Hog
Wild
HABITAT & CONSERVATION
By David rainer,
Alabama Department of Conservation and natural resources
Feral hogs are prolific reproducers capable of
bearing two litters per year with four to eight piglets
per litter. The most effective trapping technique
is to capture the whole sounder (family group)
at one time, which requires that the pigs become
acclimated to the trap and bait inside.
P
laying catch-up is a difficult task in almost every
endeavor. That’s especially true when the issue at hand
is the explosion in the feral hog population.
There for you
any season...
i heard a story last week from a hog hunter who had
trapped and relocated a group of hogs to the Tombigbee river
swamp in the 1980s before everyone realized what a destructive force an unchecked wild hog could become.
The complicate owner of the swamp told the hog hunter, “if i
knew then what i know now, i’d have killed you and the hogs.”
While that statement might be a bit over the top, landowners with feral hog infestations know the damage these eating
machines can wreak.
ATES
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50 | BLAZE | Spring/Summer 2014
early in the previous decade, wildlife managers and landowners knew something had to be done about the burgeoning
wild hog population.
Since 2003, Steve Ditchkoff, the “William r. & Fay ireland
Distinguished professor” at Auburn university’s School of
Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, has been involved in wild pig
research. in 2004, Ditchkoff and noted wild pig expert Jack
mayer of the Savannah river national Laboratory in georgia
introduced the international Wild pig Conference; it has
been held every two years since. This year’s conference, held
recently at the embassy Suites in montgomery, hosted 250
attendees from all over the world.
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