Deer hunters urged to help eliminate feral pigs

• Feral pigs

Feral pigs in a field. Photo courtesy Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

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• Link to Wisconsin DNR Feral Pig reporting page

State wildlife officials are encouraging hunters heading out for Wisconsin’s traditional nine-day gun deer hunting season to help eliminate a growing problem -- feral pigs.

Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources say hunters can help by reporting feral pig sightings or by shooting the pigs if they encounter them in the field.

“Free roaming pigs can be found across a wide variety of habitats and are highly destructive because of the rooting they do in search of food,” says Brad Koele a DNR wildlife biologist.

“They’re also efficient predators preying on many species including white-tailed deer fawns and ground nesting birds like grouse, woodcock, turkeys, and songbirds,” he added.

Feral pigs are known to carry a number of diseases of danger to the domestic swine industry, however, infected feral pigs have not yet been documented in Wisconsin.

Feral pigs have now been found in at least 29 Wisconsin counties.

Feral pigs are considered unprotected wild animals and may be hunted year-round, according to DNR officials.

The only day they cannot be hunted with a gun is the Friday before the nine-day gun deer hunting season. Also, hunting hours are the same as deer during the nine-day season. During the rest of the year, there are no hunting hour restrictions.

There is no bag limit on feral pigs. Landowners may shoot feral pigs on their own property without a hunting license. Anyone else can shoot a feral pig as long as they possess a valid small game license, sport license, or patron license and have landowner permission if they are on private land.

Information on feral pig hunting, including a list of counties where feral pigs have been sighted or killed, is available on the DNR Web siite (www.dnr.state.wi.us).

Maps showing public hunting grounds are also available DNR Managed Lands then Recreational Lands for opportunities to perhaps find wild pigs on public hunting grounds.

Tags: outdoor, hunters, feral, pigs