Tag Archives: monster hogs

Hogs, Mysterious Wildlife

NEW VIDEO: 725-Pound Texas Hog—I’ve Connected Some Dots

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A 725.8-pound hog taken in Southeast Texas has become one of the most talked-about wildlife stories I’ve covered recently.

Its incredible size immediately attracted attention, but then people began looking closely at something else. The huge animal was black and white, and viewers started asking whether a hog that looked like this and weighed more than 700 pounds was really feral.

The debate made me connect some dots I hadn’t connected before. For years, I’ve known about giant domestic hogs being released at different locations in this region.

My new video reveals that history and looks at how those releases could help us understand some of the enormous feral hogs roaming Southeast Texas—including why a 725.8-pound free-ranging hog can look very different from what people expect a feral hog to look like.

WATCH THE NEW VIDEO: Was That 725-Pound Texas Hog Really Feral?

There are some important distinctions to make. This hog was free-ranging when it was killed, and its weight wasn’t someone’s field estimate. The animal was photographed on a scale registering 725.8 pounds.

What we don’t know is the complete ancestry of this individual hog, and that’s an important difference.

Domestic swine can escape or be released and become feral. Over time, those animals and their descendants can reproduce with other free-ranging hogs, contributing to the tremendous variation in size, coloration and physical characteristics we see in feral hog populations.

So unusual domestic characteristics don’t automatically make a free-ranging animal somebody’s pet or a barnyard hog.

That’s where the history I’ve known about for years becomes especially interesting. Giant domestic hogs were released at different locations in this region over a long period of time. I can’t connect this particular animal to any specific release, and I’m not claiming I can.

But I can connect the dots enough to ask a bigger question: Could that history help explain some of the enormous and unusual-looking feral hogs roaming this part of Texas today?

That’s part of what I explore in the new video. The 725.8-pound hog is real. The documented weight is real. The animal was free-ranging, and the history of giant domestic hog releases in the region is real.

What we don’t know is exactly how all those pieces fit together.

And that’s what makes this story worth digging into.

Chester Moore

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Hogs

Monster Hogs: Killing Bear-Sized Boars

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In part two of the Higher Calling Wildlife podcast series, we discuss truly monster hogs.

Click to listen to this interview with “The Hogfather” Frank Moore.

In this episode we address the following questions:

*What is the maximum size for wild hogs?

*Are wild hogs as smart as whitetails?

*Can you specifically target and kill giant boars?

*Which is more dangerous-giant boars or sows?

*How are monster hogs thriving in cities?

Plus, much, much more.

You can listen to part 1 of the series here.

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Animal Americana

Monster Hogs lurking in southern cities? Pt. 2

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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.