Syracuse.com - Operation pig-out: U.S.D.A. works with property owners to hunt wild boars in Central New York

[HuntingNY-News]

If you've seen a Russian wild boar or any other type of feral pig, call the DEC's Cortland office at 1-607-753-3095, Extension 247, or email the DEC at [email protected].

Submitted photoWild boars are seen on a trail cam set up on the Dickinson farm in Spafford.

Tom Dickinson said before U.S. Department of Agriculture officials got involved, he never knew exactly how many wild boars were on his family’s property in Spafford.

“We have 50 acres near the southern end of Skaneateles Lake,” he said. “Our land is posted, but every year we’d allow a select few to hunt the property. One individual shot a 400-pound sow two deer seasons ago.”

Earlier this year, the family donated 21 acres to the Finger Lakes Land Trust, including about 1,300 feet of lakefront. In the spring, land trust officials were clearing an access path to the land when they stumbled across fresh signs of wild boars.

“We came across this giant mud pit,” said Jason Gorman, a land steward for the land trust. “We saw all these foot prints and there was this rank odor. It looked like a bulldozer had come through and plowed up the ground slightly. It definitely put us on edge.”

Land trust officials contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s APHIS office (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), which in turn contacted the Dickinsons, who were willing to cooperate.

What transpired this summer was a successful skirmish in the Wild Boar War of Central New York. The war, more than a decade old, is still being waged with rough estimates of several hundred of the animals still out there in southern Onondaga, northern Cortland and parts of Tioga counties — and most likely spreading to other areas.

Stephen Cannerelli/The Post-StandardTom Dickinson on his family's property in Spafford. Dickinson said his family allowed USDA officials to come on the property and hunt wild boars.

Nonetheless, a three-person team of USDA workers, led by Justin Gansowski, a wildlife disease biologist, used a combination of trapping and hunting over bait to take out 20 wild boars on the Dickinson’s property. They averaged 100 to 120 pounds in weight, he said.

“The biggest thing out of this, is that when you get good landowner cooperation, our methods work,” Gansowski said. This summer, he added, he and two other staffers worked with about 50 property owners. The most recent total count was 40 swine, he said.

“They all appeared to be of Russian wild boar descent,” he said. “They were your stereotypical black and stiff, hairy (pigs).”

Feral swine, which are described as “Bad News for New York” in the new state Department of Environmental Conservation’s hunting handbook, are a harmful and destructive invasive species. They’re widespread and causing problems in numerous other states. The ones Gansowski and Co. pursued locally are thought to have escaped from a private hunting preserve in the town of Scott.

These animals are omnivores and will eat just about anything. They’ll disturb and prey on ground nesting birds and their eggs, young deer fawns, snakes, lizards, rodents — even roadkill. In addition to native plants, they dine on just about any agricultural crop. They like to wallow in wet areas, where they destroy the local vegetation, cause erosion and negatively affect water quality.

Finally, they have razor sharp tusks and according to the DEC “can be aggressive toward humans, pets and livestock.”

Feral swine have a tendency to spread — fast. They tend to have litters of six to eight piglets, two or three times a year. They can get big. Local hunters the past few years have turned in photos to this newspaper of boar they’ve shot in the in the 350- to 400-pound range.

Submitted photoThe U.S.D.A. used large, baited corral-type traps to lure and capture pigs.

In New York, all that’s required to hunt feral hogs is a small-game license. There’s no season, daily limits or prescribed methods. They can be baited, hunted at night or hunted with dogs.

Simply hunting them, though, isn’t the solution, wildlife biologists say. Killing results in the others scattering over greater distances. The most effective way to catch them is using large, baited, corral-type traps that can capture most of the group at one time. The downside is the method is expensive and labor–intensive.

“We started in March searching out feral swine populations, catching and removing as many as possible from the landscape and testing for diseases,” Gansowski said.

These wild pigs can carry and transmit at least 30 different diseases, according to the DEC hunting guide.

In recent years, the job of getting rid of these animals locally has been passed back and forth between federal and state wildlife biologists.

“We’re the ones doing the management activities this year,” Ganswoski said.

Dickinson said the USDA workers used several steps to clear his family’s property of wild boar.

First, they scouted his land and used trail cameras to figure just where and how many there were. The next step was to set up large, corral-type traps. The insides of the traps were baited with corn, he said, and left open for extended periods to get the pigs used to coming inside. They were sprung twice and the captured pigs were killed.

That left two more, Dickinson said. The workers simply baited an area and shot them at night.

After testing the meat, most of the carcasses were put in a neighboring farmer’s compost pile. Some of the meat was given to neighbors who wanted to eat it, he said.

“This works the best to eliminate the sounders (a group composed of mostly sows and piglets),” Gansowski said. “The boars are fairly solitary.”

While state and federal officials are eager to get these animals off the landscape, some hunters think of the boars as “trophy animals,” and as good sources of meat to fill their freezers. Dickinson said he and many others landowners in the greater Scott/Spafford area have posted their properties, and are often irritated by trespassing hunters in search of a shot at a boar.

“Don’t bother calling or contacting me to hunt on my property,” he said. “We have one trail camera still up and we haven’t seen one in five to six weeks. It looks like they were all eliminated.”

Seen a wild boar lately?

If you’ve seen a Russian wild boar or any other type of feral pig, call the DEC’s Cortland office at 1-607-753-3095, Extension 247, or email the DEC .

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog