Feral piglet question

[Pfletch83]

If Rifles are out of the question due to housing or local game laws try a shotgun and either buckshot (depending on the ranges you will most likely encounter said porkers) or slugs (in either 12 or 20 gauge)

[bamaranger]

We were trapping hogs in a park I worked early in my career. Set up was a dug in 8x8 chain link type fence and big dropping door, w/ a catch pen door on the other side. We caught some piglets, but not the momma.

The guy that checked the traps that AM was not armed and the momma ran him up on his vehicle. We made a point of always having somebody that was authorized to be armed check traps from that point on.

I'd say the sow in the OP story would not have been far off.

[justplainpossum]

I think you're right. The scary part was how fearless the piglets were; they just came right up to me, and that is not good. I ran away as fast as I could, along with my dogs. At least with coyotes, they try to avoid people, and teach their pups to avoid people; the wild boar don't seem to instill that fear in their piglets. Well, actually that's not all together true; it seems to depend on the sounder. The really multi-color one we had would come up close to the house, but take off running when yelled at; some of these newer sounders moving through, with pigs that are black or brown, they don't seem to be as wary. Heck, I had four sows and babies in my front yard; this keeps up they'll be making peanut butter sandwiches in the kitchen...

[Geezerbiker]

Have you considered carrying a boat horn? They weigh less than a pound a make a noise that most anything would run from...

Tony

[justplainpossum]

Tony, do you think that would work? I mean, if a pig was charging, do you think it could make it stop in its tracks? Because if it will, aye matey, lead me to the boat horn!!

Hmmm... let's see. Bear spray. Crossbow. Boat horn. Okay, it's safe to go for a walk now!

[Geezerbiker]

It's worth a shot. I've seen an air horn scare away dogs chasing my motorcycle. It might have a similar effect on a hog...

Tony

[hogdogs]

they just came right up to me, and that is not good.

That depends... i would scoop em up and tote them home and raise them up... To about 125 pounds each...

Brent

[Buzzcook]

My granddad slaughtered pigs at about 200#.

Except for the breeding boar. That puppy was the size of a Volkswagen. Friendly fellow to.

[Old Stony]

I hunt hogs and trap them on a daily basis and have for several years as a retirement hobby....that's sort of turned into a job. It has been a fun and interesting hobby to say the least. I have had one sow in that time grunt at me like she would have liked to be agressive...since I had a bunch of her babies in a trap....but turned around and ran. They can be a tough critter, but will almost always run the other way if it's possible. Any of them in a trap will act agressive, but open the door and they are gone. I doubt many people get hurt by them unless they are trying to carry them away live (they don't take much to pettin') I once had a boar that weighed in right at 400 lbs that was a problem. I had to shoot him 3 times through the boiler room with 240 gr. 44 mags before he would fall over, and this was under 25 yards. He only wanted to get away from me. I did a european mount of his head and found another bullet hole right in it's forehead and the bone looks like it was trying to grow back. The spine where it runs into the back of the skull looked like it was deformed from this, but the hog kept going and everything had healed over.
Basically I have no fear of agression from the feral hogs in the open. If they are agressive it's because you are trying to make them do something they don't want to do or working in a confined space where they are just trying to defend themselves.

[justplainpossum]

Well, so far one of my neighbors had an unprovoked attack by a boar that crossed a field to ram his golf cart, and another person in a town just north of here was hiking in the woods with his buddy and a sow tore his leg up so badly it was amputated. I had one sounder hang out that was fearless and yet very easy going (I never felt nervous near them) and another one that was, like, staging a Jets/Sharks rumble yards from my house (lots and lots of screaming). The one time I had a boar pass within about five feet of me he just kept on going, but I was frozen, so maybe that helped, I don't know; either way, I've decided that I don't want to push my luck if there are babies around, just in case the sow is feeling particularly maternal that day.

I absolutely respect your experience, but I'm going play it cautiously; tomorrow I'm going to hit the feed store for a big 'ol can of bear spray!

I wonder if anyone has ever done a study of which sex is more likely to charge, and under what circumstance? I have a feeling that a lot of attacks are just not reported, especially if it doesn't result in a emergency room visit.

[Keg]

My experience is..they always run....

[thallub]

Yep, wild hogs usually run away, but not always. My personal observations from SW OK. The hogs in your area may do something different.

1. A person accompanied by a dog is more likely to be attacked by hogs. Hogs hate dogs: We have bird dogs killed in this area by hogs every year.

2. Do not release a live hog from trap. Once let a sow with pigs out of a trap. She tried to get in the back of the truck after me.

3. Be careful when approaching a trap that contains a sow. She may be in heat and guarded by a big boar. Been there done that too.

