How Cajuns fight swine flu

How do you distinguish between "wild" and "feral"?
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To me the terms wild and feral are one in the same. Any hog living in the wild is wild... The only "wild swine" that is not feral would be a european/asian bloodline that never was handled in a domesticated manner.

Feral, by definition, is a domesticated breed/specie that has partially or fully returned to a wild state. Feral is not limited to first generation escapees.

There are actually very few true "Wild" hogs in the USA... Most all can be genetically proven to be all, predominately or partially from a domestic breed so feral and wild are fine by me...

Brent
 
Yes, I have never known much difference between "feral" and "wild" except that "feral" sometimes means native, indigent, as in descended from native stock. Wild is just that ... gone wild, descended from domestic stock usually. 'Just differences I hear used in conversation.

I've never heard anyone clearly distinguish between "feral" and "wild".

Merriam-Webster Online - feral:

1 : of, relating to, or suggestive of a wild beast <feral teeth> <feral instincts>
2 a : not domesticated or cultivated : wild b : having escaped from domestication and become wild <feral cats>

This definition makes no distinction at all between the two.
 
I've never heard anyone clearly distinguish between "feral" and "wild".
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wild (wld)
adj. wild·er, wild·est
1. Occurring, growing, or living in a natural state; not domesticated, cultivated, or tamed: wild geese; edible wild plants.

Above with the not domesticated being key is the closest I could come to truly separating the 2 terms. And I agree that it is far too grey/gray to ever have it clearly defined.

As a trapper for Florida I learned to utilize the "feral" term as it is the definition of loose swine... The laws that make it legal to hunt them year around on private land uses the wording "feral domestic livestock is the property of the land owner who's land the animal is on at present" this also makes it impossible for a "feral domestic livestock" animal to bring liability upon the landowner who last had that animal on his place.

Bud, I wasn't trying to correct you or anyone in my last post... Just putting my opinion of the terms up for discussion...
Brent
 
Hey guys, the hogs around here were brought in by the Spanish in the 15th century. That's 500 years ago! If they ain't wild by now I don't know what is. They're long legged, short bodied , straight tailed, hairy varmints with large plow shaped heads. A 200 pounder would be considered big.

They feed on sugar cane and corn that's grown here. They're built for speed and never have much fat, about like a deer. Destructive as hell to our crops, we've been killing or trapping them for years. Not that you could tell by the numbers that are still here. They're nocturnal as raccoons so trapping is the best way to get them. Of course there's enough that on early mornings or late afternoons you always have a chance to shoot a few.

They're pretty good eating barbecued or roasted in a Cajun microwave. What's a Cajun microwave? A cypress box with a metal tray on top. You put the hog in the box, build a fire on top and drink beer till it's cooked. Then you stand around eat hog and tell lies. Of course you can make sausage with them also, but always have to add a bit of fatback because they're somewhat lean.
 
Hey guys, the hogs around here were brought in by the Spanish in the 15th century. That's 500 years ago! If they ain't wild by now I don't know what is.
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yes this is what is the confusing issue in the terms... As I understand the 2 terms, if ever considered a domesticated creature, it is always feral once loosed. No matter how many centuries or generations pass...

On the flip side, take dogs for instance, coyote can be captured and released and still be wild rather than feral...

But a feral dog line originating from domestic dogs would, IMO, never be anything more than feral... not "wild" unless it is fox, yote, wolf, dingo etc...

Brent
 
Yeah, I get the drift. It's a good argument for a barroom, or for a rainy day, maybe when you're eating hog. Kinda like coydogs, are they wild or feral????
 
In general usage, "feral" means once-deomestic, now gone wild or native or whatever term suits.

SFAIK, more than any other animal, hogs regress in body shape/style toward the original configuration moreso and faster than any other species.
 
I have hunted them all my life by about every means I could come up with, used to catch and move them in Florida too. In places in Alabama and over here in Georgia in some places Russian hogs have been turned loose and added to the mix. Now that makes that makes for some more agressive hogs that don't look or act like the spanish / feral cross hogs.
 
