Syracuse.com - DEC encourages hunters to take out wild boar in CNY

[HuntingNY-News]

Hunters with small-game hunting license may shoot and keep feral swine at any time and in any number during the year.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation is encouraging Central New York hunters to pursue wild Russian boars (also called feral swine) this hunting season.

“Feral swine are known to inhabit northern Cortland and southwestern Onondaga counties, southeastern Cayuga, northeastern Tompkins and Tioga counties,” according to a DEC press release. “ These aggressive invasive species cause serious agriculture and environmental damage and can degrade water quality and threaten human health.

“ Hunters with small-game hunting license may shoot and keep feral swine at any time and in any number during the year. If hunters are in an area that prohibits the use of rifles during big-game seasons, rifles cannot be used to shoot feral swine during any open deer season (including archery seasons),” the DEC said.

The boars, some getting up to more than 400 pounds, are believed to have escaped from a private hunting preserve more than a decade ago and continue to breed on the local landscape.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog