In Texas, feral hogs are big, hungry and smart

ShareThis

WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- From a short bluff overlooking his Bermuda hay, James Ludeke reiterates that, despite how it may appear, nobody tore it up with a backhoe. Red ruts as much as 3 feet deep crisscross the field.Just yards beyond a big, heavy iron trap set for their capture, feral hogs have damaged about a quarter of the 15 acres, rooting relentlessly for tender grass shoots and grubs."So far we've trapped three but we know there's plenty more out there," said Ludeke. "They're big, they're hungry, and they're smart."According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, feral hogs caused more than $52 million in damage to crops, livestock and water sources last year and forces are mounting to find a way to control them. As one wildlife specialist put it, Texas wild hogs represent "a perfect storm" of damage and danger.Descended from pigs lost by Spanish explorers in the 1500s, domestic swine allowed to roam river bottoms in the 1800s and fierce Russian boars stocked on hunting lodges in the early 1900s, feral hogs can grow to 400 pounds with double sets of razor-sharp tusks. They have no natural predators.Earlier this month, the Texas legislature awarded a $1 million grant to the agriculture department to find better ways to reduce the number of feral hogs."We will be carrying out specific projects, going beforehand to assess damage, then afterward to see how effective the control measures have been," said Randy Smith, TWSP staff biologist.The hogs are nocturnal feeders on crop roots and livestock feed. Experts estimate that half of all supplemental feed left for deer, turkey and quail on hunting leases is being eaten by feral hogs. They will also eat ground nesting bird eggs and have been known to kill and consume calves, kid goats and small deer.Feral pigs foul streambeds with E. coli and can carry brucellosis and pseudo-rabies, which potentially threaten domestic livestock. Wildlife experts estimate their numbers at more than 2 million nationwide, a population that's increasing exponentially."When you realize that a sow can litter two or three times a year with about six piglets per litter, and each female piglet will come to sexual maturity in six to eight months, you get a picture of how quickly the numbers are multiplying," said Billy Higginbotham, Texas Extension Wildlife and Fisheries specialist.Texas AgriLife Extension Agent Stephen Sparkman said feral hogs' palates are changing crop choices for many farmers."Lots of farmers out here are now unwilling to plant grain sorghum or peanuts. In parts of western Hardeman, they've had 20(percent) to 50 percent crop loss in grain sorghum to feral hogs. Now there's zero peanuts in the county because of them," said Sparkman. "They don't seem so interested in cotton and beardless wheat."Sparkman said the only "bright spot" anyone can find in the feral hog situation is a small number of people who are now trapping live hogs and selling them to processors for the European market and some haute cuisine restaurants in America.Still, he finds it ironic that hunting may have played its own part in creating the wild hog problem. Because it's legal to hunt hogs year-round, two decades ago landowners trying to develop their hunting leases trapped and transferred them into areas where they thrived."I guess at the time they didn't realize what they were getting into," Sparkman said.(Judith McGinnis is a reporter for the Wichita Falls Times Record News.)