Journal-News.com

site web

A wildlife supervisor based in Xenia for the Division of Wildlife would like to see the wild boar population reduced to zero before they overspread Ohio.

The state has no idea how many are loose, although officials are trying hard to track them. When the swine get loose, they breed very fast, said the supervisor, Dave Kohler, and they can have two or three litters a year of seven piglets each.

"It's a big state and they are an elusive animal," Kohler said.

They have no natural predators — unless the cougar comes back to Ohio.

The state is counting on hunters who stumble on them during deer hunts to keep the population in check. The Division of Wildlife has an open invitation to hunters to forward photos of their kills. State officials have looked at banning wild boar from being brought to Ohio.

"We need to continue to discuss the issue," Kohler said. "Can we have legitimate wild boar hunting preserves and limit the threat of escape?"

Nobody knows. For now, escaped wild boar roam free.

Their stomping grounds have included Hueston Woods State Park in Preble County and most recently, this fall at two MetroParks: Englewood and Germantown. There's a report that one was shot locally, but there's no details on it, Kohler said.

Primarily night creatures, indications that they might be around appear in signs of rooting and turf damage.

Lonnie Snow, park manager at Hueston Woods, said escapees from an illegal game farm turned up at his park about four years ago. They tore up a golf course rooting for grubs and at one point, piglets were seen. Word got out. Hunters inundated the park.

"They were a good 200 pounds each," Snow recalled.

Eventually, the pigs headed to Indiana. Two boars jumped a 6-foot fence and began breeding with a farmers' sows, Snow said. The farmer shot the invaders. No pigs have shown up in the park since, Snow said.

Not so in Ohio's wilder regions.

Mike Connett, a hunter in Gallia County, forwarded a photo of his January kill to wildlife officers.

He wrote, "I took this 350 lb. (pound) "Wild" boar on Wayne National Forest land less than 20 miles from my house. They ... are probably here to stay. ... I took this one through the heart & lungs with a 7 mm magnum at 200 yards. He still ran 200 yards after the shot. Tough critters.  He is at the butcher's. Can you say bratwurst?" 

Connett, of Crown City, said that the hogs seem to have taken up residence in Wayne. He was hunting with a friend and walking along a ridge. After his friend spooked some hogs out of a ravine, he had his shot.

"At first, I though it was somebody's cow. Then, I thought, it was a really big pig," Connett recalled.

Connett leads deer hunts at Wide Rack Ranch, a guided camp he owns. To eliminate the hogs, he said, "it will take a lot of people to get in this area. They are smart and prolific breeders."

The meat, he said, will be consumed at a wild game dinner at his church later this year.

Taste buds aside, the swine are brutal on the environment and not worth having out loose, said Mike Enright, wildlife biologist for MetroParks.

Bow hunters harvesting deer in nonpublic portions of the Englewood and Germantown MetroParks spotted the local hogs.

"I bet they're refugees from a private, nonlicensed hunting operation," Enright said. "People buy these things and let them loose on the property to hunt them, and then they escape. We're keeping an eye on it. They're very destructive and a small number can make a difference."

The two haven't been seen since, but wildlife officials are on the lookout.

Feral pig sightings can also be reported by e-mail to wildinfo@dnr.state.oh.us.

Other invasive pests in Ohio

Some other invasive species on the Union of Concerned Scientists' "Worst of the Worst" list for Ohio:

Zebra and quagga mussels that infest the Great Lakes and kill native mussels

Round Goby, a small fish that preys on native fish eggs

Emerald Ash Borer beetle, which kills native ash trees

Garlic Mustard, a killer of native flora

Amur Honeysuckle, an aggressive shrub that has overtaken large swaths of central and southwest Ohio woodlands