Wild pigs or feral hogs are not native to North America.
They are native to Europe.
They were thought to have been brought over by early explorers, such as Hernando De Soto.
And as he explored the southeastern part of the United States,
inevitably, some of the pigs that he brought over as food source escaped.
We also have domesticated hogs that were used as sustenance by early settlers.
Those early settlers tended to not confine them in fences
so, inevitably, some of those escaped.
Thirdly, sometime in the 1930s, Eurasian wild boars, or the pure Russian wild boar,
was brought over into the United States for sport hunting purposes.
So, now you have, basically, three types of wild pigs in the United States.
You have the domesticated pig that has gone wild
and you have the Eurasian bloodline that was brought over to North America
and then have crosses between those two.
Feral hogs are habitat generalists,
which means they can be found in a broad range of habitats.
Throughout the United States
you can find feral pigs from the east coast to the west coast, including Hawaii.
In North America they're found as far south as Mexico and north into Canada.
One of the biggest problems of feral hogs is the damage they cause to the landscape.
One of the most common damages is rooting.
Rooting to croplands, pasturelands, grasslands.
Feral hogs do cause damage to wildlife habitat,
but they're also a competitor with a lot of native species.
They compete for food.
Feral hogs are what we call an opportunistic omnivore,
which basically means they’ll eat anything.
You know, most of their diet is plant material,
but they're known to eat eggs and lizards and birds and other critters.
Rubbing is a behavior by feral hogs to remove external parasites.
And if you've got a tree of high economic value, such as pecans or fruit trees,
it can actually damage or kill the tree.
Wallowing by feral hogs is another problem.
They're don’t have any sweat glands,
so they have to get in the mud and the water to cool themselves down.
In riparian areas such as streams, and ponds and lakes, they can cause erosion.
They can cause water quality issues as well bring in some introduced species.
Feral hogs can carry diseases.
If they come in contact with our domestic livestock,
they can spread those diseases.
They can also spread those diseases to humans.
So we have to take caution whenever we're handling feral hogs in the field
or removing them from traps as well.
Wild pigs vary in color.
They can range anywhere from black, to red, to blond or yellow, to striped, to spotted.
Probably the most common color, though, would be black or maybe solid brown or red.
Wild pigs vary in size.
Mature boars will weigh about 130 to 150 pounds,
while mature sows will weigh about 100 to 120 pounds.
That's probably a surprise to many people because they have seen pictures of Hogzilla.
They have heard stories of these huge hogs that are running throughout the landscape.
But the point to remember is that any wild animal,
especially a wild pig, has to consume an enormous amount of calories
and good high quality foods to grow to a huge size
and it’s just not that easy to make a living in the wild.
As a wildlife consultant, or one of the wildlife consultants at the Noble Foundation,
we all hear a lot of concern sometimes
from landowners that see wild pigs on their property.
They're concerned about the safety of their family or the safety of themselves or the safety of their pets.
When, in actuality, there's not a whole lot to worry about.
If wild pigs see a person or a human or sometimes even a dog,
they’re going to try to escape.
They’re more scared of you, probably, than you are of them.
So, unless they are cornered, such as if they're caught in a trap
or cornered in some other way,
they will try to defend themselves.
So that's the one thing that you need to keep in mind.
Otherwise, an unprovoked attack by a feral hog on a human
is probably about the same odds as being struck by lightning.
Feral hogs are the most prolific large mammal in North America.
They can breed at the young age of six months.
Sows can have up to 15 piglets in a litter.
The average seems to be from 5 to 6.
Here in south-central Oklahoma,
wild pigs seemed to become more abundant in the early 1990s.
However, wild pigs have been documented to occur in Oklahoma
as early as the 1960s or in the 1970s.
It seems that the numbers of wild pigs began to grow in Oklahoma
as the interest in hunting them began to grow.
We really don't have a lot of research in Oklahoma to say what the numbers are
or their home ranges or how fast their home ranges expand.
But we do know that we have wild pigs in every county in Oklahoma.
We do think that wild pigs probably have been moved across the state with the aid of humans.
Again, those humans that are interested in hunting them.
Wild pigs can cause a lot of problems throughout the landscape.
They cause a lot of problems with agriculture.
They cause a lot of problems with wildlife.
They cause a lot of problems with soil health and water quality.
All of these things negatively impact human beings.
We need to do a lot more research.
The Noble Foundation is doing research right now on wild pigs,
especially in regard to control techniques.
We also have gathered a lot of information about wild pig biology and their movement.
Through some more videos that you'll see in our series,
you'll be able to learn more about what we've found out about wild pigs.