707-pound slain hog highlights spread of feral swine

When a 707-pound wild hog with razor sharp tusks is hurtling at you at full speed, it's, well, a tad unsettling. "I thought I done filled one of my boots up," Bruce Florence said with a hearty laugh. "It scared the fool out of me."

Happily on that January morning, Florence kept his cool. The snorting brown beast veered off from him about 20 yards out, allowing him to land a clean broadside kill shot with a single round from a .25-06 rifle. That was fortunate, as it was the only round in the rifle, although he did have a sidearm, too.

The Jan. 16 deep encounter in the Transylvania woods near the Jackson County border highlights a decades-old problem in the mountains, and much of the United States. Feral swine have exploded in numbers.

The non-native animals number in the millions nationwide and cause enormous damage to crops, woodlands and lawns.

They can also be dangerous to humans, causing more deaths annually than sharks in some years.

Prolific and peripatetic

Called "feral swine" by researchers, wild hogs or wild boars now have established populations in 36 states, up from 17 in 1982, according to Joseph Corn, a wildlife biologist at the University of Georgia's College of Veterinary Medicine. He and his colleagues produce the National Feral Swine Mapping System, which tracks the animals' spread.

Before listing a state, they require evidence that wild hogs have been there two or more years and have shown evidence of breeding.

"We've been doing some work where we've been modeling their expansion and trying to figure out what their range eventually may be," Corn said. "There's a population of feral swine across Canada, and for years they've been in New Hampshire and Michigan. They're not as widespread up north as they are in the South, but they're certainly surviving in those conditions."

A colleague of Corn's, Jack Mayer of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina has researched feral swine since the 1980s and says the animals have been reported in 47 states, the exceptions being Wyoming, Delaware and Rhode Island.

"In the last couple of decades, there's been an increase of animals in suburban and urban areas," Mayer said. "The populations have been expanding in rural areas, and then moving into urban and suburban areas through greenways and drainages."

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Wild pigs are adept at finding food in human trash, gardens, golf courses and forests. They've been in Great Smoky Mountains National Park for a century, and they're present on private land, including where Florence was hunting, throughout the mountains.

"You could get them moving into Asheville," Mayer said. "They've been doing that in other areas — downtown Houston, Fort Worth, outside Charlotte."

Derek Ibarguen, district ranger at Pisgah National Forest, said rangers "think they're likely around," but they have not seen signs of wild hog activity in the 160,000-acre forest, which stretches into Transylvania, Haywood, Henderson and Buncombe counties.

Voracious appetite

Feral sows usually have a litter of piglets a year, typically a half dozen at a time, but they can have more. All pigs have a keen sense of smell and powerful snouts, and that leads to some truly creative rooting; Mayer says he's heard of cases of the wild pigs uprooting PVC sprinkler lines to get at the water inside.

The animals have had a presence in the mountains for decades, said Mike Carraway, a wildlife biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

"Primarily what they do is root up the ground and destroy vegetation," said Carraway, who's based in Haywood County. "On private property, they're rooting up people's yards. It looks like a plow has gone through it when a bunch of hogs has been through a yard or neighborhood."

For farmers, the wild hogs' keen sense of smell and a voracious appetite is a particularly bad combination. Most of the hogs weigh more in the 100-200-pound range, not 700-plus, but they're all destructive.

"We are hearing more from farmers about hogs and coyotes," said Eric Caldwell, western district director for the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, which serves farmers and consumers in the far western counties, including Transylvania. "Coyotes can kill livestock, particularly calves, so most of the livestock producers have protective animals."

Feral hogs also can transmit diseases to domestic herds that essentially have been eradicated, Corn said, another reason wild swine are considered pests.

That unwelcome status has led to open season when it comes to hunting — there is no closed season or bag limit set for feral swine, according to Wildlife Resources Commission Spokesman Geoff Cantrell.

"Previously, feral swine were designated as 'wild boar' and regulated in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties," he said. "In 2011 the status of all free ranging swine, including 'wild boar' in the historic counties, was changed from a game animal to a non-game animal with no closed hunting season."

Sport hunting typically reduces the hog population by about 23 percent annually, Mayer said, adding that modeling shows a 50-75 percent reduction is necessary to significantly reduce populations.

150 pounds of sausage

As far as Florence's kill, Cantrell said the state does not keep statistics on record feral swine. "But I would say that's one big pig," he said.

Florence, 53, was hunting with his son, Jonathan Florence, who flushed three sows out from a laurel thicket, and then the big boy.

The hog measured 7 feet 4 inches long from snout to tail. The Florences, who make a living as landscapers in the Burlington area, weighed the animal's entrails at a friend's house, tallying them at 127 pounds.

They weighed the rest of the hog at a truck stop, and it came in at 580.5 pounds, bringing the total to 707.5.

Avid hunters, the Florences eat whatever they kill.

"We got about 150 pounds of sausage off him," Bruce Florence said. "The tenderloin was 5 foot, 10 inches long."

They killed the beast at 9:15 a.m., and by that afternoon Florence said he was eating ribs and sausage, with the tenderloin on the menu for Saturday.

"I had to bump my blood pressure medicine from one to two pills a day, I've eaten so much pork," Florence said with a laugh.

They're also tanning the hide, and Florence said they removed six, five-gallon buckets of fat, just from the hide.

