Dozens of feral hogs invade Southeast Texas neighborhood

[Sherman A1]

FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas (KFDM) — Dozens of feral hogs invaded a neighborhood in Fort Bend County and surveillance camera offers the proof.

It didn't take long for the huge pack of feral hogs to do some serious damage to the neighborhood.

https://krcgtv.com/news/offbeat/dozens-of-feral-hogs-invade-southeast-texas-neighborhood

[Scrivener7]

1. Now, listen. I dislike Magats as much as anyone, but this description of them is uncalled for.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Yes! It's a HUGE insult to feral hogs to compare them to MAGAts

[LeftInTX]

3. They're so destructive

In South Texas, they're a mix of Eurasian boars and feral hogs..

Eurasian boars were brought over in the early 20th Century to stock big game hunting ranches and then they escaped...yuck...

Oh well, at least we don't have Pablo Escobar's hippos running around!

Maybe we need to bring in packs of lions to take down the boars!

[DBoon]

4. wouldn't rednecks with guns be cheaper than lions?

[LeftInTX]

5. Yes, but throwing lions into the mix would be exciting!

[Javaman]

6. The feral hogs are descendants of the pigs brought over by the Spanish in the 16th century.

this isn't just a Texas issue. the hogs breed like rabbits and now effect just about every state in the union.

[LeftInTX]

7. Texas is worse because we've got recent big game Russian Boars that have escaped

For about 400 years, the feral hogs roamed remote corners of the state in small family groups. In the 1930s, '40s and '50s, wild Russian boars were imported to Texas for sport hunting. Some of those escaped, too. They quickly started breeding with the feral hogs.

You know how we have all those "Big game ranches"? That's the source..

In the 1930s, Eurasian wild boars were brought to Texas and released for hunting. They bred with free-ranging domestic animals and escapees that had adapted to the wild.

And yet wild hogs were barely more than a curiosity in the Lone Star State until the 1980s. It’s only since then that the population has exploded, and not entirely because of the animals’ intelligence, adaptability and fertility. Hunters found them challenging prey, so wild hog populations were nurtured on ranches that sold hunting leases; some captured hogs were released in other parts of the state. Game ranchers set out feed to attract deer, but wild hogs pilfered it, growing more fecund. Finally, improved animal husbandry reduced disease among domestic pigs, thereby reducing the incidence among wild hogs.

Few purebred Eurasian wild boars are left today, but they have hybridized with feral domestic hogs and continue to spread. All are interchangeably called wild or feral hogs, pigs or boars; in this context, “boar” can refer to a male or female.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-plague-of-pigs-in-texas-73769069/

However, in addition to these new arrivals, it was reported that during the 1930s, the Eurasian or “Russian” boar was introduced to Texas through a stocking of the animal by the Denman family. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) tried to monitor their numbers along the Texas coast in 1945. However, there were also reports of European boars in Central Texas in 1964. At that time, a survey of these animals indicated what were then recognized as “heavy concentrations” in Medina County, in addition to those numbering approximately 400 in Calhoun County and 175 in Bexar County.

This latter report by Al Jackson of the TPWD stated that in 1967, it was estimated by the department that approximately 10K European boars were taking refuge on the Edwards Plateau.
https://texashillcountry.com/texas-feral-hog-origins/

https://www.kingwood.com/msg/wild-russian-boars-invading-texas.php?p=2381282

[Javaman]

8. and the worst thing is: they will never ever go away or be culled enough.

it's the only type of hunting that has no kill limit and I'm okay with that.

they are territorial and very dangerous