Hey guys, the hogs around here were brought in by the Spanish in the 15th century. That's 500 years ago! If they ain't wild by now I don't know what is.
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Those are some old hogs. I didn't know that they lived so long. :D

So you think all hogs on the run were hogs released/lost by the Spanish and that every since the Spanish, people have managed to keep their hogs contained? That might be a bit naive given how much livestock gets loose with each hurricane that batters the state, when the rivers flood, and how many farmers/rancher lose track of the occasional animal, etc.
 
OO Spy

Yeah, we've got some pretty old hogs here, not to mention a few pigheaded folks.

The Spanish explorers brought hogs here as a food source in the 1500's, turned them loose and never settled here. The hogs multiplied until the 1700's when the French finally arrived. In 200 years I would think that the hogs became fairly well established before the arrival of settlers.

Census records from the 1700's show all kinds of information, men, women, children, slaves, Indians, horses, wagons, guns, cattle, barrels of salt, kegs of powder, etc., but no hogs. I would guess that they were so common and considered wild that no one listed them even if caught and penned.

Certainly in the years since then many domestic hogs have escaped, but with the numbers of wild (Spanish) ones most folks didn't raise hogs. If you had a taste for bacon it was too easy to shoot or catch one. The few domestics that escaped were quickly swallowed up by the number of wild ones.

This is evident by the shape and color of our wild hogs. Lean and long legged, very hairy they are gray to black with a reddish hue and straight tails. I have never seen any other coloration in the wild here, unlike Texas which has many spotted or light colored hogs. Obviously feral.

In years past I have caught a few wild shoats and pen raised them. They never get fat and never get totally over being a wild animal. They can be petted and scratched, but any sudden sound or movement sends them running.

Call them wild or call them feral, they are definitely not your barnyard escapee.
 
Parabuteo

Yeah, there were some Russians released east of New Orleans years ago and I've heard stories of some very large hogs being taken in that area. I haven't hunted there in many years, so can't say if the tales are true or not. Most of the area is in Orleans parish and hunting is no longer allowed, or at least the law is enforced now. Makes me wonder?
 
How the cajuns fight swine flu

Hog buster,
Yep, you know you are into them when the hogs just flat run almost like deer.
They want to catch and eat the dogs real bad too........they're pretty rough.
Take care.
 
Certainly in the years since then many domestic hogs have escaped, but with the numbers of wild (Spanish) ones most folks didn't raise hogs. If you had a taste for bacon it was too easy to shoot or catch one. The few domestics that escaped were quickly swallowed up by the number of wild ones.
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So they aren't just Spanish hogs after all. However, it is interesting that you bring up the notion that so few people raised hogs because of the numbers of wild ones. Back around the turn of the 20th century, hog raising was a leading industry in your fine state. Imagine that.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Bt...d=3#v=onepage&q=louisiana hog raising&f=false (see page 40)

In 1910, The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer noted that Louisiana should be able to produce all their own hogs on their own farms (page 229),
http://books.google.com/books?id=_u...0CBcQ6AEwBDgK#v=snippet&q= hog supply&f=false

although production has dropped off dramatically in the last 100 years...
http://stuffaboutstates.com/agriculture/livestock/hogs.htm

This source notes that Antebellum hog production in Louisiana was below the state's needs. So lacking was pork that it had to be shipped into the state!
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119704346/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Additionally, probably a lot of Louisiana's feral hogs came as a result of open range hog raising from the late 1800s to mid 1900s.
http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Maidas_Essay/main_introduction_onepage.html

Census records from the 1700's show all kinds of information, men, women, children, slaves, Indians, horses, wagons, guns, cattle, barrels of salt, kegs of powder, etc., but no hogs. I would guess that they were so common and considered wild that no one listed them even if caught and penned.
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Or so uncommon to not list them. Absence of data to proclaim ubiquity doesn't really make sense.

So I trust if you will forgive me if I don't readily accept the notion that Louisiana's feral hog population is comprised of Spanish hogs, having such a high feral population that few folks raised domestic hogs. Yes, the Spanish brought them. So did the French. So did other Europeans. Even so, apparently there weren't enough such that folks bred, raised, and even imported them from elsewhere in the US to keep up with the state's needs.
 
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