Update on the Super Pigs

[Lee7588]

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.

I like the 10 pounders, young and tender meat. Usually if I see a sow with piglets I do shoot the sow. The piglets run off but usually come back within a few minutes and then I take some little ones

 

[Buffalobwana]

While macabre, if you shoot the sow with piglets, they do come back to nurse and you can pick them off too.

Hey, don't shoot the messenger. It's about controlling populations.

 

[GSRetrievers]

Young suckling pig!!

 

[Lee7588]

And the little ones are so much easier to load up in the side x side rather than trying to load up a 150# by yourself

 

[MIBirdhunter]

Ok, I have to say that Michigan does have a few pigs. We found two piglets at the end of our driveway a couple years ago. The local sheriff department had a subject flee into a mile block of woods just north of my house, so they called in a contracted drone operator, who has a flir camera. He spotted 61 deer and 10 pigs while searching for the subject, which they found btw. Retired from the DNR, but when working there would be a couple reports of hogs in my county a year.

 

[manitou]

You are wrong, the most adaptable animal on the planet, they are the zebra mussel of the 4 legged critter world.

Also, you think you want them right up to the point you actually get them and realize how destructive they are. They will push deer and other animals out of an area, they'll do the same with elk. They will literally eat anything, plant or animal, including each other.

Also, you will have them before you realize that you have a problem, because when you see the signs, they are already established in the area.

Well, they are doin that with wolves and griz anyway, lol.

 

[Darryle]

When man intervenes on nature's behalf, we fail.

We allow an apex predator to go extinct in an area, allow the remaining species to thrive and lose their adaptation to the predator to be bred out and then reintroduce the apex predator to have it decimate the remaining species that have lost their ability to survive with them.

I have trapped more pigs than I care to think about, filled ditches with their carcasses and yet, they still survive and thrive.

To completely eradicate them requires a systematic approach, 1 hunter/farmer/rancher cannot keep up, it requires the entire population of hunters/ranchers/farmers in the area to participate. Unfortunately, some see it as a revenue stream and honestly do not want them eliminated, because they can make money on both ends, from hunters and from their agricultural departments for crop depredation.

A sow can breed in as little as 6 months, they can have 3 or more litters per year and can have 7 or more in a litter. Extrapolate that out, even if there is a 50/50 split on sex, if I did my math correctly, in ideal conditions that is in excess of 20 breedable sows from just 1. I am sure my math was generous, but you can see how fast it gets out of control.

Also, I don't believe poisoning is an answer.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

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

Gestation is about 115 days and so could have 3 litters a year based on the math, but have more like 3 litters every 2 years, on average.

 

[GSRetrievers]

Gestation is about 115 days and so could have 3 litters a year based on the math, but have more like 3 litters every 2 years, on average.

3 months 3 weeks 3 days gestation, 2.5 litters a year.

 

[Muddyboots]

What a poor writing article. Michigan does not have a problem. I actively search and ask everyone and not a soul has seen or killed one. Of course a few are here but nothing that could be called a problem.

What is interesting is there is a question on feral hogs when registering deer on line. Be curious to see those results. Me? Never saw one here in MI.

 

[Lee7588]

What is interesting is there is a question on feral hogs when registering deer on line. Be curious to see those results. Me? Never saw one here in MI.

They are asking questions for things people claim aren't there I would bet they are there

 

[Muddyboots]

What is interesting is there is a question on feral hogs when registering deer on line. Be curious to see those results. Me? Never saw one here in MI.

Clarification, I've never seen any 4 legged feral hogs here.

 

[338 dude]

Trying to kill a big deer today? Or maybe just a doe?
Better find another spot, won't happen with those in the vicinity.
View attachment 524485

I don't see any deer but there's plenty of hunting to be done right there at this very moment!

 

[Muddyboots]

+1!!!! I will be bowhunting tomorrow morning and bet NOBODY out there!!! Deer returning to patterns. Need snow and cold to really trigger great hunting! Maybe Thurs here.