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Great Smoky Mountains National Park battling infestation of hogs
WRAL ^ | January 24, 2010

Posted on 01/24/2010 6:30:19 PM PST by NCjim

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — National park biologists are trying to come to grips with a hog infestation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

In 2009, the park's hog team removed 620 wild hogs, the third highest since the hog control program started in the late 1950s. Biologists say the hog population spiked last year because of a bountiful mast crop that enabled the sows to produce more than one litter.

Park biologist Bill Stiver told the Knoxville News-Sentinel the introduction of wild, semi-domesticated hogs into the park has made hog control even more difficult.

"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."

He said numerous hogs killed this year had spotted markings and curly tails associated with domestic pigs.

"We're getting a handful of animals that morphologically look different from our traditional wild boar," Stiver said. "Some of them act different, too. Instead of running away, they let you walk up to them."

Hogs in the park date to the early 1920s, when a herd of European hogs escaped from a game reserve on Hooper's Bald in the mountains of Graham County, N.C. The wild hogs moved into the park by the 1940s and began to wreak havoc on the ecosystem by eating rare plants and salamanders, defecating in streams and turning up the ground.

Biologists believe the wild hogs that invaded the park already had crossed with free-ranging domestic pigs. Their appearance, however, retained the lean hips, large tusks, straight tails and black hair of their European ancestors.

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: hogs; nationalparks; wildlife
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To: don-o

I think I found where your Pings went...


41 posted on 01/24/2010 7:05:55 PM PST by tubebender (Freeploaders = The illegal aliens on Free Republic)
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To: tubebender

LOL! (yes, I lurked that thread) :^)


42 posted on 01/24/2010 7:10:01 PM PST by eyedigress ( now.ical)
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To: NCjim; AT7Saluki
You can't keep her outta state?


43 posted on 01/24/2010 7:15:45 PM PST by Libloather (Tea totaler, PROUD birther, mobster, pro-lifer, anti-warmer, enemy of the state, extremist....)
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To: NCjim; All; proud_yank; Grammy

I live near the park.

To answer all your questions, these populations of European wild boars were established before the park was, when they were imported and kept on a hunting preserve nearby.

They have no predators to keep the populations in check, so the numbers have exploded. The hogs also move into the nearby Cherokee National Forest, where they can be hunted.

The U.S. Park Service has very few properties where hunting is allowed, and the Smokies doesn’t allow it. Therefore the USPS, which is always whining about needing more money, has to pay sharpshooters to thin these, when they could charge permit fees and let the public do it.

I think this biologist is WAY off base suggesting hunters are releasing domestic pigs to breed with these. There are not enough hunters to hunt these now, and they are plentiful in the Cumberland Plateau and public hunting areas all over the eastern part of Tennessee.

Therefore, boar hunting guide operations have increased (along with the hog population) up on the Cumberland Plateau. But still more needs to be done. These are being very destructive to the native flora and fawna in the Smokies, but political correctness will never allow the problem there to be solved.


44 posted on 01/24/2010 7:18:01 PM PST by girlangler (Fish Fear Me)
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To: Billthedrill

People are made of meat.


45 posted on 01/24/2010 7:23:29 PM PST by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: 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...

I've heard this aptly labeled "weapons grade stupid".

46 posted on 01/24/2010 7:23:37 PM PST by 6SJ7 (atlasShruggedInd = TRUE)
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To: NCjim

47 posted on 01/24/2010 7:27:26 PM PST by agrace
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To: mamelukesabre
People are made of meat.

Yeah. Happy hunting.

48 posted on 01/24/2010 7:27:41 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: girlangler

I live just off the Stones River now in Rutherford Co. and if one dares venture in my sight it is one dead animal.


49 posted on 01/24/2010 7:27:46 PM PST by eyedigress ( now.ical)
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To: School of Rational Thought

If shot with a large enough gun, hogs can be spread - sometimes a few feet.

;-)


50 posted on 01/24/2010 7:31:27 PM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principles,)
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To: razorback-bert

“My pig is prettier!”

Perhaps, but we spotted you putting lipstick on it.

;-)


51 posted on 01/24/2010 7:33:56 PM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principles,)
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To: Rudder

We get it from my grandson. He traps them in large cages and has it processed so I doubt he would know any recipe, sorry.

They are on his ranch in east TX.
He says they are plentiful but very destructive to the land.


52 posted on 01/24/2010 7:37:17 PM PST by TribalPrincess2U (demonicRATS ... taxes, pain and slow death. Is this what you want?)
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To: Svartalfiar

Its not even the ole Smokies anymore...the signs tell you it is the United Nations Biosphere G.S.M.


53 posted on 01/24/2010 7:37:24 PM PST by Monterrosa-24 (...even more American than a French bikini and a Russian AK-47.)
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To: agrace
Touche'



Be careful....

54 posted on 01/24/2010 7:38:40 PM PST by eyedigress ( now.ical)
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To: driftdiver

Same here in Arkansas. They do a lot of damage. A couple guys at work went on a hunt on a guys farm and got 43 in one morning.


55 posted on 01/24/2010 7:49:14 PM PST by Angry_White_Man_Syndrome
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To: NCjim

Helicopter boar hunting porn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiHmYsyVniE


56 posted on 01/24/2010 7:50:04 PM PST by Hammerhead
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To: eyedigress
I agree whole heartedly. The NPS is chock full of government worker gun hating tree huggers. The deer are so thick that they have a severe outbreak of EHD about every 7-10 years that kills hundreds of them. Opening the season from late December to February would be a boon and it is the time of the season where visitation to the park is decreased significantly. Managing the wildlife with organized hunting would be the most efficient and humane method.
57 posted on 01/24/2010 7:53:53 PM PST by vetvetdoug (FUBO, a fashion statement for conservatives.)
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To: KoRn

I am not hunting boars with my AR, you go ahead. I will be taking alone something a little bigger.


58 posted on 01/24/2010 8:00:53 PM PST by ClayinVA ("Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it")
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To: NCjim

Personally, I think we have a nation-wide pork problem.


59 posted on 01/24/2010 8:02:22 PM PST by fightinJAG (Largest wing in future Obama Presidential Library will be devoted to Bush & Cheney)
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To: NCjim

Ok. So why isn’t hunting allowed in the Smokeys?


60 posted on 01/24/2010 8:06:54 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (Marsha Coakley's been teabagged. Congrats Scott Brown! Mary Jo finally got even.)
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