Wisconsin may
never be known as a great state in which to hunt wild pigs. That's good
news to anyone who has seen signs of these rooters.
But these feral
animals are here in the Badger State,
at least in some regions including Crawford
County, the surrounding area, and
also in northern Wisconsin, near Lake
Superior.
Wildlife
biologists and farmers who have seen these wild hogs, feral pigs or wild
boars--whatever one wants to call them--all seem to agree they are not wanted
anyplace on Wisconsin's landscape.
Because wild
hogs are not native in Wisconsin
and have been considered a nuisance since they were first spotted in Crawford
County about five years ago,
they're considered an unprotected species, not a big game animal. Hunters
and landowners can kill them with few limitations and many times gun-deer
hunters do just that.
Most biologists,
farmers and deer hunters suspect these pigs were released or escaped from a
game farm, or someone simply thought it would be neat to have wild pigs roaming
the woods and fields, or they released a few of the critters.
"I'm up to 152
wild pigs that have been shot the last several years," said Dave Matheys,
Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist in Viroqua in Vernon
County. "Most of those pigs
were shot during gun-deer seasons."
While hunters
can shoot as many wild pigs as they want, after making sure the pigs are wild
and not domestic hogs that escaped from a farmer's pen, hunters do need a small
game license to kill them. Farmers can kill unprotected animals, like
wild pigs, without a license, when they're hunting on land they own.
Farmers and Wisconsin's
DNR would like hunters to be successful and
eliminate these feral animals from the landscape.
"Wild pigs are
very destructive," Matheys said. "They're much more destructive than
domestic hogs and they're not contained by most fences. They can do
considerable crop damage and forest damage."
Wild pigs do
attract attention from hunters. Matheys receives calls each day asking
where the hogs are and how to hunt them. Hunting them is not as easy as
it may seem. These hogs are smart and shy away from humans. Some
hunters who have taken pigs they shot home say they taste fine when prepared as
one would prepare domestic pork.
Matheys believes
landowners and hunters are reducing the population, because some farmers who
used to see them frequently have reported an absence of wild pigs during the
last year.
The pigs that
were recently discovered near Lake Superior seem a
little different, according to Matheys. "They seem easier to hunt, they
come to bait and they just look a lot different," he said.
About 40 hogs
have been killed in northern Wisconsin,
close to where some people believe they escaped from a game farm.
"Deer hunters
are sort of doing double duty; they're out after deer and if they see a wild
hog or signs of wild hogs, they may go after hogs instead of deer, or after
both," Matheys said.
