Experts Say Recreational Hunting Making Feral Hog Problem Worse
Eugene L. 03.20.25
Feral Hogs are a menace to farmers all over the US, with feral swine causing at least $2.5 billion in damages to crops and farmland annually. While the feral hog first arrived in the continental United States with the first European Settlers, they have become more and more of a problem since the 1950s. While it is known that the wild hog problem is also due to domestic pigs escaping or being released negligently and turning feral in a few generations, N.C. Wildlife Biologist Falyn Owens says that a big part of the problem is the intentional transport and release of wild hogs for hunting purposes. The popularity of recreational hog hunting now conflicts with feral hog eradication efforts since you need hogs to be there on the land to hunt a feral hog.
While recreational hog hunting can be great fun, the presence of feral pigs also damages wild game and farmland. Deer and turkeys are both leaving areas with heavier feral hog populations due to extra competition for food and resources and predation on eggs, chicks, and fawns by wild hogs.
While wild hog trapping efforts are being made nationwide to help eradicate feral hogs, as long as everyone in an area is not willing to work together in eradication efforts. The best that individual farmers and landowners can hope to try to protect their crops, land, and wildlife is to push the feral hog problem off their property for a time. The risk of the pigs coming back is a real issue. So unless a real effort is made to curtail any wild hog relocation activity, we can continue to see both farmers and deer & turkey hunters struggle with feral hog damage in the near future.
