Topic: Giant Hog

[Stuart]

A Man, A Plan, A Hog...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/29/opinion/sunday/a-plan-to-poison-the-wild-hogs-of-texas.html

[Rivers]

You have to wonder how the authorities could approve the use of such a dangerous drug as warfarin in the first place. They really must be getting desperate.

What is also strange, to me anyway, are the numbers cited in that article, specifically the pet food guy processing 5000 pigs a month. In my 10 years in central Texas, in many trips out to the hill country, I saw one wild pig in all that time. It ran across the road in front of me as I was driving across Hays County at dusk. I mentioned it to a friend out there and he was surprised, grilled me on where I'd seen it, and commenced to worry about his garden.

[Stuart]

...got a .38 Special, Boys, but I believe it's most too light...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/weird/ct-wild-hog-alabama-20170720-story.html

Apparently the hog didn't think so.

[Kokomo O]

The WaPo story has more meat shakin' on its bones, much like that hog: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/07/20/this-alabama-hunter-shot-and-killed-an-820-pound-hog-after-it-wandered-into-his-front-yard/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-national%3Ahomepage%2Fcard&utm_term=.7ec8e032ad27

[Stuart]

By the looks of that sucker, I would have opted for a Gatlin' gun.

[Rivers]

Meanwhile, things are hotting up in Virginia, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/virginia-acts-to-reduce-population-of-wild-pigs-the-most-invasive-animal-in-us/2013/11/24/aa4077ca-52b9-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.5f3657cbd4e4#comments

Be sure to read the comments at the end.

If you're not a wapo subscriber you will need to go incognito. If you don't know how to do that google is your friend, but in Chrome just right click on the link and select incognito mode.

[Kokomo O]

Thank you, I do subscribe, found I had to, because the Amazon Washington Post's coverage of the new regime in Washington is second to none, but I missed this wonderful article. There's just so much to love here, from the headline description of "the ?most invasive animal? in U.S." to the caption on the first pic characterizing them as "the 'rototillers' of nature," on to the name of the deer and feral hog biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Charlie Killmaster. There's a man who was born for his job. Anyway, the article goes on to observe that "[t]hey eat like hogs," as if we didn't know that. But when you take it all in, what the article really reminds me of is the kind of thing they used to make us read about Communism back in the '60s. Except I'm beginning to think the feral pigs may really take over.

[Stuart]

When my father was in the Army during WWII, he was stationed at Fort Benning GA. He told me wild hogs used to get into the garbage pits. They used to capture them and truck them far enough away from the base so they wouldn?t come back. Several of the local GIs who had experience with them would tie knots in one end of a short length of Manila rope so it could be swung as a weapon. They would get down in the pit and when the hogs came near, they would whack them across the face as close to their eyes as possible. A few whacks and they had all the aggressiveness beat out of them. Then they'd rope them, haul them up, put them into the back of a truck and off they went. In retrospect, I wonder why as guys training for war they didn?t just shoot them, but I guess the Army (or at least whoever was in charge) had its reasons.

[Stuart]

Dumpster diving, giant hog style:

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/02/12/Shocked-witness-films-massive-boar-king-eating-from-dumpster/7951518447568/

[Kokomo O]

I'm surprised that sow didn't knock the dumpster over. I'm also shocked that they've got wild boar in Hong Kong. You'd think the people would've squeezed them all out by now.

[Kokomo O]

More wild boar in the Far East:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/japanese-towns-struggle-to-deal-with-an-influx-of-new-arrivals-wild-boars/2018/03/05/59af237e-1722-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a_story.html?utm_term=.c15a2625a863

[Rivers]

With reports of boars rampaging through the ghost towns around the Fukushima plant, some people worry if the animals are becoming radioactive

LOL. Yes I'd be worried too. Probably worse would be the mutations down the generations.

Status report from here: No wild hogs spotted in the area today, or since we moved here in 2014. I'm keeping a look-out though. Plenty of black bears, no wild pigs as yet.

If they start showing up I will upgrade our arsenal (a 1940's .22 I've never bothered to load let alone fire). I will also put the DIY pig roaster, made from an old fuel oil tank we got for a few bucks on craigslist, into service.

[Mr.OMuck]

Everything old is New again

[Stuart]

Thanks, Kokomo for the link to the interesting article. I also read the linked article in the WaPo story:

https://tinyurl.com/ycm24o6h

And by chance there was one on Fukushima in today's SA Daily Digest:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/clearing-the-radioactive-rubble-heap-that-was-fukushima-daiichi-7-years-on/

And NG had an article on Chernobyl a while back:

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/060418-chernobyl-wildlife-thirty-year-anniversary-science/

Sorry for the thread drift, but it's not totally unrelated to the problems in Japan and the effects on wild boars and other animals in the area affected by the Fukushima reactor meltdown.

[Rivers]

Everything old is New again

Indeed. I watched the whole thing. Good to see some high production values from Nat Geo, who have gone downhill in my estimation in recent years. My estimation is based on the crassness of their website.