What's the range of feral/wild pigs in the states? How far north do they go?

I believe that Michigan has feral hogs, but I do not think there is a continuous population from the south northward.

they are called russian boars .. and germany is WAy "north" of michigan

there is a "farm" in canada, that is european stock, and those are the ones that go to the game ranch in the MI UP

They have a active population in Canada. If they have access to year round food and water feral pigs will thrive! Someone have probably hauled a few there just to see!

One map I found.

So the ones in the cold north are euro boars and the ones in the warm south are feral pigs like what we have here in Australia?

They are all the same, Sus Scrofa.

Withe the exception of some of the pigs from South east Asia, Vietnamese Pot Belly pigs, European Wild pigs(Boar) and feral hogs are come from the same base stock.

Given enough time/generations, feral hogs begin reverting back to the more European look/physical characteristics.

They're not nationalists, we have some in northern Alberta.

Grizz

By those who are supposed to know I've been told it takes domestic hogs 3 generations to revert back to their "wild" conformation. As prolific as the darn things are that could be accomplished in less than 5 years. They sure are fun to hunt but geez they are destructive and a hazard to domestic stock.

From my observations, three generations and the animals will have reverted to a fully wild animal, but overall body confirmation/hair color seems to take a little longer.

I do see mixed litters of piglets with some being all sorts of colors/combination of colors, and some being the normal reddish-brownish with white or light tan stripes running length wise along the body, which is normal for pure European Wild pigs.

I have even seen a few litters containing piglets that were dark grey/almost shading to black with the light stripes.

quote:

Originally posted by 9.3 X 75R:
By those who are supposed to know I've been told it takes domestic hogs 3 generations to revert back to their "wild" conformation. As prolific as the darn things are that could be accomplished in less than 5 years. They sure are fun to hunt but geez they are destructive and a hazard to domestic stock.

The Aussie feral hog has had a few more than three generations to change and they look nothing like a euro boar.

quote:

The Aussie feral hog has had a few more than three generations to change and they look nothing like a euro boar.

I wonder if that is the case because some of the original animals that were brought into the country were from South East Asia.

From the information I have read over the years, both pigs and cattle from India and southeast Asia are different in physical traits than the animals from Europe.

That may have something to do with the differences in appearance.

Right now, there are no pigs anywhere around my place in NW Oklahoma (Alfalfa county), but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

One of the sayings here in Texas, is, "If You Don't Have Pigs Now, Wait A Little While"!

The idea that pigs will revert back is utter BS. The pigs in California's coastal islands never looked anything like a European wildboar.

The pigs in Florida never looked anything like a European either.

Both populations were introduced during the 1700's.

Randolph Hearst introduced pure European wildboar to his place at San Simeon in the 1920's, that is why a lot of California pigs look European.

The pigs in Texas started to pick it up based on introductions in the 1950s.

The gift of Canadian pure European wildboar from up north will eventually end up in the Yellowstone Ecosystem. As the Canadian pigs start wandering down.

When I am 90 we will have pigs from Juneau to Labrador and from the Hudson bay to the Panama Canal.

quote:

The idea that pigs will revert back is utter BS.

Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, I am just going by what I have actually witnessed during the past 20 years. your mileage may vary.

If it wasn't BS then pigs in Australia, New Zealand, California's coastal islands, and everywhere else in thew world where feral hogs live would all look like they crawled out of the mountains in Tyrol.

Captain Cook and the Spanish released pigs in the Americas and Australiasia over 300 years ago.

How many pigs are you still killing with spots or white belts on their shoulders?

Spotted pigs are domestic pigs, pigs with white belts are domestic pigs.

No population of pure wild suscrofa in the world has spots or white belts, do they?

Wild pigs have two coats, the majority of feral pigs only have one. Another European trait.

The pigs of Asia are still suscrofa. There are other sub species of wild pigs, like the Javan warty swine, and the babarousa. We aren't talking about that, and they are not the pigs released into Australia or New Zeland.

The Asian wildboars in Japan, China, Mongolia, Kazkhstan all look like pigs in Germany with small differences in size and color.

Kind of like how brown bears in Spain, look like brown bears in Alaska, and brown bears in Russia.