4. Was sitting in a lawn chair watching a pond in the late afternoon. Suddenly a big boar across the pond winded me and went nuts, snorting and tearing up the dirt. Then he ran off over the side of the dam. About 25 minutes later i heard something behind me, jumped up with .22 magnum at the ready. That hog was 15-20 yards behind me. Thankfully, he ran off. Was he stalking me? Was he just curious? Who knows. Now i stay in tree stands.

5. A few years ago i talked with a Ft. Sill hunter who saw a hog cross the road some distance in front of him. He got out of his truck close to the crossing place and was immediately attacked by a very big boar. A 12 gauge slug took care of that hog.

Wild hog attacks:

http://texaswildhogremoval.com/wild-hog-attacks.html

http://www.inquisitr.com/381526/wild...our-in-berlin/

[justplainpossum]

[quote]My granddad slaughtered pigs at about 200#. Except for the breeding boar. That puppy was the size of a Volkswagen.[quote]

Beetle or Van?

[Keg]

thallub....the OP had a fear of sows with piglets and walking around without a weapon....We shoot and trap hundreds of pigs every year....I have never been charged by a sow that is not in a trap....They always run and leave their babies behind..no matter how big the little ones are....Even if they are wounded they run....
Now if U wanna bring up traps and dogs and such..it could be a different matter....I actually would be more concerned about a boar pig that is stirred up..by cornering..wounded..dogs..in traps..etc....
I've had a couple instances where boars ran toward me....One did not know what I was..the other just happened to run that direction....When they saw me one stopped..the other veered off and hooked em..till I put 3 rounds in his side....Some folks would say they were charged....
So many folks wanna tell tall tales....Those stories on the net U posted....One pig comes in someones house? And another weighs 700 pounds?
As many folks that hunt pigs around here and adjacent counties..U would think someone would go into the hospital ever so often....It would definitely make the news....Pigman said this part of TX probably has more pigs than anywhere else in the U.S.

[thallub]

We shoot and trap hundreds of pigs every year....

So do i.

As many folks that hunt pigs around here and adjacent counties..U would think someone would go into the hospital ever so often....It would definitely make the news....

Read my post again: The wild hogs in your area may be different from the ones here and in other places. Many of the hogs here have Eurasian boar blood. Yeah, i know, i've never done DNA testing to prove that. No one has ever done any testing that disproved it either. i have hosted German hunters here : They say many of the hogs here are German boars and boar crosses. I killed this very old boar in 2007 on Ft. Sill. He had a tag in his ear from a game farm in Bavaria:







The OP mentioned two wild hog attacks in TX, a man lost his leg in one of those attacks. A sow with pigs can be dangerous. They do not always run away.

Some hog attacks:

http://www.inquisitr.com/381526/wild...our-in-berlin/

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...d-animals-hogs

http://azstarnet.com/news/state-and-...cc4c03286.html

[justplainpossum]

They always run and leave their babies behind.

Always? That seems like unusual maternal behavior. Is there something about wild sows that make them that way? I mean, don't most animals protect their young, especially if they are predatory? So... I could just walk up to one of the many sows out here and reach for her piglet, and she wouldn't try and protect it? Not that I would! But it just seems so strange to me. Do they have no protective instincts for the others in the sounder?

By the way, what IS all that screaming about? Is it adults attacking adults, or adults attacking babies? I have one video of the big sow going after another sow that had done absolutely nothing wrong (well, that I could see). One second they were all busy destroying the ecosystem (lol sorry ) and the next she was attacking the other sow.

As Spock would say... Fascinating.

[justplainpossum]

He had a tag in his ear from a game farm in Bavaria:

Wow. Busted!!

[justplainpossum]

Here's that video. I would love to get video of the mean sounder fighting with each other, because last time that went on for like twenty minutes. This one was more like she was just in a bad mood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myenHJlI5Rg

[arch308]

I was deer hunting a couple years ago sitting in my elevated box blind. It sits on a ranch road that runs between a cleared field and thick mesquite flat. I spotted a big boar, about 350 lbs, down in the field about 400 yds away tearing up the ground. Since I don't feel comfortable shooting at that distance I climbed down and worked my way thru the trees to get a closer shot. I got within about 70 yds and could not get any closer due to lack of cover. He was head down on the other side of the fence that runs the length of the field quartering away from me behind a small bush.
By now I'm all excited and made the mistake of trying to shoot him through the bush. Needless to say I missed. That boy turned towards me and ran full tilt through the 5-wire fence headed right in my direction. I don't think he even saw me, he was just running away. I leveled my Remy 7400 '06 and blasted him to extinction. He dropped about 20 yds in front of me.
I don't believe he was purposefully charging me but he would have torn me up if he ran into me. His tusks were about 4 inches long and pretty sharp. Plus, you wouldn't believe how fast they can run.

[justplainpossum]

I swear, I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone. Are the wild boar of Europe more friendly? Less destructive? Less concentrated? Either way, I don't think naming the wild animals is a good idea... Nothing personal, Boris!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz491Iy2-54

[thallub]

By the way, what IS all that screaming about?

