Toledo Magazine: Feral swine a growing problem across the landscape
Mar. 28—WAUSEON — When a boar was struck and killed by a vehicle on Fulton County Road 14 north of here on a late February night, the incident merited a brief entry in the sheriff's log, and not much more.
It was believed to be a pig that had escaped captivity and become feral.
But since it had tusks, a long, bristly coiffure, and was roaming freely in the agricultural area, there was some sense of concern.
There have been unconfirmed reports of feral (wild) pigs in Ohio dating back to the 1980s, and the frequency of sightings has increased significantly in both number and veracity. Most of those accounts have been generated in the southeastern part of the state, and the Ohio State University Extension reported nearly a decade ago that feral swine had established breeding populations in more than a dozen Ohio counties.
In neighboring Michigan, most of the 83 counties have had reports of feral pigs present at some point, with nearly 25 counties having free-roaming populations at some point, according to the state Department of Agriculture. There also have been documented feral swine populations in Jackson, Lenawee, and Hillsdale counties in the past.
Feral pigs are prolific breeders that cause extensive ecological and economic damage wherever they are present. They can dramatically alter the landscape and severely damage populations of native plants. They will eat nearly anything, including fawns and the eggs of ground-nesting birds, and devour natural food sources vital for native wildlife. They also carry diseases that threaten domestic livestock and wildlife.
At a national conference more than a decade ago, Jack Mayer, the nation's foremost expert on wild hogs, said the country could face catastrophic consequences if action was not taken to slow the proliferation of feral swine — what he called a "pig bomb".
Working out of the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, Mayer has spent almost 50 years studying the feral pig phenomenon. He laments that "most people don't appreciate the seriousness of the problem until they've had their yard roto-tilled by wild boars."
Texas has a feral pig crisis, with an estimated three million wild hogs rampaging across every county in the huge state. Mike Bodenchuk, director of Texas Wildlife Services for the USDA, said the feral pig numbers are so large and the pests so widespread that eradication is impossible.
"Texas can serve as an example of what can happen if pigs go unchecked. There are so many feral hogs that the entire livestock industry could be jeopardized by diseases," he said. "And we are not going to barbeque our way out of this problem."
