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Feral pigs proliferating on Olympic Peninsula
By The Associated Press
MONTESANO, Grays Harbor County Washington — There's been a population boom among feral pigs on the Olympic Peninsula and state wildlife managers are inviting hunters to help reduce the numbers.
No one knows how many wild pigs live in the peninsular woods, but sightings — mostly of animals crossing roads — are being reported from new areas, and at least 50 feral pigs have been killed so far this year by hunters.
There have been no reports of damage to crops or rare plants, or along salmon-spawning streams, but there is potential for such problems, said Jack Smith at the state Fish and Wildlife Department's regional office here.
Pigs like to live near water and the deepest, softest soils, where they can root for tubers and other delicacies — and where many of Western Washington's rare plants are found, Smith said. Another concern is conflicts with native species. Pigs compete head-to-head for food with some animals. Both pigs and bears eat carrion, for example.
No license is required to hunt non-native species, and hunting of the pigs is unregulated. Smith recommends using a rifle but says any weapon used for deer will work for pigs.
A few of the pigs killed have weighed in at 200 pounds, but the average weight for a dressed-out animal is 75 pounds.
"We'd just as soon they were all gone," Smith said yesterday. "They really ... are a problem in areas where they're established."
Back East around the Great Smokies, he said, "they have crews — paid employees — that do nothing but hunt pigs."
The animals have a high reproductive rate — litters of eight to 15 and more than one litter a year. In addition, Smith said, "they're strong, they're smart and they can eat anything."
"Everybody I've talked to said if you don't get it under control now, you'll never have control," he said.
Reports of sightings date back more than 50 years, and Quinault Indian Reservation hunters have been shooting wild pigs for years. It's not clear where the animals came from.
Locals suggest they're descendants of boars that Russian traders swapped to tribes for salmon in the 1800s; of domestic animals that escaped from farms; of boars imported from Eastern Europe by a wild-game farm that operated near the Wynooche River around the turn of the last century — or all of the above.
"The pigs on the Quinault look a lot like Russian wild boars," Smith said — covered with thick, coarse dark hair, with tusks on the adults.
The pigs have long been seen in the Wynooche River Valley and around the Quinault reservation.
"We're fairly certain we've had pigs out here for 50-60 years in low numbers," Smith said. The concern is that "all of a sudden we have fairly high numbers of them."
By The Associated Press
MONTESANO, Grays Harbor County Washington — There's been a population boom among feral pigs on the Olympic Peninsula and state wildlife managers are inviting hunters to help reduce the numbers.
No one knows how many wild pigs live in the peninsular woods, but sightings — mostly of animals crossing roads — are being reported from new areas, and at least 50 feral pigs have been killed so far this year by hunters.
There have been no reports of damage to crops or rare plants, or along salmon-spawning streams, but there is potential for such problems, said Jack Smith at the state Fish and Wildlife Department's regional office here.
Pigs like to live near water and the deepest, softest soils, where they can root for tubers and other delicacies — and where many of Western Washington's rare plants are found, Smith said. Another concern is conflicts with native species. Pigs compete head-to-head for food with some animals. Both pigs and bears eat carrion, for example.
No license is required to hunt non-native species, and hunting of the pigs is unregulated. Smith recommends using a rifle but says any weapon used for deer will work for pigs.
A few of the pigs killed have weighed in at 200 pounds, but the average weight for a dressed-out animal is 75 pounds.
"We'd just as soon they were all gone," Smith said yesterday. "They really ... are a problem in areas where they're established."
Back East around the Great Smokies, he said, "they have crews — paid employees — that do nothing but hunt pigs."
The animals have a high reproductive rate — litters of eight to 15 and more than one litter a year. In addition, Smith said, "they're strong, they're smart and they can eat anything."
"Everybody I've talked to said if you don't get it under control now, you'll never have control," he said.
Reports of sightings date back more than 50 years, and Quinault Indian Reservation hunters have been shooting wild pigs for years. It's not clear where the animals came from.
Locals suggest they're descendants of boars that Russian traders swapped to tribes for salmon in the 1800s; of domestic animals that escaped from farms; of boars imported from Eastern Europe by a wild-game farm that operated near the Wynooche River around the turn of the last century — or all of the above.
"The pigs on the Quinault look a lot like Russian wild boars," Smith said — covered with thick, coarse dark hair, with tusks on the adults.
The pigs have long been seen in the Wynooche River Valley and around the Quinault reservation.
"We're fairly certain we've had pigs out here for 50-60 years in low numbers," Smith said. The concern is that "all of a sudden we have fairly high numbers of them."
