Parsons, Kansas —
Starting at the Red River and rampaging north, the feral hog horde has now rooted its way into all 77 Oklahoma counties.
And it doesn’t look like they intend to leave anytime soon.
Speaking at the KOMA Cattle Conference in Dewey, Okla., Kevin Grant, USDA wildlife services director, outlined the wild hog threat and what can be done about it.
“The population of feral hogs is exploding,” he said. “They cause tremendous damage to crops, pasture, hay bales. And it’s not just a rural problem. We see a lot of damage to golf courses, cemeteries and in the suburbs.”
With an uncanny ability to adapt, feral hog numbers grew rapidly for years because there were no restrictions on them.
Some landowners actually viewed them as an asset in fee-hunting scenarios but, over the years, hogs have escaped and continue to flourish.
Saying that the budget for dealing with feral hogs in Oklahoma is stretched thin, Grant said organized hunts—especially aerial hunting—and trapping are effective.
Even so, the hogs are winning, he said.
“We use a lot of methods and so do landowners,” Grant explained. “Traps work really well—you can catch 10-20 hogs at a time with a good trap. If you do trap them, you cannot release them someplace else. That’s a felony.”
Trappers can, he said, get a permit to sell hogs to a hunting facility.
The wild hogs are not protected by law and can be killed at any time of the year.
Night hunting and hunting during deer season, however, require permits.
Feral hogs, Grant noted, can carry disease, particularly pseudorabies, swine fever and swine brucellosis which can pass to humans, most frequently in the slaughter process.
“Use rubber gloves if you’re processing a feral hog,” he advised.
Grant’s department has been tracking feral hogs since complaints first started coming in back in 1993. Since then the population has expanded through the state.
“If food and habitat are adequate, they can double their population every nine months,” he said.
Last summer’s drought and extreme heat were not kind to new litters of feral piglets, Grant added, but he doesn’t expect that to slow down the growing population much.
“We have to use traps, hunting, aerial hunting — everything legally at our disposal,” he said. “Even then, we’re just looking at controlling the population. Eradication, at this point, just isn’t in the cards.”
Poisoning the feral hogs, he added, is not legal.
Grant’s department also deals with other problem wildlife species including coyotes, beavers and lions.
“Have we always had lions?” he asked. “No, but we didn’t always have deer, either. Lions will kill a deer a week and, yes, we do have lions.”
Grant said mountain lions kill calves—even fairly large ones—by grabbing them behind the head. Frequently, they bury their kill and that’s one of the telltale signs of a lion problem.
Although protected for many years, people have the right to kill a lion that has the potential to threaten life or property.
The lion carcass should, however, be turned over to the game warden so tooth and hair samples can be taken for analysis.
Area Farm & Ranch News
Related Photos
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Kevin Grant
Feral hogs rooting their way into Okla.
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