Wild Boar Head

[fossis]

They are very tasty, I was surprised. I thought it would have a gamey taste. But it was a young one. Ok, we have feral pigs becoming an incredible nusiance, destroying precious ecosystems, and we have starving people in the world. In this country too. WHY can't one bad situation remedy, or at least help a another bad situation? This one really seems like a no-brainer. Yeah yeah, red-tape and lack of funds. How about a little American ingenuity? Landowners want them eradicated, people need to eat. Can't we come up with some way of processing them and get them where the food needs to go?

ng

That makes sense to me.

Fossis...............

 

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[fossis]

From what I've read in hunting magazines, you can't just pack any old gun and expect to take one of these down. They say they are one of the most tenacious critters out there. People have shot them through the heart and lungs and they still kept coming. They were dead and didn't even know it, lol. Have you guys that have hunted these things found that to be true? Very tough animal to kill?

Have harvested them outside of Watonga,Ok. A 7mm well placed will take one down to the head or shoulder. Blow out the shoulder and the bone splinters explode the heart.....They do tear up the land and travel in large packs from farm to farm. They are ok to eat better though when caught in cages and re- fed before harvesting.
Thanks for the pic.
TnMountains

I know a guy who caught a few in a pen, they just wandered in, he is feeding them to fatten them up.

Fossis.................

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Something very strange has happened in the Big Cypress National Park where i work and hunt. We have had wild hogs here since they escaped from Ponce De Leon and Hernando De Soto's expeditions in Florida in the 1500's. .. Now mysteriously they are almost all gone.

The Park Service has wanted to get rid of them for years but it was an impossible task. What has happened now, we dont know. Could the Texas Cougar/Florida Panthers killed them all? ...or is there some disease?

I talked with the park biologist and he is at a loss. Not a single hog came through the hunters check stations last year. The year before, only two very large Boars. A few large boars have been sighted. It seems the only hogs left are a few very large males. Is this because the cats cant touch them?

Is this the end of the tough old razorback boars of the Cypress swamps of Florida? They may be destructive to private properties but I hate to see them go. If this is a disease, will it spread?

 

[Tnmountains]

They are very tasty, I was surprised. I thought it would have a gamey taste. But it was a young one. Ok, we have feral pigs becoming an incredible nusiance, destroying precious ecosystems, and we have starving people in the world. In this country too. WHY can't one bad situation remedy, or at least help a another bad situation? This one really seems like a no-brainer. Yeah yeah, red-tape and lack of funds. How about a little American ingenuity? Landowners want them eradicated, people need to eat. Can't we come up with some way of processing them and get them where the food needs to go?

ng

Nature Girl
You raise a very valid point there. I lease 4000 acres and the neighbor farmer had deer eating his soy beans .He gets a permitt shoots over 50 deer at night and the next day takes a back hoe and burys them. He did this for days.We begged when the permits were issued to let us take them and have them butchered for the community kitchens. They would not let us. They said during the hunting season we could donate our animals off our tags. We are allowed about eleven each.
It was a shame what they did. Thats your gov for you.

Bigcypress

Wonder if its a type of porcine virus? They should have found many dead near the wallows or at least remains. I bet the marrow in remains would still give a clue. Wonder why the biologist did not take blood samples ? Yeah the panthers are supposed to knock down the limits but after the hogs come the deer and turkeys ect. Be nice to have a healthy population and what a fun bow hunt. I took a large bobcat with a bow,I kinda felt bad about it but had it mounted. I will never kill another and have passed on many since.
Almost that season,,,
TnMtns

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Wonder if its a type of porcine virus? They should have found many dead near the wallows or at least remains. I bet the marrow in remains would still give a clue. Wonder why the biologist did not take blood samples ? Yeah the panthers are supposed to knock down the limits but after the hogs come the deer and turkeys ect. Be nice to have a healthy population and what a fun bow hunt. I took a large bobcat with a bow,I kinda felt bad about it but had it mounted. I will never kill another and have passed on many since.
Almost that season,,,
TnMtns

Thanks for the interest. The biologist that I work with, doesnt have permission to study a non-native species. Normally nobody cares about the pigs. Im going to try to convince him otherwise before its too late.

