Great Smoky Mountains National Park battling infestation of hogs

WRAL ^ | January 24, 2010

[mamelukesabre]

What, besides a grizzly bear, can kill and eat a boar? Seems to me wild pig infestations are serious problems.

[eyedigress]

Here is a word for word on the Park. (ca.1981)


Enter now the European wild boar. Its history in the Smokies is another classic example, along with the chestnut blight fungus, balsam wooly aphid, Norway rat, starling, and a hosts of other pests, of the damage that can be done by introducing an organism to territory outside its normal range.

The wild boars in the Smokies are believed to be the descendants of animals, purportedly of stock from Germany, that escaped from a game preserve on Hooper Bald, southwest of Fontana Lake in the early 1920's.

Sounds like somebody's class project to me.

[Billthedrill]

Last I heard they had a feller or two in Tennessee who knew how to shoot. Good grief, this isn't hard - the beasties are edible. (Had some wild boar over pasta with a huckleberry reduction at a local restaurant last month. Salivating just thinking about it.)

If we weren't intended to hunt them why are they made of meat?

[coldoc]

“It simply amazes me that the government hasn’t figured out that hunters will PAY for the privilege of controlling the population. But nooooooo ...”

Texas has! Big business down here...

[umgud]

Since hunting isn't allowed in the Smokies, the park employs a seasonal hog control team that keeps the population in check through hunting and trapping.

Right there's the problem. Everybody bitches about hogs, but hang no hunting signs.

[School of Rational Thought]

The so-called biologists claim that hunting hogs spreads their population.

[Lurker]

It takes a real special kind of stupid to wonder why since hunting was banned the invasive species population skyrockets. A Federal kind of stupid...

[vetvetdoug]

In 1977-1979 I worked on a project that involved the NPS, the Wildlife Department of the University of Tennessee, and the Army Reserve where we spent weekends counting the wildlife in the backwoods of the Smokies. We were allowed to carry a .45 and given the freedom to shoot any European Wild boars we came across. We only got three the whole time because they would run the minute we were detected. Even then the European Wild boars were tearing up the less inhabited and traveled areas of the GSNP. I learned how to really read a compass and practice minimum impact camping well. We camped wherever we ended up at dark and sometimes it was on the edge of some really nasty dropoffs. Greatest job for which I was ever paid.

[jimpick]

Yeah with a big enough rifle blood and bone goes every where. And it could spead to the grill to.

[School of Rational Thought]

Hogs are a situation where semi-autos would be appropriate for hunts. When there is a pack of them, it is in the interest of the ecology to wipe them all out.

Although 5.56 might be enough for hogs.

[pennyfarmer]

Not to hijack the thread or anything but. I was hoping that they would have shot their director of natural resources from a few years back. If you are local to the Smokey Mountains you might know who I am talking about.

[scrabblehack]

The movie Hannibal was filmed partly in Asheville NC (probably an hour or so from the NC side of GSM)

I don’t blame the Biltmore Estate for not signing their name to the credits.

There’s a rather graphic scene featuring wild hogs.

[dalebert]

Donate to FR please

[Paladin2]

Round them up and drop them off in Mecca and Tehran.

[Outlaw Woman]

Unfortunately, we are in an age of ‘you can’t fix “stupid”. This is where we have to do ‘what’s best’ in spite of stupid. Think of how many families that could be fed... sheesh

[razorback-bert]

My pig is prettier!

[Smokin' Joe]

"The speculation is that hunters are illegally releasing feral pigs that eventually make their way inside the park," Stiver said. "It's a major problem not just here, but all over North America."

Projection?

I have long suspected the rapid spread of cougar in the intermountain west and Northern Plains was 'aided' by releases of breeding pairs.

Some genetics would clear up just how closely related these animals are, and whether they were seeded.

[eyedigress]

I’ve seen your posts on your “great” experience in the mountains. As you know boars are one tough SOB and attack anything. They should open season in the park. There are enough folks around that would go for it.

[maine-iac7]

I think they need to round them all up and send them to Washington,

I think the problem is that too many hogs have already made ti to Washington

[driftdiver]

Hunting won’t even solve the problem. Here in Florida they are everywhere and hunting in highly encouraged.