Myth that feral pigs ruin the hunting environment & deer herd?

Ok, lets look at the facts

WOW, poor pigs:rolleyes:. Ok it is true that hogs will eat turkey and quail eggs, but so will possoms, coons, snakes, yotes, cats of all types and stray dogs. They will destroy crops but thats a good way to get in good with the farmers. Most of the time they are after the seeds, roots and grubs that the turned soil brings to the surface. Here in florida we have over 1 million deer and God only knows how many hogs- well over that I am sure. The only thing that I believe that the hogs eat that would interfere with the deer is nut crops and fruit crops. Not corn for darn sure. If you ever watch hogs eat corn they leave half of the kernals behind- JUST right for grazers like deer or for turkey, quail or dove. If you want to get factual about it, there are more deer here now than when the pilgrams landed. Quess what, there were NO hogs here then-Spanish import-. Things that make you go Hmmm.
 
LOL on the Spanish biologist. I am looking for the artical now, pretty sure it was in Outdoor Life. It stated that the population of deer in the US is now greater than then because of farming and game management by like 30%, but don't quote me on th %.
 
If that happens, there is always the pig box which gives $1 per kilo for wild game pigs. Dingos are far cleaner animals and more of a challenge to hunt. if Dingos get wiped out enough that the pig population gets out of control this will be countered by the roo/pig shooters focusing more on pigs. Id hunt pigs for money... but i agree too much with Caimlas...hate touching them, brucelosis, lepto.... and all those other wonderful diseases, no thanks. Although i dont agree that pigs are affecting deer population, i do think that pigs are a threat and a quick and effective way of spreading disease. If Mad-Cow disease hit Australia a major slice of our agricultural industry would be screwed within months because i know for a fact pigs would spread it around faster than anyone could quarantine.
 
In Ohio, you are supposed to kill as many as you can if you see them.
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where in ohio have you seen wild hogs? ive been trying to find a place to hunt them but i dont know anyone whos even seen one. the hunting regs say open season but I wouldnt even know where to find one. it sounds like they would be more fun to hunt than deer two weekends a year, and who doesnt like pork. theres some pretty good videos on youtube of people hunting hogs with dogs and knives, no guns. if you know somewhere in ohio that has wild hogs pm me or post it here.
 
Ok it is true that hogs will eat turkey and quail eggs, but so will possoms, coons, snakes, yotes, cats of all types and stray dogs. They will destroy crops but thats a good way to get in good with the farmers. Most of the time they are after the seeds, roots and grubs that the turned soil brings to the surface. Here in florida we have over 1 million deer and God only knows how many hogs- well over that I am sure. The only thing that I believe that the hogs eat that would interfere with the deer is nut crops and fruit crops. Not corn for darn sure. If you ever watch hogs eat corn they leave half of the kernals behind- JUST right for grazers like deer or for turkey, quail or dove. If you want to get factual about it, there are more deer here now than when the pilgrams landed. Quess what, there were NO hogs here then-Spanish import-. Things that make you go Hmmm.
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This is what I'm sayin... 'xactly. Set farmers aside. Do deer seem to have trouble thriving in the same areas, due to food competition or any other reason attributable to hogs? No, I don't think so. Does the landscape look like the moon - aesthetically challenged - because of the hogs? Seems to me that in the vast majority of cases, the answer is no - it remains quite beautiful overall. But I dunno...just commenting from what little vantage point I have on the subject.

By the way, it seems to me that there may be a real benefit from having the soil churned up by the hogs - it aerates the soil and makes it ready for new seeds of trees & grass to germinate and take root (like a fire would), which can help combat species that take over and dominate an area. Seems like it's just generally a rejuvenating of the land to have it churned up a bit. I dunno; I'm no aggie man.

It has indeed a fact that ungulates/deer thrive in todays flora across the continent, due to the way we've cleared land for farming, and the browse & graze that that creates for the deer. As a result, their populations are booming; I believe SS is correct in saying that the deer population is higher now than when the Spaniards were here, but don't have specific evidence of that at present. Certainly, the population is many times higher than in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when they were hunted to endangered levels.
 
I hunt alot on public land, mostly in the Green Swamp. Pigs galore, if you can track them down. I don't know if they interfere with the deer population much but if I am after deer and I see pigs I know I might as well pack up and move, I've never seen deer in the same area as pigs unless they were leaving. Pigs a make lots of noise, sound like a Buffalo going through the brush, deer like quiet and being quiet. I really enjoy hunting pigs more than deer though, to me they're craftier and you never know whether it will be a 100lb sow or a 350lb boar (that I never manage to get a clear shot on!:mad:)
 
I come out of the world of farming and ranching, with a bit of vocational ag in my high school daze. I've been a hunter and outdoorsman since I was a kid, and that's more than just a little bit of time. I like to think I know a bit about the land and what happens.

