Hog attacks are rare. Hog attack fatalities are even rarer but they do happen.
Hogs are misunderstood animals and in reality many people underestimate them which is leading to problems since both hog and human populations are skyrocketing in America.
Hear about the hog attack tragedy in Anahuac TX and why experts believe a sounder of hogs was to blame. Learn why dogs can be a liability in hog country and hear about a case of a legitimate predator hog that pursued humans. Also, learn what to do if attacked by a hog. Y
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In this episode of Higher Calling Wildlife on the Waypoint Podcast Network, host Chester Moore and hog expert Jeff Stewart analyze a 2021 hog attack after Chester interviews the survivor who tells a terrifying story of his near-death encounter.
The first time I went into this location I got the creeps.
You know that feeling you get when you think something might be watching you?
Well, that’s what I had.
So I do what this inquisitive wildlife journalist always seems to do. I pressed on.
I found some large feral hog tracks. They were 3.5 inches long and were the only hog tracks in area.
This location is a piece of property I have access to in a local city. It’s close to homes and areas used for a variety of recreation so I decided to put my Moultrie Mobile XV-6000 that sends photos to an app on my cell phone when photos are taken.
The first photo taken Oct. 7 clearly shows the boar which judging by the tracks and its height measured next to the vegetation in the area is a big boy.
I’d say it weighs 200 plus pounds. It’s not a monster but a legit big hog.
The second shot comes three days later and is the same hog. Between this time and for an additional four days there were no other animals on this trail.
And when I scouted the area-even in a wide patch of open dirt the only trucks were this guy’s tracks. There were no rabbit, raccoon, other hog, opossum, armadillo or any of the tracks of animals common in this area. In fact, just 1/4-mile down from here there is plenty of other animal sign.
I believe I was in the area this hog stakes as its home base of operation and it keeps a lot of other animals, especially other hogs out.
In a 2017 article I did for The Wildlife Journalist, I quoted a study conducted by Dr. Jack Mayer of the Savannah River National Laboratory.
The study documented 412 wild hog attacks worldwide impacting 665 people. During this time there were four fatal hog attacks in the United States.
Of the 21 states reporting hog attacks Texas led the pack with 24 percent with Florida at 12 percent and South Carolina 10. Interestingly when examining worldwide shark fatalities hogs actually beat them out in deaths some years-including 2013.
Here’s where it gets interesting about our solitary boar. Check out these stats.
In his study, hogs that attack are described as solitary (82 percent), large (87 percent) and male (81 percent) and most attacks occurred when there was no hunting involved.
The boar in these photos checks off all of those boxes.
Someone like me who has an idea what he is looking for and knows to take precautions going into a spot like this is one thing.
But how many people in urban and suburban areas will have surprise encounters these kinds of hogs as their populations grow?
We need to start educating people about hogs in urban and suburban areas. And as whatever means are used to take out hog numbers in these zones (usually trapping), specifically targeting some of these lone boars might be wise.
The author with the kind of hog described in the story taken on the outskirts of a populated area. The author’s friend Gerald Burleigh who shot this photo has trapped more than 500 hogs in five years from the same location. Whether you hunt or not you should be for hunting hogs as they do an incredible amount of damage to native wildlife. All wild hog meat taken by the author is eaten by his family or given to those in need.
We have a proven profile of a killer and we can’t know which one will snap but have a very high percentage idea of the ones with the capacity.
It’s a conversation that needs much more discussing.
I pulled the camera from the spot as I have some research to tend to at another location and I have to be honest I was glad to have them out of there.
That place gave me the creeps as much when I left as when I first found evidence of this lone, territorial boar.
Chester Moore
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The smell of southern fried seafood hit my nostrils as the car doors opened.
As I walked over to open the door for my then girlfriend (now wife) Lisa, the pleasant aroma hit every hunger button I had. Visions of shrimp and sausage gumbo danced in my head.
Then as Lisa stepped out of the car I heard something move in the tall cane behind us.
As we fixed our eyes toward the racket a huge mud-covered animal emerged.
At first in the dim light at the back end of the parking lot I thought it was a young steer as cattle are common in any pasture, wood lot or in the case chunk of marsh next to the restaurant. Take a close look at these huge hogs captured on an infrared game camera by Timothy Soli and you will see domestic influence. This is common in some areas and in some southern areas giant domestic breeds are allowed to free range on fenced ranches. But fences don’t always keep them in.
But it was no steer.
This was a hog, one that weighed well beyond 500 pounds.
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 is a piece of marsh probably in the 300 acre range 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 used to be common in southeastern Texas. It does not take hogs 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.
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. Chester Moore, Jr.
