Wild hog proliferation reaches all but six states; hunting preserves may contribute to spread

Wild swine populations are spreading across the country at a record pace, with only six states remaining without documented herds. Researcher Jack Mayer, a wild-hog expert at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, tells Isaac Wolf and Jason Bartz of the Scripps Howard News Service that the population has doubled in size and range over the last 20 years. In 1982 feral hogs were documented in 17 states; now all but six states have populations.

"Wildlife experts say the hogs, which can weigh as much as 500 to 750 pounds, are increasingly running roughshod in rural areas, suburbs and even a few cities, digging up cemeteries, gardens and lawns; causing car wrecks -- and occasionally attacking people," Wolf and Bartz write. Feral pigs cause an estimated $800 million in property and crop damage, and 27,000 auto collisions, and Mayer tells the reporters a federal intervention with enforcement of animal transportation laws is needed to solve the problem.

Much of the spread can be attributed to hunting. Swine are transported from "Southern states like Texas and Florida, where wild hogs have been documented in every county, into backwoods areas several states away where they are let loose on private land for hunters," the reporters write. The pigs that aren't killed by hunters ignore property lines and are prolific breeders. (Read more)

Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute, a fan of this topic, passes along several hog-reporting resources in his "Morning Meeting," including Scripps' state-by-state list of known populations.