Look up the term "carrying capacity". How many critters per acre or acres per critter are needed for the health of a herd or species. For instance, in central Texas, you can run an animal unit (a mama cow and calf) on about eight acres. In the grasslands of western Texas around Marfa, twenty acres per AU. I disremember how many sheep or goats are equivalent to an Animal Unit. One horse = three cows, for grass need.

Anything that eats grass is competing with anything else that eats grass. Same for herbs and forbs.

Cows, horses and sheep and rabbits compete for grass. Deer and goats compete for herbs and forbs. I don't know that much about elk and antelope, but they compete in there, somewhere; grasseaters, I guess.

Feral hogs are introduced and they compete with everything. They're omnivores by opportunity, although predominantly vegetarian. They'll kill lambs and kids in birthing season, so the sheep/goat ranchers hate them.

I've seen areas where a bunch of hogs have rooted through, and it looks like a drunk got hold of a backhoe. I didn't like that happening on my land. It makes walking, horseback riding or driving into "no fun". Fortunately it was "just" pasture land and not cropland with corn or alfalfa there for "hog bait".

The ad valorem tax man doesn't care whether or not a farmer or rancher makes a profit. He wants the tax money; if you can't pay, shame on your butt. Pack up and leave and don't go to the Sheriff's auction. Anything that reduces the productivity of your land is taking your money that otherwise could have been spent on food, utilities, car payments or ammo.

And that is why my attitude is that the best feral hog is a dead feral hog. Shoot it and eat it. If your freezer is full, shoot it and feed the buzzards and coyotes. A hog's redeeming social value accrues only to city people who normally think meat comes cut and wrapped from the Hoggly-Woggly or the A & Poo Feed Store.

Then again, if an enterprising farmer or rancher can persuade some city guy to actually pay to perform garbage disposal, more power to him! :D

Art
 
Well, I'm not very fond of them. They pretty much demolished my food plot and prime deer hunting area and yet we cannot kill them because they are "marked" wild hogs(owned by a nearby farmer).
 
Well, I'm gonna have to defer to Art's expertise on that one. However, other than the difficulty of walking or driving on the tore-up ground, all complaints are related to farming/ranching. On the competition for food, sure I think that that plays a role, on second thought, in sparser/harsher/drier environs like Western TX. In God's garden - AL, MS, GA, etc. where the ground is terribly fertile and the rainfall plenty, it's not really an issue as a practical matter, IMO.
 
I just got my hunting license in CA and expect to go Pig hunting in the next few weeks. I go to the Los Padres Forrest North of Santa Barbara. It will be my first time hunting and I'm looking forward to it. Hope to bag a fatty. Pig tags last year were $16.
 
well i used to raise hogs, and when fenced into a spot on forest floor or grass they turn it into a mud pit in no time. i dont doubt they could really tear up some land. since they cause all these problems, I bet not too many people would mind if you help fix their problem by hunting the hogs. Ive got summer break coming up so I should have some spare time. If anyone needs some hogs removed from their property send me a PM or post it on here. I'll help remove them for free!!!:cool: If i can make the drive from ohio in a day or so Im interested. maybe i could start a hog removal business:D
 
So then the bottom line is that feral pigs may not necessarily "ruin" the hunting environment and deer herd, but that they are an introduced parasite on the landscape that can do considerable damage to the environment and compete with other game for resources, such as with deer, outright killing of some species, hence having a negative impact on indigenous populations of wildlife. The extent to which this happens is determined, in part, by the carrying capacity of the landscape and the make up of the physiological environment and indigenous population compositions.

They may not ruin the hunting of deer in bountiful areas, but it certainly may be a different story in more marginal areas. The one thing you never seem to hear is how feral hogs have improved the hunting environment and deer herd.
 
Excellent encapsulation. But you're gonna miss the Mensa meeting if you keep fooling around online though, college boy. I'm just kiddin - that is meant in a fun endearing sort of way. :)
 
One problem with the danged things is fertility. A sow can have two or three litters of piggies a year, of as many as a dozen or more each litter. And the females can breed in a year. The geometric progression is left as an exercise for the student. But think, "Bum deep in pig poop."

There are photos of herds of over a hundred, feeding in mesquite-brush pasture in south Texas. I'd have to say that indeed is competition among all herbivores in the area, whether domestic or wild.

Fire ants with hooves...

Art
 
In Michigan, you can shoot them anytime with any valid hunting licencse. We don't have as many here as there is down South.

They are ugly, and should die. And I like bacon.
 
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