I go by facts, I have a scientific job, and think science works better than "beliefs".

I simply disagree. I know what I have seen and experienced. Just because someone has not seen or experienced something that does not mean it is BS.

The fellow I hunt with in Florida says the same thing as Randall. He guides now, but when he was young, they would pen and release domestic hogs to grow so they could sell them to the railroad workers. He said it took about 3-4 generations for the spots or stripes to go away and after that the snouts would start to get longer and shoulders heavier.

One hunt we were on, we shot all three types, spotted, black "Spanish" hogs and double coat hogs that looked European.

BTW, the domestic hogs came from the same imported stock as the wild ones brought over 300 years ago, not special spotted hog stock.

Taken in the NT.


This last photo show a mob we took as they burst out from under a pandanus tree. All were in the 90-100kg mark.


I don't believe the pigs in the NT/Australia have or will revert back to look like a Euro. The closest we get would be a big mountain boar from the snowy region. Perhaps our environment doesn't favour the body shape/hairiness of the euro pig?

I do however believe that feral dogs will breed themselves into a dingo type given enough time.

Deal is, feral hogs have such large ranges and are so successful at breeding, that "New" blood is spread thru out the area on a continual basis.

Two to three times yearly, I see piglets, month old or less that are colored up the same as European wild pig piglets.

Can they revert, yes. Is it easy or common place no, but it can and does happen.

The reason so many feral pigs in America have that Euro look has to do with the shear number of Euro introductions from coast to coast.

And nothing to do with them reverting back.

I lived just out of the Snowy River country for 3 years, every pig I saw up there had a bit more hair than your Queenslander pigs, but was essentially the same animal.

As far as dogs reverting back, I would tend to agree with this idea.

I think it must depend on the original breeds and how many layers removed from wolves they are.

Sicily had a lot of dingo/basenji looking feral dogs.

When I lived in Djibouti in East Africa there was a similar type of local dog.

I have seen videos of Cameroon where they Pygmies had a dog that looked a lot like a dingo.

BWW my theory is that the dingo look and body shape just suits a dog living in the wilds of the warmer areas of the world. I saw lots of local village dogs in Timor that had the body size and shape of a dingo, colour was nearly spot on as well.

I think you are on to it Mate. Even the little dogs they were feeding us in Vietnam had a very dingo look, especially in the mountains.

Not to say if you started out with 100 German shephards, 100 years later you wouldn't have 10,000 German shepards.

Throw enough different dogs in the stew and you end up with a dingoesque looking animal.

I have seen hogs on St. Vincent's Island FL that had a European look to them. I don't know if the former owner imported any European boars. There were a number of exotic species on the island, Sambar deer are the only ones left.

Tom

quote:

And nothing to do with them reverting back.

Once again, each of us is entitled to our own beliefs, based upon our own experiences.

Years ago there was an article in an Aussie gun mag with photo's of a litter of feral piglets, some had the stripes of the euro piglets, however the sow looked like a typical feral pig (sloped forehead, not the forehead of a euro at all)Don't know why perhaps its a throw back?

I have seen 3 or 4 litters over the past 5 years that had the striped piglets in them.

I have also seen and killed feral hogs that were colored like the European wild pigs and some that were built similar in body shape, smaller hind quarters, larger front quarters.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

quote:

The Aussie feral hog has had a few more than three generations to change and they look nothing like a euro boar.

I wonder if that is the case because some of the original animals that were brought into the country were from South East Asia.

From the information I have read over the years, both pigs and cattle from India and southeast Asia are different in physical traits than the animals from Europe.

That may have something to do with the differences in appearance.

CHC I think you hit the nail on the head! The reason the swine in North America all came originally from Europe. This is why most of the wild hogs here often drop little pigs that have the striped camouflage till the get older. That is a trait from the Euro wild boar.
The first swine brought here were nothing but wild hogs brought by the conquistadors to use for meat on the trip over, and were dropped off at missions they built along their exploration. There was also an early immigrant from a wealthy family who had a ship load of wild hogs brought over to his colonial plantation in the Carolinas because he liked to hunt them with spears from horseback. They spread all along the Southern forests all the way to Texas over the next 250-300 years, and mixed with our engineered domestic hogs to make up our wild feral hogs today. Many of the ferals found in places like Tennessee have far more body types and coloration of the Euros even today.