The 'pig bomb'

While Florence maintains the animal had characteristics of a truly wild Russian boar and had nothing but plant material and acorns in his gut, Corn and Mayer say most hogs in the wild that grow that big likely came from a domestic source at some point.

Hogs go completely feral quickly, though, so the animal likely was truly a wild pig, they said.

Even domesticated pigs released into the wild will turn feral, often within a year. While some wild hogs, especially those in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, have strong genetic ties to Eurasian wild boars, others in the mountains and across the country are often "hybrids" due to inter-breeding and the release of domestic hogs.

Spanish explorers first brought hogs to North America in the 1500s, and following livestock practices of the times just let the animals roam freely. Ponce de Leon and his men made an epic journey in 1539, crossing more than a dozen present states and making it all the way to what is now Texas — and they survived on pork much of the time.

When they needed a meal they'd kill a hog, but many of the animals remained on the loose, establishing populations throughout the Southeast.

In the early 1900s, hunting enthusiasts brought in Eurasian wild boars, establishing game preserves for well-heeled hunters. Naturally, some of those animals busted loose, too, including the well-documented escape on Hooper Bald along the North Carolina-Tennessee line, which led to a hardy population in the future national park.

In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, many states began stocking wild hogs for game hunting, even promoting the animals as "wild boars" to lure hunters.

"Jump to the 1990s, and it worked," Mayer said. "These things became the second-most popular game animal in North America, behind white-tailed deer.

In an August population study that looked at hunting statistics, official reported estimates and unofficial estimates, Mayer determined the United States has more than 6 million wild pigs and possibly as many as 11 million.

While gaining in population, individual wild hogs are not getting bigger. Most of the truly giant hogs that have gained notoriety in the past few years — the "Hogzillas" or "boarzillas," as Mayer calls them — have most likely been domestic hogs that were turned loose.

One killed in Georgia in June 2005 was reported as over 1,000 pounds, but Mayer said he was part of the team that dug it up for testing. It probably weighed more in the 800-pound range, he said.

Mayer looked at pictures of the hog Florence shot and said it has some characteristics of a Eurasian boar, including some indication of a hump on its back. But it also has characteristics of domestic swine.

More dangerous than sharks?

No matter the lineage, all feral hogs can be dangerous, although that danger is often overblown by the media. Mayer also conducted a study on wild pig attacks, finding that, based on attacks, between 2003 and 2012, "an average of 3.8 persons was fatally injured each year globally due to wild pig attacks.

"Only four fatal wild pig attacks have ever been reported in the United States, three of these resulting from attacks by wounded animals during hunting circumstances," Mayer wrote. "The most recent occurred in Texas in 1996."

In 2013, 13 people died globally because of wild pig attacks.

"Compared to fatal shark attacks, wild pigs killed more people than sharks in 2013, 2007, 2008 and 2009," Mayer said. "Last year, 2014, there were nine people killed in wild pig attacks."

Most attacks, 73 percent, occurred in rural areas, followed by suburban areas at 22 percent and urban settings at 5 percent.

Mayer found slightly more than three-quarters of attacks took place under non-hunting circumstances, with the most common identifiable cause of these attacks that the animal was being threatened.

Corn said most wild hogs, like bears, are wary of humans.

"If you get them cornered, they can be dangerous," Corn said. "There are reports of some aggressive behaviors, but it's not common."

Florence, an experienced hunter who doesn't scare easily, said the 707-pounder looked plenty aggressive to him. He's getting the head mounted now and said the bottom "cutter teeth" measure 4 inches.

"That big one, when he busted up out of that thicket, there was no cutting or nothing like that," Florence said. "That joker, he just come straight at me, like he was going to run me down."

But the hog lost the battle. Florence said he could tell his bullet pierced the animal's heart.

He's already talking about his next boar hunt in the mountains, although he might finish up that sausage first.

"It's wonderful — some of the best pork meat I've ever eaten," he said.

At-risk behaviors for wild hog attacks:

•Traveling alone and on foot through undeveloped areas, especially areas with dense thickets or understory vegetation.

•Walking with a dog, leashed or unleashed, through undeveloped areas.

•Threatening or chasing a wild pig.

•Approaching an obviously wounded or injured wild pig.

•Approaching or attempting to feed or touch a wild pig.

•Blocking the path of a moving wild pig.

Source: "Wild Pig Attacks on Humans," John J. Mayer

Avoidance and defense:

• Be cautious and alert to the potential sudden presence of wild pigs when traveling through areas that the animals inhabit.

• If wild pigs are encountered, either detour around them or slowly back away while being careful not to make any sudden or potentially threatening movements.

• Should a wild pig begin an aggressive approach from a far distance, try to outrun the animal; however, wild pigs can run faster than humans, so trying to outrun them may be futile if the pig persists in the chase over a long distance.

• If a wild pig charges at you at a close distance, climb a tree or other elevated object to get out of the animal's reach, getting at least 6 feet off of the ground.

•If evasion or escape is not possible, turn and face the animal and prepare to aggressively fight back with anything at your disposal. Try to stay on your feet and avoid being knocked to the ground.

• If you fall or are knocked down, get onto your back with your feet facing the animal, and start kicking rapidly with your feet against the end of the snout or head, making sure that your feet don't get caught in the pig's mouth.

• Continue to fight back until the animal breaks off the attack. Most wild pig attacks on humans last less than one minute.

Source: "Wild Pig Attacks on Humans," John J. Mayer