Helicopter Pig Hunting Feral Hog Blog

Three years ago some of my colleagues and I spent every week checking and rechecking an electric fence we hoped would keep wild pigs out. We were conducting a horticultural study with 1,600 fresh and tender ornamental plants grown over the course of a year. Unfortunately for us, our small plot was not far from…

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are notorious for their ability to learn from past experiences and evade control efforts. Groups of wild pigs that are not pressured often increase their diurnal activity and become more active during the day time (Gundlach 1967). However, as abatement pressures increase wild pigs can alter their behavior to become more…

Written by Shelby McCay, Texas A&M University, WFSC ’15 and MNRD ’19 Edited by Josh Helcel, Extension Associate, Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute Wallowing is defined as coating the body surface with mud or a mud-like substance and while this behavior is not found exclusively in wild pigs (Sus scrofa) (rhinos, elephants, bovids and deer…

The first mention of an upcoming operation to kill wild hogs from a helicopter on Di-Lane Plantation WMA piqued my interest instantly. That first mention came from one of my wife’s cousins. He has property adjacent to Di-Lane and had just signed a release to allow his property to be included in the targeted area.…

They are four-footed eating, breeding, rooting machines. Feral hogs are an invasive species present in at least 35 states, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. They cause billions of dollars in crop damage each year, and their rooting causes widespread and lasting environmental damage, according to the USDA. The porcine population bomb is…

Its peach picking time in Texas and that means hungry feral hogs are looking for an easy meal! Welcome and come along on this journey of a trapping effort to abate feral hog damage to a commercial peach orchard near the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton. Dr. Billy Higginbotham, Professor and Extension…

Now that we have an idea of how many hogs are visiting the bait site at any one time (about 12 to 15 hogs maximum in one photograph), it’s time to begin Phase II, trap construction. Several tips to consider on trap construction include: * Tear-drop shape to facilitate loading hogs into a trailer for…

Images collected from our remote cameras from July 22-27 indicated that the hogs were finally venturing, as a group of about 8 to 10, deeper and deeper into the trap. There were still several smaller “satellite groups” that continued to make up the late shift arriving at the peach buffet. From the very beginning of…

By July 28th, the largest sounder of hogs was hooked on the peaches placed inside the trap and were more than willing to feed all the way into the back of the trap. However, because of scheduling issues, the decision was made to delay setting the trap to catch until Sunday, August 1st, even though…

The first dozen hogs were trapped on the night of August 1st but that is not the end of our trapping journey. We know from camera images recorded during the pre-baiting phase that there are still several small pods of hogs responding to bait—as well as a couple of rather large solitary boars that have…