HOG WILD

Mover and over, Burmese pythons. The dubious honor of being the most invasive of all wildlife species in Florida might belong to a porcine competitor.

They have bristly hair … sharp, white tusks… may grow to 5 or 6 feet in length, and weigh more than 250 pounds.

And they’re hungry.

More than 500,000 wild hogs roam across the state, pretty much at will, leaving destruction in their wake. They’re found in all 67 counties.

They root. They wallow. They ravage crops and pastures, tear up lawns, damage golf courses, and wreak havoc on fruit orchards, native vegetation, and even cultural sites.

Within the last few years, nuisance claims of wild hogs have made the news in areas of Sarasota County, including North Port.

“It’s a big thing. It’s terrible. You can’t stop it,” said Craig Greene, owner of Alpha Trapping Inc., based in Port Charlotte.

A one-man operation, he has been trapping hogs and other wildlife for 30 years, traveling all over the state wherever and whenever needed—whether it’s Southwest Florida, Palm Beach County, Broward County, or Miami, he said.

Three wild hogs trapped by Craig Greene of Alpha Trapping Inc. (CRAIG GREENE / COURTESY PHOTO).

Federal and state wildlife and agricultural agencies agree that the wild hog problem is a big thing—and it’s nationwide, with more than 6 million wild hogs found in more than 35 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies. They caused $2.5 billion in damage. Florida ranks No. 2 or No. 3 in the nation in the number of wild hogs, depending on which study you consult. Texas is No. 1.

The USDA Southwest Climate Hub calls them “one of the most devastating invasive species in the U.S. today” and continues, “Without appropriate and coordinated management and removal of feral swine, the U.S. could witness a ‘feral swine bomb.’”

But it appears the bomb has already detonated.

The hog population is exploding because they are so prolific and have few natural predators. Females, or sows, can have two litters per year with up to 13 piglets in each litter. Several sows and their offspring travel in small groups called “sounders.” Males, or boars, are loners. The hogs’ primary predator is man.

A wild hog in Florida. FWC / COURTESY PHOTO

The facts and numbers on wild hogs that come from state and federal agencies and educational institutions—ssuch as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), and the USDA—ppiece together a picture of a formidable and fearless eating machine that mows through the state and its resources like a fierce, four-legged rototiller. “These animals have been here long before us. They’re tough,” said Teggy Smith, a North Fort Myers resident who has 60 head of cattle.

One problem is the increasing Florida population.

“They’re building all over the place,” she said.

With the loss of habitat to construction and development, the hogs are being forced out of their usual space, leading to increased encounters with property and people.

GREENE

“I love animals, and I actually like pigs. Like everybody else, I don’t want them rooting up my yard,” Smith said. “We have cattle. We need this land to be grazing land. It’s not good for crops.”

As for the hogs, she added, “You don’t want to mess with them.”

As she spoke, Smith spotted a group of about 12—two adults with babies—at the end of her road, running back and forth.

“Because they have babies, they’re going from property to property,” she said. “It’s quite an adventure.”

Wild hogs are defined by the FWC and other entities as “a hog that is free-roaming and which cannot be legally claimed as a domestic hog in private ownership.”

Florida’s wild pigs are either feral or hybrid and are not native to Florida. So, where did they come from?

Eating like pigs

They are known as feral pigs, wild hogs, razorbacks, Old World swine, wild boar, and piney wood rooters, according to the USDA. But despite their many names, they are the same species as their domesticated barnyard brethren found on farms across the nation: Sus scrofa. They are invaders, brought to Florida courtesy of the conquistadors as provisions when the Spanish sought to establish settlements here. Hernando de Soto is said to have brought swine to a settlement he established in 1539 at Charlotte Harbor in Lee County, according to IFAS and other government sites. However, they may have been brought to the same area during an earlier visit by Ponce de Leon in 1521.

SMITH

The Eurasian wild boar was then introduced in New Hampshire in the late 1880s and, later, in New York, North Carolina, Texas, and elsewhere. They ended up mating with the other population to form hybrids. The hogs in Florida roamed freely, as the state had open ranges until the mid-1900s.

Both opportunistic and omnivorous, they’ll eat almost anything, from grubs to fruit to small animals to carrion. But their favorite food is acorns.

Wild hog damage on South Florida Water Management District lands. JUSTIN NOLTE, SFWMD / COURTESY PHOTO

They can cause significant losses of crops, including corn, melons, peanuts, grains, and various vegetables. They prey on ground-nesting wildlife, like birds and turtles, as well as lambs, goats, and poultry.

The main problem the South Florida Water Management District has with wild hogs is foraging and wallowing behavior, said Justin Nolte, land management administrator.