But we, the hunters, care very much. Not only have we lost the hogs, but like you say, the deer may be next. The sighting of a common raccoon in this park is already a rarity. It seems the cats have eaten everything that they can catch. Or could it be the large Pythons? Thats another new problem in the park.

Some Texas cats were brought here a few years back and released into the Big Cypress National Park to widen the gene pool of the endangered Florida Panther. This experiment appears successful. Studies have shown that wild hog is 40 percent of the Florida Panthers diet and they have coexisted in the Big Cypress for 400 years. Some of us suspect that these Texas cats are more efficient killers. Rumor is they have learned to follow a sow, eating her piglets one at a time and then they will eat her if necessary. A cougar cannot fool with a large male boar for risk of injury. These are all that we have left. Hogs gone...raccoons gone... are the deer next?

Is it a disease or is it the imported Texas cats? What part does the Python play? How could these Texas cats be so more efficient hog killers than the native Florida Panthers? Could this be a disease? I think they better find out and test these pigs but the problem is there are so few left alive, if any. Not a single pig was harvested last hunting season in the BCP.

 

[scott20]

A few years ago my father shot one that weighed a little over 300 lbs. He was using a 12 ga slug gun while hunting on the ground and had to shoot him in the vitals 3 times before it finally died. pretty scary

 

[RGINN]

When I lived in Pushmataha County in 1968 we lived in fear of wild hogs. The main problem was that they would be on the highway late at night, and if you hit them they would tear the undercarriage completely out of a car. We moved out to western Oklahoma and they popped up there. My son and them go out on the South Canadian and open up on them with AK-47's. They can completely destroy a crop in one night. The hogs; not my son and them.

 

[naturegirl]

If it's disease, sometimes that's nature's check and balance method. But it's so hard to know if it's nature, or man's intervention. If it's the cats, that interesting too. Cats are slowly on the increase here, maybe because they have a good food source? But the deer are ever increasing here too, the cats are being forced from the west by humans. I'm glad the large pythons are not. I can appreciate that hogs must be fun to hunt, and maybe could be managed in such a way to make everyone happy. We just need to keep learning. I like the saying, if you want to protect an animal, open a hunting season on it. Hunters are some of the most conscientious conservationists. Dang, those two words were hard to say, and spell!

naturegirl

 

[Tnmountains]

I like the saying, if you want to protect an animal, open a hunting season on it. Hunters are some of the most conscientious conservationists. Dang, those two words were hard to say, and spell!

naturegirl

Thank you

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

If it's disease, sometimes that's nature's check and balance method. But it's so hard to know if it's nature, or man's intervention. If it's the cats, that interesting too. Cats are slowly on the increase here, maybe because they have a good food source? But the deer are ever increasing here too, the cats are being forced from the west by humans. I'm glad the large pythons are not. I can appreciate that hogs must be fun to hunt, and maybe could be managed in such a way to make everyone happy. We just need to keep learning. I like the saying, if you want to protect an animal, open a hunting season on it. Hunters are some of the most conscientious conservationists. Dang, those two words were hard to say, and spell!

naturegirl

As far as the Big Cypress National Park is concerned, the wild hogs are gone. They have always been a part of the deep swamp since their ancestors escaped from DeSoto and I am sad to see them go. They were never wanted by the Park Service but they couldnt exterminate them even when they tried shooting them from helicopters. I just cant imagine the Texas cougars that were imported having such an immediate impact. They were gone within 7 years. I hope if some Russian hogs are secretly brought in from outside, they will survive, but I always thought DeSoto's pigs were a tougher breed...


What state are you in naturegirl?

 

[fossis]

It does seem doubtful that the 'new cats' made such a difference, the mountain lions here are getting very numerous, but so are the hogs.

Fossis..............

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

It does seem doubtful that the 'new cats' made such a difference, the mountain lions here are getting very numerous, but so are the hogs.

Fossis..............

Studies have shown that wild hog is 40 percent of the endangered Florida Panthers diet. The Park Service decided to leave them alone for this reason I believe. They have coexisted in Florida for 400 years.

If its a disease, what disease does not affect the large male boars? Last year only 2 very large boars were killed by hunters and this year none. The hunter later lamented that if he knew they were the last two, he wouldnt have killed them. Only a few solitary old large pitch black boars have been sighted since but without a mate they will soon die off.

