Wild hogs do an estimated $50 million a year to Alabama agriculture. Feral swine are not native to Alabama. There is nothing native to Alabama living in the wild that makes its living preying on wild hogs. There are an estimated 255,000 hogs living in the wild in Alabama, and humans are the only check on their continued spread.
There is federal money available through the 2018 Farm Bill to help farmers, ranchers, and landowners control the feral swine problem. The Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee was awarded funds from the 2018 Farm Bill to provide financial and technical assistance to Alabama producers through the Alabama Feral Swine Control Program.
The program provides a 70% rebate, up to $12,000, on hog traps and other eligible trapping equipment to approved producers. Producers may also choose to have USDA’s Wildlife Services conduct free trapping on their property.
There is no bag limit on wild hogs. Alabama hunters can legally hunt hogs seven days a week, all 365 days of the year. They can apply for special licenses to hunt hogs with bait, at night when it is not deer season, and they are allowed to shoot every hog they can see. Despite this, hunting has proven largely ineffective at controlling wild hogs. Hogs quickly learn they are being hunted and adapt to the pressure. Sows have ten to twenty pigs annually, so they can absorb losses far more easily than other game species. Hunters are generally interested in a trophy boar or some meat in the freezer, not eradicating the next generation of pigs.
Effective trapping done right allows a landowner to severely impact the hog population on a property. Simply put, feed is provided to the wild hogs. They get accustomed to eating the feed in the pen, and once the whole herd becomes accustomed to visiting the hog feeder every day, a trap door is installed in the system. The trap is sprung, and they are all trapped in a pen. All of the trapped pigs must be killed.
It is illegal to transport a live feral hog in Alabama. Some hunting clubs in the past have trapped hogs and then transported them to areas where there was a small population or have released Russian Wild Boars into the Alabama feral hog population to improve the hunting experience and increase the size of the hogs. That only spread the hogs further and increased the size of the problem that Alabama is facing. Any transport of a live wild hog is now illegal, and anyone with information about such activity should report that to Alabama Fish and Game Officers.
A hog-trapping program should include wildlife monitoring. Trail cameras are widely available and far superior to what was available commercially 20 years ago. The key to an effective trapping program is to know not how many hogs you removed from the property but rather how many you left on the property. If you remove half the hogs, their population will return to what it was in less than a year, and they will have learned from the experience.
To find out if you’re eligible, call your local Feral Swine Coordinator or fill out an Info Request form.
Feral swine cause more than agricultural damage, hogs are omnivorous, so in addition to eating crops, they prey on nesting turkeys, quail, fawns, and reptiles and pollute the water by wallowing in creeks and streams.
Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto brought the first hogs to Alabama in 1540, and they have been multiplying here ever since. With fewer but larger farmers and fewer hunters than a generation or two ago, controlling the invasive species has become much harder. The Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee needs your help to control the feral swine population in order to decrease the damages they cause.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
