Wild hogs are overpopulated but hard target for hunters

In Texas, more than 2 million wild hogs are wreaking havoc on the landscape. Many hunters have set their sights on the wily game, but the pigs continue to be a problem, reports the Los Angeles Times.

"Of the 254 counties in Texas, about 90 percent have a wild hog problem," Miguel Bustillo writes. "Surly pigs have been spotted in urban parks in Dallas and San Antonio, startling joggers. Mobs of ravenous porkers are munching crops and tearing up hayfields, causing $52 million a year in damage, state officials estimate. They also are eating the eggs of endangered sea turtles on coastal barrier islands, forcing biologists to scurry nests to safety."

A hunter billing himself as "The Dehoganator" (in photo by Courtney Perry for the Times) offers to take out the boars on people's property, as long as they pay for the bullets, Bustillo reports. While the endeavor still loses money for The Dehoganator, Joe Paddock, he loves the thrill of hunting the smart and elusive animal. Like Paddock, federal and state officials want to lower the pig population.

"Federal agriculture officials have resorted to gunning down pigs from helicopters," Bustillo writes. "State officials have declared open season on them: Hunters can shoot as many as they want, any time. Here in Van Zandt County (pop. 48,140), leaders put out a bounty four years ago, promising $7 for every pair of hog ears brought in. They got more than 2,000 and ended the offer a year later." Despite those efforts, and the work of trappers who sell the hogs here and abroad, the boars seem to be winning the war. (Read more)