kai

as far as feral hogs go (i've been studying them a bit, for the city) and all I can say is that I do not want to be camping in pig territory, if i can avoid it. I imagine they'll go right thru your tent looking for food, even if you are in it. They seem to move quickly, at least more quickly than I do, and I don't want to be caught in the position of trying to evade one with a pack on. don't much think I could do it. And, they can get big. I've seen a couple big ones charge off in the past month or so, and that was enough for me.

Spring is a very active time for pigs- things seemed to be pretty quiet all winter, and in the past couple months activity has been increasingly dramatically. I don't know if they are increasing in population year to year (i haven't been here that long), but perhaps the increase that someone noted on the other website is in reference to very recent/seasonal activity? I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that they are becoming more destructive overall though. I would think, at least around san antonio, that they may appear to be increasing in numbers and in destructive activity due to a smaller habitat available to the pigs- there are a lot of new housing developments encroaching on their habitat, and that may be pushing the pigs into more park like and populated areas, and making them generally more noticeable. (don't get me wrong... I don't think we need to save PIG habitat. other habitats, yes- but not the pigs. but there are things that live in the same places as the pigs, and those are getting kicked out too).

my thoughts on this: the relatively NEW statewide ban? NEW? this is a NEW ban? wow... new. as in recently- the past couple years? wow. I think such a ban, had it been in place before animal/human encounters became a problem, would have had a huge effect on curbing some the problem. I'm not positive, but I'm under the impression that such bans are common in other places and have been in place for some time. I think the main source of such bans were rabies scares in residential neighborhoods (like the one I grew up in- people used to feed racoons every night after dinner... but then my neighbor got bit on the toe while sunbathing in the middle of the day, and that was pretty much the end of our somewhat tame racoon population).

In NJ state parks if you leave food on a picnic table or a cooler outside of your car, you get fined. i've seen it. and i've seen what happens when people don't adhere to the rules. I wish i had my camcorder then- this big mama black bear in the bed of a pickup truck, standing on her hind legs, front legs on top of the cab, rocking the entire truck back and forth while the occupants hid inside. I was about 10 feet away (in my own car)- I could see their terrified faces. they had left all their food out unattended. the bear ate all their food, and I guess was looking for more food in the truck- a wilderness mugging of sorts. I can't imagine if it had been a grizzly or anything. Black bears are somewhat less fierce, i think, and smaller. but seeing how the mama bear had sent her cubs up the tree behind my campsite (they mewed like kittens, actually- kind of cute) and attacked the campsite on the other side of me, putting us directly between her and the cubs (she walked right thru our campsite- food was in the car, sealed, luckily)- well, the black bear was enough for me. we had fun that night hanging out with ranger bob, his night vision goggles and his flash-bang rifle (rubber bullets, i hear- and makes a huge flash and bang to scare off the bears).

Sorry- i drifted a bit. Anyway. I'm not sure that a ban on feeding animals will help the feral pig situation very much. From what I've seen in my limited experience with feral pigs is that they munch on roots and dig up the ground to get to the roots just about anywhere they can. I've come up on them along trails where they do this. Since I was in a restricted area where i assume there are no people to feed the animals (who would feed a pig anyway?) I don't think a ban on feeding wild animals is going to help curb human/pig interactions. not directly. however, anything that can be done to reinforce the pigs natural desire to run AWAY from humans (and not reinforce a desire to run towards humans) is probably a good idea. I, personally, do not want to be associated with a source of food for just that reason.