Hunters are urged to target wild pigs

The feral pigs are devouring crops and digging large holes in fields.
By Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
MILWAUKEE -- They're ornery. They're ugly. They're hungry.
Wild pigs are intelligent, agile, nocturnal and elusive. The Department of Natural Resources is encouraging hunters to shoot the destructive, non-native animals.
And their numbers are growing in Wisconsin.
Feral pigs -- a shaggy, sharp-tusked, mean-spirited version of domestic porkers -- are becoming a problem in Wisconsin. They are now found in at least 29 counties here, and wildlife officials are hoping that hunters heading into the woods this fall to capture more common game will take aim at wild pigs.
The Department of Natural Resources has printed up wanted posters featuring a photo of a sauntering, scruffy-looking wild pig so those venturing into the outdoors will know what to look for.
"Seeing as how they're not from Wisconsin, we'd like to keep them out," DNR wildlife biologist Eric Mark said recently.
How did this start?
Though wild boars were first documented in Wisconsin in 2000, no one is quite sure when or how they arrived. Biologists theorize they escaped from game farms or were illegally stocked in the wild. The few that staked a cloven foothold on Wisconsin have multiplied almost like rabbits.
Just how many are snorting and rooting around Wisconsin is anyone's guess, though DNR officials say it's probably hundreds. Since the gestation period of pigs -- both wild and domestic -- is three months, three weeks and three days, they can produce litters of as many as a dozen piglets several times a year. Sows can begin breeding when they're 6 months old.
Crawford County in southwestern Wisconsin seems to be porcine ground zero. DNR wildlife biologist Dave Matheys estimates there are 100 to 200 feral pigs in Crawford County, where they destroy corn, soybean and hay fields while scrounging for food.
They also destroy habitat and farm fields by digging big holes that fill up with water so they can flop in the mud and stay cool.
Hunters and landowners have killed 145 wild pigs in Crawford County in the last three years.
They're not picky eaters. Wild hogs snack on bird eggs and birds sitting in their nests including songbirds, grouse and turkeys. They dine on fawns and small mammals. They noisily nibble acorns, nuts and berries. They gobble apples, corn, soybean and hay. They munch reptiles and amphibians.
"It doesn't take long for a feral pig to get in and dig up the corn and soybeans, even hayfields," said state Rep. Lee Nerison, a Republican who represents Crawford, Vernon and parts of Monroe and Richland counties. "They'll get in and root them up like someone with a chisel plow."
Nerison's office gets complaints from farmers fed up with pigs treating their farm fields like delicatessens. Feral pigs typically use their snouts like a pickax and a shovel, digging up corn plants and whatever else strikes their fancy.
Though feral pigs can tip the scales at up to 800 pounds, those found here average 125 to 150 pounds, with a few weighing in at 300 pounds.
Another concern
Going so far as calling wild pigs "disease factories," state officials are worried the feral animals will infect native wildlife and livestock with any of the 13 diseases they carry such as brucellosis, tuberculosis, bubonic plague and trichinosis. Of the wild pigs shot and killed so far, none has been found infected.
Aside from coyotes which might prey on piglets, there are no predators willing to take on feral pigs, which can use their tusks like two daggers and run fairly fast. They're intelligent, agile, nocturnal and elusive. That's why the DNR is encouraging humans to shoot them.
"The food they're looking for is the same food our native wildlife species are looking for," said Pat Beringer, a DNR wildlife biologist in Price County. "It's important that we stay on top of this and hunters are informed of the negative aspects these animals can have on the environment."
Since they're considered unprotected wild species, feral pigs can be shot by anyone who buys a small game license. Landowners don't need a license to shoot them on their property.
It's open season on feral pigs year round at any time of day, with the only restrictions during the nine-day gun-deer season in November. There's no limit to the number of pigs a hunter or landowner can shoot.