Posted on 01/02/2024 5:56:32 AM PST by Red Badger
Pack of feral pigs caught on camera damaging lawns in Bexar County neighborhood
VIDEO AT LINK.............
A pack of 10 wild hogs rooted up several lawns in a Bexar County neighborhood over the holiday weekend.
The pigs were caught on camera damaging multiple yards as they used their snouts to forage for underground food.
The neighborhood, located about three miles south of SeaWorld, was hit a few weeks earlier, resulting in major damage to multiple yards. One of the homes that was initially hit had its yard completely uprooted.
The more recent incursion left damage to at least four properties.
Both instances included homes that were near wooded areas on the edge of the subdivision.
Damage caused by wild hogs in a far West Side neighborhood. (KSAT)
The neighborhood was built less than a decade ago, and development around the area is happening faster than the wildlife can relocate.
Wild boars are invasive pests known for causing tens of millions of dollars worth of agriculture damage across Texas each year, according to the Texas A&M Wildlife Extension. More than 2 million hogs are estimated to be in the Lone Star State.
Hogs are often referred to as opportunistic omnivores because they will eat just about anything. However, they often search underground for grubs, insects, acorns or roots, causing major damage in the process.
Billy Higginbotham, professor and extension wildlife fishery specialist for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, previously told me that the animals not only destroy crops, pastures, parks and athletic fields, they also transmit diseases to other animals, create problems for water quality and cause crashes on highways.
The animals were introduced to Texas about a century ago by hunters. Because they have no natural predators here and one of the highest reproductive rates of any large mammal in the world, their population has proliferated, growing faster than they can be killed, trapped or poisoned by humans.
As more and more development happens on the outskirts of major Texas cities like San Antonio, the hogs are moving around more often and are frequently spotted in neighborhoods.
What to do if you encounter a wild hog
Here's a look at how dangerous feral hogs are and what should you do if you encounter one. Though physical attacks by wild boars are rare, according to Texas A&M researchers, a Southeast Texas woman was killed in her front yard back a pack of pigs in 2019.
Texas Parks and Wildlife warns that any wild animal has “the potential of being dangerous, especially when wounded or cornered.” TPW said feral hogs’ speed and razor-sharp tusks can cause serious injury.
Wyatt Walton, owner of Lone Star Trapping in Central Texas, previously told KSAT’s Tiffany Huertas his company catches thousands of hogs a year, and they can become aggressive if you put them in a corner or trap them.
“When they’re trapped for the first time in their lives, they’re mad. They’re trying to come through metal cages to get us,” Walton said.
Walton said if you find yourself in front of a feral hog, treat it like a bear.
“I wouldn’t try to run at them and scare them,” Walton said. “They’ve got to fight or flight, and if you run right up and just try to scare a big boar, he’s territorial. He’s going to defend his ground.”
Clifford Porter, who lives near Culebra Road and Grissom Pass on the West Side, told Huertas in 2019 that a group of hogs destroyed his front yard.
Since then, he’s invested in technology to keep them away.
“I put up some sirens. I put up some motion detectors,” Porter said.
Porter said the community has also stepped up. The HOA has hired a trapper.
“From what I’ve seen over the last week or so, they’ve trapped about seven of them,” Porter said.
Was there a Hillary Clinton rally going on there?
Not accurate. Feral hogs have been in Texas since the conquistadors introduced them in the 1500s.
Pork was a staple of the people who tamed Texas. You find them mostly in the east and south of the state. They are not desert animals.
Perhaps the feral hogs are to Texas what iguanas are to Florida, except hogs do more property damage.
Maybe Colorado can donate some of those wolves recently re-introduced to their state over to Texas, to serve as predators to the hogs.
True, the wild hogs of the Southeastern USA are descendants of the pigs that escaped from DeSoto’s and DeLeon’s explorations....................
I doubt wolves would do much predating..............
Good movie!................
Many were deliberatly let go to establish a food supply for the Spanish explorers.
One notable trip credited with numerous hog introductions was Hernando De Soto’s expedition across the southeastern United states from Florida to Texas. De Soto’s expedition was supplied with hogs from free ranging populations in Cuba. During his expedition, De Soto regularly left groups of pigs behind due to escape, capture, and so that there would be food sources for their return journey. De Soto’s expedition arrived in Texas in 1542, where they set up multiple camps losing pigs at each one.
A secondary consequence of this was the destruction of Southeastern Indian tribes food crops. The Indian tribes of the Southeast, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creak and Seminoles, among others, were primarily land subsistence farming growing corn, squash, melons, peas and beans. The hogs uprooted many of the tribes fields creating sudden famines.............
Silly humans.
</sarcasm>
Pigs reproduce rapidly, but it would take a while for them to increase to the point this would happen. The tribes learned to eat pigs pretty quickly, too.
In general, introducing an exotic species can have lots of effects.
Are they sure those are “wild hogs”. The border is being overrun with sanctuary seekers right now.
All of these people live in an HOA. Let them deal with it and the hogs will be out of there by the weekend. s/
In the past 2 days I have learned that San Antonio has a spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks display and a Sea World.
Oh, and pigs.
And thus Barbecue was born!.................
WILD pigs!...........................
The HOA Karens will notified the homeowners that they are violation of HOA rules by sheltering and feeding swine on their property.
Feral hogs are like rats, only much more destructive. They breed like flies and eat everything in their path.
In Texas, it is legal to shoot them any time of the year, without a hunting license. They are good for target practice and not much else.
Hog Owners Association.........................
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