Shoot-on-sight!

[Lee Borgersen]

  -on-sight order on Wisconsin feral hogs.

Sep 4, 2015

  ...
Two recent and credible reports of feral hogs running wild in the woods of Washburn County spurred the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on Friday to remind hunters and landowners to shoot the animals on sight.
 
 
"Go ahead and poke them. We want them dead as soon as possible," Mike Zeckmeister, DNR wildlife supervisor in Spooner.

  ......
Zeckmeister said the wild hogs can cause severe damage to the forest. The pigs also can carry disease, damage wildlife habitat, compete with native wildlife for food, cause crop damage and even threaten human safety, the DNR notes.

The animals, which can grow to several hundred pounds, can either be wild boars escaped from game farms or, in some cases, domestic pigs that escape and turn wild.

"They physically change, they get hairy and grow tusks and everything. And they definitely can survive a Wisconsin winter,'' Zeckmeister said.

Most notable features include coarse hair with long bristles, elongated snouts and moderately long, uncurled tails. They are usually black, but also can be gray, brown, blonde, white or even reddish to spotted.

The DNR gets occasional reports of wild pigs on the loose in northern Wisconsin. The Washburn reports from August are the only recent ones, Zeckmeister said. But reports have come from Douglas, Polk, Burnett, Taylor and Oneida counties in the past decade, he said. Several hunters worked together to track and kill a giant wild hog in Polk County two years ago, he said.

No license or permit is required to shoot the pigs on your own property, but a small game or deer hunting license is needed on public land. Whoever shoots them can keep the meat "and it's pretty good, I'm told,'' Zeckmeister said.

"The goal is, with hunting seasons coming up, that if someone is in their bow stand they won't hesitate, wondering if they can shoot them. Go ahead and do it," he said. "An ounce of prevention here can help a lot."

If you cannot kill the wild pig, the DNR asks that you contact a local DNR wildlife biologist.

In July 2001, several wild pigs escaped from a game farm in northern Douglas County by rooting under a fence. At least one was shot by a local landowner, but several were never accounted for.

It is illegal to operate a captive feral pig hunting facility in Wisconsin. It is also illegal to stock feral pigs for hunting purposes, to release hogs into the wild or to possess live feral hogs without a permit.

For more information, or to report feral pigs online, go to dnr.wi.gov and search keywords "feral pigs."


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[gophergunner]

 :taz:Too danged close!  Have there been any reports here in Minnesota?

[Lee Borgersen]

:taz:Too danged close!  Have there been any reports here in Minnesota?

Note: this part here is a 2010 report

Introduction:
Since their introduction to North America, wild pigs have become one of the more serious wildlife problems in the
United States. Today, wild pigs are both numerous and widespread throughout North America, occurring in at least
39 U.S. states. The current distribution of wild pigs in the Midwest is seen in Figure 1.
Wild pigs are opportunistic omnivores that feed primarily by rooting and grazing, which contributes to their role as a
problematic species in North America and elsewhere. Rooting, trampling, and compaction influence plant
regeneration, community structure, soil properties, nutrient cycling, and water infiltration. Wild pigs may induce the
spread of invasive plant species because invasive species typically favor disturbed areas and colonize more quickly
than many native plants.
In addition to ecosystem impacts, wild pigs can damage timber, pastures, and, especially, agricultural crops. A
conservative estimate of wild pig damage to agricultural crops and the environment in the United States is $1.5
billion annually.
Wild pigs are capable of carrying numerous parasites and diseases that potentially threaten the health of humans,
livestock, and wildlife. Humans can be infected by several of these, including diseases such as brucellosis,
leptospirosis, salmonellosis, toxoplasmosis, sarcoptic mange, E. coli, and trichinosis. Diseases of significance to
livestock and other animals include pseudorabies, swine brucellosis, tuberculosis, vesicular stomatitis, and classical
swine fever.
Terminology (Figure 2) from Wild Pigs in the United States, John J. Mayer and I. Lehr Brisbin, Jr, 1991.
Feral swine (Sus scrofa) are pigs from populations of wild-living Sus scrofa with a domestic ancestry; these include
recently escaped or released animals and animals from populations that have been wild for more than one
generation.
Wild or wild-living swine (Sus scrofa) are any form of free-ranging pigs and can include Eurasian wild boar, feral
hogs, or hybrids between these two.
Domestic swine (Sus scrofa domesticus) are pigs from populations of domesticated forms of Sus scrofa existing
under some form of conscious artificial selection by man other than by hunting and trapping.
Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa ssp.) refers to specific breeds of pigs from populations of wild-living Sus scrofa
native to the Palearctic, Oriental, or Ethiopian realms which have no history of domestication in their ancestry; these
include all subspecies of Sus scrofa except Sus scrofa domesticus.
Issue
One case of pigs running at large was reported in Big Stone County Minnesota, where damage to native vegetation
was documented. Several of these pigs were killed by deer hunters. These pigs were not Eurasian wild boars or
hybrids, rather they were pot-bellied pigs. Damage to vegetation consistent with wild pig behavior has been reported
in Goodhue County Minnesota, but no wild pigs were ever identified. Feral pigs populations have been identified in
Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Iowa,