It may be sows punishing pigs for infractions of hog behavior. It could be
food fights. When grazing at game plots and on wheatfields hogs are quiet. Some get testy at feeders.


Hog trivia:

Hogs are very well organized. The sounder puts out scouts to locate food. Scouts are usually immature boars. When coming into a feeder or pond the sounder often stops and waits a few hundred yards away. Then you will sometimes hear a pig squealing like mad and the sounder will come on in, lead by a young hog that has drafted as a point pig. The squealing was when he was forced to the front of the sounder.

Sounders often have a big boar that acts as security while the sounder is at a feeder or pond. i often see this while sitting in tree stands near feeders.

Sometimes most of the sows in a sounder will come out to feed without their pigs. There is a nurse sow or two back at headquarters taking care of the pigs. Any lactating sow will nurse any pig in the sounder.

Some sows will bite off grass and build a bed to have their pigs in. African bush pigs do this too. Learned about bush pigs while working in Angola. Bush pigs are not Sus Scrofa. The bush pig species is Potamochoerus larvatus and they have bad attitudes. There are several subspecies.

Strawberry or cherry flavored Jello sprinkled on the corn will sometimes entice trap shy hogs to enter the trap. Molasses works well too.

[justplainpossum]

Okay, I am so intrigued! I just went and bought a book from Amazon on wild boar behavior. That's fascinating about the point pig and the nurse sow... but the only time I've seen a huge hog (well, 250 pounds or so, which to me seemed pretty big!) with a sounder is when there were about thirty tiny piglets and at least seven sows. The smaller sounders with like 3 sows and a handful of larger piglets seemed to be traveling boar-less. I can't wait to get this book now!

And cherry-flavored Jello would get me into a trap, too.

[thallub]

nurse sow

is a bad term on my part. They are most likely sows that are left simply left behind. i once saw seven nursing sows and a boar at a feeder: No pigs were present.

[Old Stony]

I think a lot of people get into trying to identify all the species, sub species, mixed species, etc. of hogs to relate to behavioral characteristics. I can only relate to the large number of them I've dealt with in Texas, but they are probably a mix of lots of species. You won't see much of the short nosed domestic type here as most of that has been bred out of them, but every color a domestic pig comes in is represented in the woods. A person can look hard enough to find agressive instances and I would guess most of them are either initiated by people and the hogs are trying to defend themselves or hogs getting confused about which way to run to get away.
Hogs do tend to get noisy during some of their daily activities, but most of it is not fighting. Something as simple as one bumping into another can get a grunt of squeal out of one and this is normal to them. A person seeing boars fighting is just a show of dominance such as is seen in almost any species...including some humans after a few adult beverages. A few disagreements can be seen around food sources as pigs jockey for the best chances at the food ( they have little for table manners and can make real hogs of themselves).
As far as european species making it into the U.S. there are reasons for this as well. Texas..as well as some other states...has a big market for exotic species and raises them for hunters. This is big business and people pay simply insane amounts of money to get a trophy to hang on their wall. You can find people here that buy and raise all kinds of exotic animals for this market behind high fence operations. Hogs are masters of escape and there is a good chance the hog with the ear tag could have come from one of these operations. A really gnarly old boar that looks russian or exotic and has a really large set of tusks could fetch a thousand dollars or more in a trophy fee from one of these game ranches. There are many exotic types of deer, antelope, goats, etc...roaming on private lands in south Texas now that started out on game ranches.
I see ads occasionally on places such as Craig's list here wanting to buy feral hogs over the 200 lb. mark as some hunting ranches are short of them in their area. Now you talk about hog noise...try moving a bunch of them somewhere they don't want to go and they will tell you about it.

[thallub]

Hogs are masters of escape and there is a good chance the hog with the ear tag could have come from one of these operations.

That hog came to the US in a shipment imported by a wealthy OK City car dealer. The guy turned them loose all over SW OK, north of highway 62; including the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. For years the wildlife refuge and Ft. Sill were over-run with with the offspring of those hogs. The wildlife refuge and Ft. Sill are finally getting control of wild hogs with extensive trapping and shooting from the air. Wild hogs on Quanah Parker firing range are getting scarce.

The bad news is that hybrid hogs have spread into the area south of highway 62. They have not yet reached the Red River.

The few short nosed hogs i've shot and trapped recently looked like they had just come from the stock sale. They probably had come from the stock sale. One of my properties is near the Pauls Valley hog hunting ranch. Another property is further from the place. It too is becoming infested with wild hogs. There was no hog problem in that area until the guy started his hog hunting ranch. He buys hogs by the stock trailer load.

States will continue to have serious hog problems until they shut down the hog hunting ranches. The only thing that would cause that to happen is an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in cattle being spread by wild hogs.