Hog Calling: Reporting Feral Hogs
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program
In January and February and March there were nightly reports of homes that were being affected by the hogs with severe damage.
Willy Conrad, manager for Austin Water’s Wildland Conservation division, says in dry months, feral hogs come into neighborhoods to search for food. This is a growing trend around the state, and feral hogs now cause about fifty-two million dollars in damage annually.
In response, Austin has implemented a feral hog management system. By dialing 311, residents can contact city officials. Texas Wildlife Services will then investigate the damages and locate and trap the hogs in nearby wildlands. Conrad says when it comes to removing wild animals, that’s best left to the professionals.
If you’ve got a hog in a trap, you’ve got a caged wild animal. And we’re afraid that even if that animal is just there for a couple of hours in that cage that it poses a threat to curious people that want to come see the hog and see what happens.
Conrad says cities that don’t have hog problems still need to prepare.
Biologists with Texas Parks and Wildlife and A&M will tell you there’s only two kinds of places in Texas right now: those that have hogs and those that are going to have hogs. I think that other cities need to understand the scope of the problem they’re dealing with and come up with a solution because it’s only going to get worse.
That’s our show…with research and writing help from Gretchen Mahan. The Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program supports our series and is funded by your purchase of fishing & hunting equipment and motorboat fuel. For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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