Essays

Moseying: Living La Vida Llanero

Feral hogs are a part of the modern West Texas landscape
March 7, 2007

“Think of feral hogs as fire ants – destructive pests with attitude.” Farmers and wildlife biologists hate hogs. “Mighty fine lean meat,” hunters and ranchers that host the hunters agree. “Feral hogs can be hunted year around, so it is another source of income for the rancher.” Some ranchers do not like them, however, for the swine foul stock tanks, and eat eggs of ground-nesting birds like quail.

Pat Barber, a lawyer in Colorado City, has hog traps on his ranch along the Colorado River. “There are some guys trapping hogs for money now, and getting fifty cents a pound for the meat. I love the meat and have a freezer full of it.” Pat and his son own the native plant “Green Man Nursery” along the Interstate north of the town. I stopped by in late February on my way to a meeting with Texas Parks and Wildlife Interpretative specialist Vicki Sybert. Pat took me out to take a look at the hog traps. See photos of Barber’s traps on the recommended daytrip photoessay “Colorado City to Lomax.”

During a trip to survey lesser prairie chicken habitat on Yoakum County ranchland in January I had seen a herd of thirty go thundering over the vegetated sanddunes. (This trip is on the website, too, in the Sanddune habitat section.) Texas Parks and Wildlife biologists leading the survey commented about the threat of the feral hogs eating the eggs of the lesser prairie chickens. With only about 5000 lesser prairie chickens in Texas, the feral hogs are a definite threat to the species. The hogs had arrived in the sandy country there in 2000.

Bill Loos, a member of the board of directors of the Sibley Nature Center, recently photographed feral hogs at the Monahans State Park. (His photo is in the image gallery section of our website.) Feral hogs usually travel in family groups (known as sounders), comprised of two sows and their offspring. The boars usually are solitary. As he approached a sounder, the two largest sows held back as the smaller and younger ones scampered away. Feral hogs protecting young could do some serious damage to humans.

Although there are no records of feral hogs transmitting diseases to humans, they do transmit disease to wildlife – swine brucellosis, bubonic plague, tularemia, hog cholera, foot and mouth disease, and anthrax. Liver parasites, trichinosis, and hog lice also affect wild hogs. Feral hogs also transmit pseudorabies (which affects the respiratory and digestive systems) which is fatal to domestic livestock and pets.

Adult mortality in feral hogs is limited to accident, age, starvation, disease, and parasites. After a feral hog reaches four months of age few predators will attempt to kill one, due to their herding behavior. Feral hogs live an average of five years, and began to reproduce at eight months, and can produce two litters of 6 to 11 piglets (with a 1 to 1 male to female ratio) each time. If the range conditions are bad, the sows will eat the young.

Spanish settlers introduced European swine to Texas in the 1730s. Anglo settlers later did so as well. The hogs were usually free-ranged – let loose to forage for themselves until a communal hog drive occurred after winter weather set in. In the 1930s Russian boars were introduced by sport hunters which began crossbreeding with the feral European hogs. Very few true European hogs, if any, remain wild in Texas, replaced by the crossbreed. A mature crossbred feral hog stands three feet tall and can weigh over 400 pounds.

Hogs have four continuously growing tusks (two on top, two on bottom). The tusks are continually sharpened by their contact. They are omnivorous, feeding on grasses, forbs, roots and tubers, mast (acorns), bulbs, mushrooms, insects, snails, earthworms, reptiles, fawns, armadillos, young lambs and goats, amphibians, bird eggs, and carrion. In more xeric regions (the Llano Estacado and the Rolling Plains) animal matter dominates their diet. They destroy agricultural crops such as corn, milo, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, watermelons, and cantaloupe. Feral hogs feed at night and the crepuscular hours (twilight), but in cold or wet weather will feed in the day.

Hogs root. Rooting takes place over a large area, and can sometimes cause holes up to three feet deep. In dry West Texas, feral hogs have destroyed springs by wallowing and then compacting the soil until the spring becomes inactive. A sounder of hogs can tear up three to four acres of cropland in one night. They will destroy hay bales, livestock supplements, and damage water systems and fences. Hogs also rub. Rubs are made as hogs scratch themselves on tree trunks, telephone poles, fence posts, and rocks, leaving behind mud and hair. The height of the rub indicates the size of the hog. Hog tracks are rounder than deer tracks and the dewclaw marks point outwards. Hog scat is dropped in small piles, appearing like that of a cow calf, and not in pellets like deer. Hog hair is left in barbed wire fences and is coarse and easily identified.

Hog hunting is growing in popularity. A hog lease costs 100-175 dollars, as opposed to hundreds to thousands of dollars for a deer lease. Some hunters bait an area with water soaked corn that is fermented (sourmash) and then buried underground in old chlorox bottles (Hog traps are baited with the foul-smelling mixture, too.). Night hunting with a spotlight is also popular, but the hunter should inform the local game warden. Some folks have special well trained “hog dogs” that track the swine down. Bowhunters, muzzleloader enthusiasts, and even powerful handgun enthusiasts go after feral hogs. Dedicated hunters can hunt feral hogs year-around, though many folks believe that the danger of disease transmission is greater during the growing months and refuse to hunt when it is warm.

I have met several ranchers that carry a rifle to shoot any hog seen as they make the rounds on their ranch. Barefoot Bob Richardson of Abilene has made a name in West Texas, using pit bulls to capture feral hogs alive, then using his bare hands to tie their legs. He made $28,000 selling feral hog meat in 2005. Frontier Meats of Fort Worth sells Richardson’s prey to the organic meats industry. Every landowner can make a hog trap (and simple plans are available on the Internet.)

Feral hogs are found in Midland County, too, having been seen just west of Green Tree and southeast of Greenwood. Generations of adaptation have made feral hogs into a survivor. We will probably never eradicate feral hogs.

Related: Photo Essay