Moose Droppings

Feral Hogs Moving In Cades Cove

Sep 17, 2008 @ 06:11 pm by Moose

Feral hogs have long been a problem in Great Smoky National Park and now they seem to be moving into the Cades Cove area of the park. At least visitors are starting to see them. Feral Hogs are very destructive and although you can try to control them it is unlikely you can ever eradicate them.

“The Park has had a wild hog management program since the mid-1970s to try and control the population,” Gray said. “There is no way we will ever remove all the wild hogs. They are extremely prolific at reproduction. There is no distinct breeding time for wild hogs, so they can breed throughout the year. Hogs normally have two litters a year and a normal litter is five but they can have up to nine piglets.

“They are very prolific and in the terrain of the Park it is hard to restrict them. We feel we are holding the hog population in check.”

European wild boars were imported in 1912 from Germany to a hunting preserve at Hooper’s Bald in North Carolina, which is on Cherohala Skyway in Cherokee National Forest about 15 miles southwest of the Smokies.

After being imported in 1912, “the wild hogs multiplied in that location and escaped to the mountains in 1920. On the way they interbred with feral pigs (wild domestic pigs) and the resulting stock looks like the wild pigs. They have tusks, a mane and dark, hairy fur,” Gray said.

The average weight for males is 125 pounds.

Cades Cove seems to be an ideal place for the hogs to move into with lots of mast crops for them to feed on. The problem is they’ll compete with native species for the food.

“Cades Cove is an ideal spot for wild hogs for several reasons. One is that they enjoy damp areas where they can do their wallowing behavior. They have no sweat glands so they need to find areas where they can cool off,” she said.

There are several areas in the flood plain and wetlands in Cades Cove where the hogs can wallow.

The wallowing creates depressions, which can cause erosion problems. Also, wild hogs carry bacteria, which can wind up in the streams and wetlands near where they wallow.

They use their snouts to root for food — plants, rhizomes and grubs. Areas where the wild hogs have rooted look like a rototiller has been at work, Gray said.

Basically wild hogs will eat almost anything — flowering plants, grubs, snakes, vertebrates, bird eggs and salamanders.

However, their mainstay food is hard mast crops — any kind of nuts, such as acorns, hickory nuts and walnuts.

Cades Cove is a prime area at this time of year because the acorns and other nuts are beginning to fall.

Hard mast is also a main crop for the larger mammals, like bear and deer, as well as a cadre of smaller Park residents.

Quotes and photo from the Daily Times

Story by Dan McLaughlin AKA Moose