“The impact is on the district’s water management system, compromising the integrity of levees and berms,” he said. “Rooting removes the cover vegetation that protects berms.”

Then the berms are exposed to rainfall and erosion, affecting not just flood control but also the water supply, he said. Tearing up the soil and native vegetation can then give way to the growth of exotic vegetation.

District staff must mow, maintain, and restore the berms, and they may need to replace large amounts of expensive fencing due to hog damage, Nolte said.

Wildlife biologist Christina Kontos baits a hog trap at Babcock Ranch, part of the town’s Adaptive Hog Management Plan. BABCOCK RANCH / COURTESY PHOTO

“Significant efforts must be made.”

The biggest area the district needs to manage and protect in terms of hydrology and native vegetation is the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW), a 60,000-acre preserve that spans the eastern border of Lee and Collier counties and provides flood protection, water purification, and critical aquifer recharge for the water supply.

Wild pigs do not have sweat glands. That’s why the phrase “sweating like a pig” is a misstatement. They must have water or wet soil so they can wallow and cool themselves to keep from overheating. In wallowing, they tend to move where the water moves. As a result, they’re always on the move.

Wild hogs are intelligent and adaptive. And they can be dangerous.

Hog hunters

“Although wild hogs usually prefer to run and escape danger, if they are injured, cornered, or young, they can become aggressive, move with great speed, and cause serious injury (mainly with their hooves and tusks),” writes William M. Giuliano in his “Wild Hogs in Florida: Ecology and Management” article on the IFAS website. (Giuliano, a former wildlife extension specialist with the IFAS Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, authored several pieces on the site.)

WALTZ

The USDA adds: “Other risks posed by feral swine to people include attacks on individuals or collisions with vehicles and aircraft. Feral swine have been aggressive towards and even attacked farmers, golfers, hikers, and picnickers. Aggression can be increased when people associate people with food because of handouts and improper waste disposal.”

Greene works out in the field, mostly with property management companies as well as colleges and golf courses. He’s seen plenty of hogs that reached the 400-pound mark and over. He’s also been charged by wild hogs, “but they never caught up to me,” he said.

He was lucky.

KONTOS

“They run like the wind,” he said.

In fact, wild hogs can run up to 30 mph, according to the USDA. In comparison, Olympic champion Usain Bolt, said to be the fastest human, has a top speed of a little over 27 mph.

One time, Greene did have an exceptionally close call. He was baiting a trap with sour corn and didn’t realize the hogs had gotten a whiff of it before he finished. They showed up at the trap. His truck was too far away for him to make a run for it.

“The safest thing to do was go inside the trap.”

So he did, and he closed the door—only to find himself surrounded by about 15 hogs.

Greene waited about three hours until they lost interest and dispersed. (After that, he got two dogs to bring with him when trapping.)

Not all of Greene’s trapping efforts have been in the field. One call was to the parking lot of a hotel, where a wild hog was trying to get into the hotel because it smelled food, he said. Another call was to assist a woman who had gotten into her car when a hog suddenly appeared and charged the vehicle repeatedly.

Wild hogs are in action on South Florida Water Management District lands. JUSTIN NOLTE, SFWMD / COURTESY PHOTO

“The car came out worse for it,” Greene said.

Man is the primary predator of wild hogs, but bears, alligators, and panthers can also feed on adults. Piglets can be preyed upon by smaller mammals like coyotes and foxes, according to IFAS.

Wild hog control methods include hunting, various trapping methods, shooting, and exclusion, which is basically fencing. But we’re not talking about a white picket fence. Electric fencing or costly hog panel fencing is needed.

On private property with landowner permission, wild hogs may be trapped and hunted year-round during the day and night with no fees, licenses, or permits required, according to the FWC.

On FWC public hunting areas, including Wildlife Management Areas, wild hogs can be hunted only during established seasons and according to the regulations of a specific area. Sometimes trappers take the hogs to a private hunting preserve.

GRIFFIN

Kyle Waltz, CEO of Conserv Pest & Wildlife Services, thinks hunting is a good way to manage wild hogs, but not as the option currently exists.

“It’s a horrible problem, and it always will be until the state does something about it,” Waltz said. He believes hog hunting is too limited, and more public lands should be open to hunting at more times of the year.

As Florida’s population continues to grow, the hog population continues to increase while habitat decreases, he said.

“State lands only allow hunting in season. It’s not an effective tool,” Waltz said. “Hogs are incredibly intelligent and very adaptive. They learn not to fear things that don’t hurt them.”

Hogs have charged him on multiple occasions, but he managed to get away.

Waltz lives in Southwest Florida, but the business operates in four states: in Florida, from Sarasota to Marco Island and Melbourne south to the Keys; the entire state of Alabama; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Dallas, Texas. His clients include neighborhoods, HOAs, golf courses, industrial areas, state and federal government entities, and others.

