprooting crops and native plants, digging potholes in roads and devouring other wildlife in their way.
Nothing – not even the lure of Krispy Kreme doughnuts – has been effective in limiting the herds of feral swine that have made a home in Howell Woods, a teaching forest owned by Johnston Community College.
"We can't kill them all, because they're too wily," said James Sasser, director of the Howell Woods Environmental Learning Center.
Managers of the property in southern Johnston County say the wild pigs, some as large as 400 pounds, are destroying the natural habitat of the Neuse River bottomlands. They eat salamanders, snakes, birds' eggs, even other pigs.
Rooting for food, they have destroyed butterweed, purple milkweed and the Carolina bogmint, found in only 13 other places in the world.
Wherever the pigs have been, "it looks like a tractor came through with tillers," Mr. Sasser said. "It just tears up the forest floor real bad."
For two years, the staff at Howell Woods has tried to control the porcine epidemic the old-fashioned way: by shotgun. Hunters have tried to bait them with Twinkies, fish heads, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, even cherry Kool-Aid.
Last year, hunters killed more than 100 feral pigs in Howell Woods. But biologists say the population of 100 to 200 is steady or growing.
This year, with the permission of the Johnston Community College trustees, they plan a half-dozen feral pig hunts this month through April.
In their wild state, the pigs have coarse black hair and razor-sharp tusks. Agriculture officials monitor blood samples from the feral swine because they can quickly spread diseases devastating to pigs and people.
"They're amazing," said hunt organizer Kinchen Taylor, a biologist at Howell Woods. "They're super-smart. They have a super sense of smell. They're immune to poisonous snake bites. They can eat anything."
They also reproduce too quickly to be eradicated – or even counted.
Sows can get pregnant as young as four months of age, and each sow can produce up to three litters a year, with up to 12 piglets in each litter. Two generations of swine could be born in a single year.
Some think the pigs near Howell Woods descended from wild Russian boars, imported generations ago by a local landowner. The imports intermingled with domesticated swine that farmers once allowed to roam the Johnston countryside.
In North Carolina, state wildlife officials do not regulate feral swine, so hunters do not need a license and are not bound by a hunting season.
Property owners are allowed to shoot the pigs if the animals venture onto their land. But tangling with the sharp-tusked feral pigs is treacherous.
"Some people are just stupid," Mr. Taylor said. "Some people try to kill them with spears or knives, in close range. Some people try to kill them with dogs. That kills a lot of dogs."
If you want to kill a pig in Howell Woods, you climb a tree and hunt from at least 10 feet off the ground.
"If you wound a big boar, he may go off and hide and wait for you to come after him," Mr. Taylor said. "They know they're one of the baddest animals in the woods. They're not going to back down."
******************
I'm up for it, anyone else?
