“We know the wild pig problem is growing,” Ditchkoff said during a break at the conference. “We have pigs popping up in
areas where they were not before. Damage has to be increasing.
We were talking about how poor our damage estimates are.
$1.5 billion in agriculture damage is the estimate we always use
nationally – that’s based on $300 per pig – but that’s a guess.
Some people project the damage is in the multiples of billions. in
Alabama, the estimate is between $50 and $100 million. We think
that’s a conservative estimate.”
Ditchkoff said the greatest concentration of pigs in Alabama is in
the lower coastal plains below i-85 with significant densities north
of mobile Bay in the mobile-Tensaw Delta.
“We’re starting to get a measles sort of distribution across the state
with little spots here and little spots there,” he said.
Ditchkoff said the distribution problem has been exacerbated by
people with trucks and trailers.
“Hunting won’t do it,” Ditchkoff said. “You have to kill about 70
percent of your pigs just to hold it steady. if you’ve got 100 pigs,
you’ve got to kill 70 this year, 70 next year and 70 the year after
that just to maintain.”
Ditchkoff said his team discovered territorial behavior with the
pigs at Fort Benning. Sounders would stick to and defend their
“people ask how fast pigs spread,” he said. “One of our presenters territories. With whole sounder removal, trappers can start worksaid, ‘They move at 70 miles per hour – in the back of a pickup ing in a grid fashion to remove the population.
truck.’ pigs move extremely slowly on their own. This is a human
problem. The vast majority of these pockets popping up are due “if you take the whole sounder, you don’t educate any, and
to hunters releasing them.
they’re smart critters,” he said. “That way, you’re dealing with
novice pigs all the time.”
“even then, can you really stop them? We’ve got people who say,
‘We want pigs and we don’t care how it’s going to