Bad to the Bone

[joebuck]

Our southern hogs are traced back to the Spainards with Desota expeditions and others that followed him. My favorite deer stand is on the "Desota Trail" on the Big River but that another story......We call our hogs ferral hogs which means domestic hog turned wild. We have ferrel cats , ferrel dogs and we had a one time ferral Emus and a peacock at the Paradise....still another story... However 100% of the hogs I have killed in Ga, Fl and Sc were ferrel hogs from what was the Essex breed. The Essex breed was a popular breed of hog used in the south around 1800's and early 1900 for meat and LARD..They would really put it on after they were casterated. This hog was a predominately black swine with single hair follicle and NOT like the hair of an imported Russian or Belgium hog you see at some fence places.
     I would suspect the west coast hogs have a strong background from the polynesian hogs that were dropped off by Capt Cook and others. But with the recent (in last 200 years) settling of the west, I am sure some eastern hogs made the wagon trip and/or train ride.
     Interesting enough we now have a ferral Vietinese Potbellied hog showing up recently in mid ga. on some selected tracts .Pet owners turning these pets a loose..Old hogs do die in the woods....their skulls do rot or squirrels chew them up, or deer eat nibble on them but due to TB, hunters, depredation hunters, floods and general sickness,, the ole boy has a hard time making it very old...An average wild ferel hog will gain under decent mast and floral conditons 60# a year...a farm hog will gain what 200#..... so think about how many hogs see in a pack......you might see one large mature 200# -350# every so often....they a far and few between. A mature boar can rome a 100miles in a summer along a tributary..He's bound to run into a hog cowboy and a bulldog, depredation poison,trapped or sickness.....he has got it tough.... I admire these animals greatly....intersting past about them although they are basically scorned by the QDM deer hunting crowd..

[Al Kidner]

Again....cool pics mate, thanks.


AK.

[Kingwouldbe]

Joe, the hogs we got out here are a mix for sure, The Island hog definitely lean to the polynesian type.

On the mainland we have a mix of Russian from the King city area that where imported and let go, they mixed with feral that where already roaming the hills.

Some areas have banded hogs ( I think there called Berkshire, most of our hogs have little ears laid back tight to there head, every now and then someone will shoot one with floppy ears.

The armorer can be vary thick and in some areas they spend the winter in the snow and grow some long thick hair.

Out here, I think our hogs might have longer legs, they look taller.

Also they don't get hammered that hard, vary little trapping, and a lot of private land for them to get lost on.

As far as age go's the last set of molars come out in 6-7th year, so if those are worn there old and if there missing well, it's vary old.

[Swamp Pygmy]

we have some surprisingly long legged pigs here in the south too.

some are short and fat like lil footballs and others look like a little horse on a pig body. long heads and long legs.

[rg176bnc]

There was a place in Texas we went about 8 yr. ago that the sleepin quarters were in a 100 acre fenced enclosure.  The rest of the 5k acres were unfenced (where we hunted).  

We dumped the remains of our pigs about 80 yds from the cabin every night and the next day EVERYTHING was gone hide,skulls etc.. you could barely tell anything had been there.  If there is a weekness in a fence a pig will find it.  The land manager assured us there were only pigs in there, no predators.

[ozy clint]

don't you love non-typical stuff!