 

[Tnmountains]

I find it hard to believe that the Park Service is clueless as to their demise and that they even had a draw or open hunt with close to only two left. I thought they would view this as a manageable resource. Plus they love to eat the new invasive constrictor.
Hmm did this thread get hijacked? lol O h well I believe ya Bicyphntr

TnMtns

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I find it hard to believe that the Park Service is clueless as to their demise and that they even had a draw or open hunt with close to only two left. I thought they would view this as a manageable resource. Plus they love to eat the new invasive constrictor.
Hmm did this thread get hijacked? lol O h well I believe ya Bicyphntr

TnMtns

They have no protection in the National Preserve because they are a non-native species. They are still legal game managed by Florida Fish and Wildlife during legal hunting season in the Preserve if over 15 inches to the shoulder. You can read the Big Cypress Hunting regulations and they are still legal game but you wont see any. Youll be lucky to see a raccoon.
http://myfwc.com/docs/Brochures/09-10_BigCypress.pdf

The Park Service may have poisoned them for all I know. There have been rumors for years that they were trying to erradicate them. But as you know this is next to impossible once they are established.

I dont feel its hijacked at all. Fossis started this thread about a year ago about a wall mount and we are discussing Wild Hogs in general. This is mysterious occurance and may have far reaching effects outside of South Florida if this is a disease. I only work seasonal for the State and Ill update anything I find out if anyones interested.

 

[Tnmountains]

I am very interested being an avid outdoorsman. Thank you. I was kidding by the way about the hijack. I lease and manage 4000 acres here and run 3 hunt clubs. I work always towards the betterment of wildlife thus am interested in what you have to say.

Regards
TnMtns

 

[naturegirl]

I'm in Oklahoma bigcypress. Tn, we lease 1500 acres, and then sublease it to hunters to pay for it. I love it, when no one is hunting it's all mine! That's where I headed now, with a metal detecting friend. All though we have been told hogs are all around us, we've seen no sign of them. Someone said the heard a cougar once, we've seen so sign of them either. They rangers say the cougars that are here all always on the move, don't establish territory. But they said for years there weren't any when so many people were reporting sightings. Is all this too off-topic?
don't know all the rules yet.

ng

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I dont think there are any rules in "Our Community". I have kinda hijacked it but as long as fossis doesnt complain.

You should see tracks, rootings, wallows and such. They often scratch themselves against a Pine tree. They are never far from water.
Look for them only at sunup and sundown. They mostly hide during the day especially when hunted. They are very keen but will slip up when they start rooting. They eat nuts, berries, fruits and eggs on the ground, roots tubers and grubs underground and small animals such as snakes. I was told a large boar can rip open a carcass, I dont know for sure. They will all get up and move in a family group to a new area when they have exhausted all the resources.

 

[Tnmountains]

Have hunted out in Watonga,OK. Lots of hogs and very destructive. So many we would only take the time to pull the straps. Travel in large groups like bigcyphuntr says and destroy everything in their paths.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Have hunted out in Watonga,OK. Lots of hogs and very destructive. So many we would only take the time to pull the straps. Travel in large groups like bigcyphuntr says and destroy everything in their paths.

They are destructive and non-native and that is why the Park Service is not concerned. But they have managed to survive here since their decendants escaped from De Soto and Im kinda sad to see the go. They seem to have fit in fairly well. They are also 40 percent of the endangered Florida Panthers diet.
The Pythons are a different story.

I find it hard to believe that the Park Service is clueless as to their demise and that they even had a draw or open hunt with close to only two left. I thought they would view this as a manageable resource. Plus they love to eat the new invasive constrictor.

Im sure they eat the small ones but these Pythons are large enough to eat alligators. They also eat the native snakes and are a real problem. Anyone want to go python hunting? http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/08/18/pythons/

 

[Tnmountains]

I would think they would be fun to hunt. Not supposed to be there killing off native species. Maybe a big Gig of sorts at night with a rope on the end. Make it like a night rodeo event with an entry fee and winners takes all. Have most gigged winner and biggest Gig winner. Its a problem for sure that does not look like it wil ever go away.