I also believe the wild swine in North Australia were brought there from the Asian countries, so exhibited the mostly black coloration, and body shape of that sub species.

.............................................................Opinions vary, however on that subject!

I farm in central Ohio, never seen one. After crops come off, there is not many places to hide.

I haven't had but the one experience with wild hogs and that was in FL. They'd been trapped somewhere south of midway down the west coast at Cedar Key. The guy said it took 2hours drive each way. I'd assume two hour drive would be fairly far south, say around the Tampa or further south area. I don't know how long it takes to drive down the west coast there, never done it. This was a put n take place but, wild hogs.

I've got a lot of years being around farm hogs. Tony, those you killed there, look much more like farm hogs than the black one's in FLa. Yes I know in the NT they ARE wild hogs. Question though, how many of those big ranches had domestic hogs brought in that got loose?

The difference isn't in the colors, it's the body shape, skinny rear ends and very heavy shoulders. Those you show here from the pictures look to me fairly even over their length. Am I right, or don't I see things correctly?

I've seen a whole bunch of black hogs Mick has killed and shown us here. Don't recall whether I've noticed the heavy shoulders, light rear ends on his. Just that I don't recall them. I would like to see some shown full length from the side, not angled to show the heads and some shoulder as most are posed.

I do know the razor backs are short bodied and I think thin sideways, but, tall belly to spine. I would consider them a different species. BWW what do you think about these ideas?

I also feel you'd better be mighty young now to see hogs from Juneau to Panama considering all the wolves planted up north of here IF they get a taste for pork.
Good discussion, lot of thought provoking ideas.

Ok, a PS to this now. I just looked at the next post of Mick's, three good sized boars. the shape of the heads are much different from the two Fla hogs I shot. His have a deep rounded drop from the forehead to the nose, mine are quite flat on the forehead, some long radius into the long nose.
PSS: Not long after I posted that, I got to looking thru Mick's older pictures and see not all his hogs have that dished face. SO----???

George

I hunt European Wild boar in The Netherlands, Germany and Poland. I have never seen a real Wild Boar(as we know them here) on any picture of wild boars shot in the USA. They just look different. The shape of the body is the most important feature. The color of the wild boar changes with age and from winter to summer.

In Europe they can be found as high as southern sweden. They won't go higher because of the lack of oak and beech threes.

Ive shot hogs in Texas that looked very Russian, and Ive shot hogs on the same ranches that looked like Poland chinas or whatever, showed no Russian what so ever..????????I also know the more Russian they look, the more aggressive they seem to be..

I have no opine on it, don't care, would love to kill everyone of them, they are the most destructive animal to land I have ever seen. They were never native to the state, it belonged to the lovely little Javalina. who does little damage other than eating the bark off fresh fence posts and punching holes in plastic water lines on our ranch that had to be patched constantly with bailing wire and rubber intertube for the thirsty little buggers! but it was worth it to have them to hunt.......

We have a few in SW Idaho.

A few what Rich?
In Grafenveir Germany I ran a water point infested with pigs but, never once laid eye's on one. One of my partners was trapped on an open grader by a bunch, he thought for sure they would get up on the deck with him. He was a farm boy from Richland Ore.

George

Feral Hogs, waddya think...

That map shows feral hogs more widespread in Oregon than they actually are. There are two hot spots, one in southern Oregon near the California border, and one in east-central Oregon very near the tiny town of Antelope, once famous for the commune of the Indian quack Baghwan Shree Rajneesh.
Wild hogs are considered a dangerous invasive species, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture has shoot-on-sight guidance in place. Believe me, we don't want them, fun as they are to hunt.

I agree with Bill, map seems to show by county. There may be hogs but just in a tiny area of a large county.
I have hunted and researched where hogs are in Arizona and the map is optimistic. They are there, just in small numbers.
A single unsubstantiated siting is not proof of infestation

Mark

Shucks, all it takes is one male and one female to make an infestation!!
You've either got 'em, or gonna have!

George