Typically, communities are reluctant to admit whether they have a hog presence or any issue with wild hogs, fearing that prospective residents may shy away from moving there.

Babcock Ranch, surrounded by conservation land, preserves, and wildlife corridors, is one community that is upfront about the issue and has managed hogs down to a science.

A priceless problem

Christina Kontos, environmental mitigation manager and wildlife biologist, has the job of managing 13,000 acres of land at Babcock Ranch. She’s in charge of their adaptive hog management plan.

“We have lots and lots of hogs here,” just like the rest of the state, she said.

Kontos estimates the population at about 2,000. Last year, they trapped and relocated “a little over 600,” she said.

In the developed areas, hogs sometimes root in backyards, parks, and golf courses, she said.

The ranch contracts with a permitted hog trapper.

“He’s pretty much out here every single day,” including weekends, she said.

Kontos sometimes assists him in baiting the traps.

“Every trap here is monitored 24/7,” she said.

They have a live photo feed that they can access on their cellphones.

The hogs can be aggressive, but there have been no instances of aggression that she or the residents have experienced, Kontos said.

“We tell everybody walking on trails that if you encounter a hog, give the animal space. Keep your distance and stay calm. Keep dogs on a leash. Slowly walk away in the direction you came from.”

Airports across the country are also affected, and the USDA has an Airport Wildlife Hazards Program through the department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to help manage birds and other wildlife at or near airports.

“We do occasionally have hogs landside at the airport and have a trapper who humanely traps and removes them,” Victoria B. Moreland, chief communications and marketing officer for the Lee County Port Authority, said in an email. “We don’t have any airside issues, as we are fully fenced.”

Hance Ellington, a wildlife specialist with the IFAS Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, does hog research and traps them. He also believes it’s not possible to eradicate wild hogs from Florida.

“What we can do is reduce the damage by trying to manage the population.”

Hunting is not the most effective way to do it, he said. That will eliminate one or two animals at a time, while those that are left learn how to avoid the hunters and become more difficult to catch. The better method is to trap one small community, or sounder, at the same time and humanely euthanize them while they are in the trap, he said. That depopulates an area, and it will take a few months for the hogs to repopulate it.

When Ellington talks about wild hogs, he focuses on three areas. The first two are agricultural damage and ecosystem damage. The third is wild hogs’ potential as a disease carrier, that is, as a way to transmit disease to native wildlife—even humans. Not enough attention is being paid to that potential, he said.

Feral swine can carry and/or transmit 30 diseases and nearly 40 parasites to livestock, pets, wildlife, and people, according to the USDA Southwest Climate Hub. For animals, pathogens such as pseudorabies (not related to the rabies virus), swine flu, toxoplasmosis, tularemia, trichinellosis, and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome can be passed to livestock via contaminated feed, mineral supplements, or water. Feral swine also carry zoonotic pathogens—infections that are spread between animals and humans—such as brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, leptospirosis, salmonella, E. coli, and hepatitis E.

“The most common way pathogens and parasites are transmitted from feral swine to humans is through handling and butchering feral swine or eating meat that has not been cooked thoroughly,” according to APHIS. “Meat should always be cooked to a safe internal temperature of 160 °F in order to kill the parasites and pathogens that the animal may be carrying.”

APHIS is coordinating the National Feral Swine Damage Management Program, which aims to manage the damage caused by invasive feral swine. It works closely with partners at the federal, state, and local levels.

APHIS also runs an aerial operations program in the state. The program, which operates mostly across South Florida, involves the aerial hunting of wild hogs from a helicopter. Landowners reach out to the service and provide maps of the area to be hunted, said J.C. Griffin, a wildlife biologist who is the primary coordinator of the program. There is no cost to the landowner.

The issue is complex, Griffin said. “Everybody has a different opinion.”

Some people see the wild hogs as resources: “They love the big game animals and hunting opportunities. Some trap them and sell them. Property owners see them as nuisances. Then you get people who see them as an invasive exotic animal that should be eliminated for the damage they cause.

“Some people do see them as the victims in this. Because pigs—they’re just being pigs, doing what they’re bred to do. It’s a noble thing to want to protect individual animals—a noble cause. Feral hogs, however, have been called the most invasive species on the planet.”

While damage by wild hogs nationwide has been estimated at $2.5 billion, there is no dollar estimate that has really been attached to Florida, Griffin said, because the research hasn’t been done. But it’s impossible to put a price on the damage the hogs are inflicting on natural resources.

“In a sense, it’s priceless,” he said. “These are resources we want to preserve for future generations. You just can’t put a number on it.”

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