Feral hogs are Louisiana's most troublesome new transplant

Walk around New Orleans long enough, and you’re bound to hear grizzled locals grumbling about unwelcome tourists and transplants. Travel outside of the city, and you’ll hear many Louisiana residents grumbling about a different type of transplant: feral hogs.

The unwanted and non-native species has made its way into Louisiana and may be very hard to turn back. According to Jim LaCour of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, their reproduction rate is the highest of any large mammal on earth. The hogs can have two litters of six or more piglets per year.

The state funds it would require to push back on the population of feral hogs is estimated to be billions of dollars, and parish by parish ordinance differences regarding firearms and other weapons make hunting the hogs in significant enough numbers to tamp down the population nearly impossible.

Dr. Lacour points out that the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has extremely liberal hunting seasons when it comes to the hogs, especially on private property. However, the sheer numbers of active hunters it would take to push back the population is prohibitive. LSU is working on a specially formulated and patented pig poison aimed at curbing the populations of the hogs, but the timeline of its availability is uncertain. A lengthy series of EPA testing and evaluation lies ahead, and how effective the poison would actually be in a statewide application is yet to be seen.

The onus is ultimately on private land owners, according to Dr. Lacour. Especially in rural areas where the hogs cause a majority of problems, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries encourages actively hunting the pigs to cull their numbers.

For now, we may be stuck with the unwelcome transplants and the ecological havoc they wreak.