The smell of southern fried seafood hit my nostrils as I opened the door of my truck.
When I walked over to open the door for my girlfriend (now wife) Lisa, a huge mud-covered animal emerged from the marsh on the edge of the seafood restaurant’s parking lot.
At first, in the dim light, I thought it was a young steer as cattle are common in any pasture, wood lot or marsh in the area.
But it was no steer.
This was a hog, one that weighed well beyond 500 pounds. It was white and covered in mud.
It grunted heavily when it saw us (we were only 10 steps away) and then went on about its business of rooting up the ground.
The area the animal came from from marsh next to a large refinery facility. This is bordered by a large chip channel and a whole bunch of industrial buildings and homes.
Obviously that huge hog, perhaps a domestic set free to graze years ago as that used to be common in Southeast Texas. It does not take hogs long to go back to their wild origins and integrate into any purely feral hog populations.
This was not the only time I came across evidence of monster hogs in the area.
Early in my writing career a man told me had located a really big black boar in a wood lot behind the Vidor, TX Wal Mart and wanted to know if I wanted to tag along with he and his dogs to catch it.
I declined.
Two weeks later a letter arrives in the mail with a photo of the hog they killed, all 400 pounds of it. I later drove by the area to inspect and saw the 20 acre wood lot the beast had lived in amongst a city of 10,000.
Both of the aforementioned hogs were boars and large, solitary ones that can find enough woods to hang out during the day and vacant field, cattle pastures (common in southern cities) right of ways along highlines and drainage canals can thrive
Throw in the aforementioned practice of allowing domestic hog breeds like Yorkshires and Durocs feed on open range with cattle and you have an even bigger chance of huge hogs showing up. Hogs show little regard for fencing and also need no help from man to survive beyond captivity.
As hogs push deeper into urban territory, certain individuals will find these sanctuary areas that will allow them to grow to epic proportions.
Animal control offices throughout the South (and as far north as New Jersey) are contending with hogs now on a daily basis but monsters like these are unlikely to participate in any trapping program they initiate.
Listen to an episode of Dark Outdoors about hog attacks here.
Without the gun as an option in these urban sanctuaries, those hogs with the genetic code to grow huge will, dethroning the coyote as the apex of city-dwelling wildlife.
Young pigs will provide coyotes food but the ones I am writing might just decide to make coyote their food.They are able and in some cases totally willing.
Right now there are sizable feral hog populations in Beaumont, Dallas-Forth Worth and Houston, in in my home state of Texas and also around Baton Rouge, La. and a number of sizable metro areas in Florida such as Tampa.
I believe what we are about to see is cities harboring some absolutely monster-sized hogs.
There is adequate habitat, food and cover and large boars in particular which tend to be solitary are great at remaining hidden. They may in fact possess more “intelligence” than any wild animal in North America.
Hogs are popular with hunters and in fact, have superseded whitetail deer as the most harvested animal in Texas with a whopping 750,000 new killed annually according to Texas AgriLife. Louisiana and Florida also support a huge hog hunting culture.
The fact that firing guns in city limits is a no-no will give hogs with monster genes the opportunity to live to maximum potential.
This is where it will get interesting.
Sightings will be elusive but these creatures will be seen perhaps in schoolyards near children or eating Fifi” the poodle as granny takes it for a stroll in the park.
How will the public react to seeing a boar just shy of average grizzly proportions (600 pounds) strolling down main street?
The one I saw as a teen coming out to sniff the seafood is a reminder this phenomenon did not start over the last decade. But hog numbers have exploded and their push into the cities has increased dramatically.
People need to be aware of their existence and while hogs are not out to get people, the killing of a woman in a yard in Anahuac, TX reminds us they are a legitimate danger.
Chester Moore
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