Destructive Feral Pigs Find Large Parts of the South to Be Hog Heaven

At 2 o’clock in the morning recently, Staff Sgt. Mark Atkins found himself in his front yard--safely near the front door in case he had to dart inside--throwing rocks at the two wild hogs that were furiously rooting up his flower beds.

Atkins is used to abundant wildlife at his home on the Robins Air Force Base here in central Georgia, a 7,000-acre expanse buffered by woodlands that reach to the Ocmulgee River. It is common for raccoons and deer to appear in his yard, and a neighbor once spied a small black bear. But wild hogs, single-minded in their pursuit of grub worms among Atkins’ four o’clocks, were an unsettling sight.

“I stayed as far away as I could,” said Atkins, 38, whose encounters this summer with the hogs are the first in his 4 1/2 years on the base. “They were reluctant to go. They tend to move on to greener pastures and then come back later that night and make a big mess.”

Atkins’ lawn--which had won two “Yard of the Month” awards--is no longer competitive after a series of nighttime visits from the vandals. It looks as if someone ran through it with a plow. Atkins also thinks there is another reason to beware of the hogs, and has warned his neighbors who might venture out at night: The boars, which can weigh 300 pounds, have been known to charge people, wielding tusks that can be three inches long.

Wild hogs, or feral hogs, as they are called, are becoming an increasing nuisance, even a danger, in large parts of the South. Fertile and prone to large litters, with no natural predators, they are showing up in droves in marshes, swamplands and along creeks in Georgia, the Carolinas, the Florida panhandle and even central Florida --anyplace that makes a good spot to wallow and forage for food.

As housing developments are going up alongside wooded areas, hog encounters with people are becoming more frequent, and recent drought conditions have compounded the problem. The hogs, already nomadic, are ranging farther afield in their search for a meal and a mud bath, seeking out the watered lawns, manicured golf courses and irrigated farms of civilization.

In Chesterfield County, S.C., for the last couple of years, farmers found that hungry hogs had plucked seed corn right out of the rows, then came back to select from the replanted crop just as it was about to be harvested. Hunters were summoned to trap the hogs, even granted special permits to hunt at night, but made only a dent in their numbers, estimated to be in the hundreds.

At Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle, the wild hogs have so disturbed the landscape that biologists are worried about the impact on salamanders, turtle nests, the more than 250 plant species--some of them unique and even threatened--and the system of streams and watering holes. For the first time, a formal control plan is being developed, and a study to quantify the damage is about to be undertaken by the University of West Florida.

And here at Robins Air Force Base, just south of Macon, the hogs have destroyed flower beds and other landscaping, blithely excavated the base golf course, and endangered pilots landing and taking off on the airfield with their sudden appearances in groups of 30 or 40. After making an effort to trap them, base officials recently declared a special hunting season, open until Sept. 10 for military and civilian employees of the base and their guests. Control is such a problem that the base may have to invest in expensive fences, said Bob Sargent, natural resources manager for the base. “This is not something that happened overnight, and it is not going to go away immediately,” Sargent said. “Our goal is to keep their numbers low enough so they don’t threaten our aircraft--or our biodiversity.”

Although hogs may seem as American as a barnyard, they are not a native North American species, Sargent said. Brought here by Christopher Columbus and other early explorers, he said, they were distributed primarily from Virginia to Texas and remain largely a southern phenomenon. However, parts of the Hawaiian Islands have been overrun by the creatures for years.

Today’s versions of the hogs can resemble the domestic variety, with black spots on white, for example, or sport a more fearsome look resembling a razorback. Many have a mane of stiff brown or near-black hair, longer, pointier snouts and a leaner, meaner visage. They will eat anything from acorns to small mammals.

Hunting the wild hogs, often using bows and arrows, bulldogs or knives, has become a popular sport in the last few years. Veteran hunters have a healthy respect for the animals and their skill at dodging capture by outfoxing their pursuers--leading dogs through a wily zigzag chase through moonlit fields--and fighting tooth and nail once surrounded.

“I’ve hunted all my life--big cats, black bear in the mountains--but the hog is the most fierce and challenging to hunt,” said Elvan Helms, 51, of Monroe, N.C. “A hog, he is a vicious man--he has no fear about him.” Helms, with others, was called upon to clear out the hog population in nearby Chesterfield County, S.C.

“I’ve been hit by one one time and it was nasty, on the shinbone, took quite a few stitches,” Helms said. “It charged me, and I couldn’t get out of the way. The way they fight, they sling their heads from side to side. I’ve lost, Lord, I can’t count the dogs.”

At Eglin, near Fort Walton Beach, home to the Army Ranger School and Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal School, the 465,000-acre spread is only slightly smaller than the state of Rhode Island and the wild hogs are thriving there, roaming and rooting at will and changing the shapes and conditions of creeks and streams.

Because nearly half the base is devoted to test missions, hunting is off-limits in many areas. Using experimental traps, 50 hogs were captured recently, but that is only a small dent in the numbers, said base wildlife biologist Carl Petrick, who is devising a five-year management plan.

“I don’t know any benefit they do to the ecosystem,” Petrick said. “I’ve never heard anybody say anything positive about them.”

At Robins, Atkins has heard one positive thing about the wild hogs --they make good eating, producing leaner meat than their domesticated cousins. But he would just as soon pass, he said.