The Feral Pig Problem in Texas

The pig thing, I'm glad you brought that up, because that is one thing that I keep hearing out here from folks, that there's an attitude about pigs that they're disgusting, they're just dirty creatures, and they kind of just want them dead. And I've talked to people that go helicopter hunting, and I go, well, what do you do with all the pigs? And they're like, you leave them there. And I'm like, what? I'm like, that doesn't seem... that seems not just wasteful, but... Well, you know, I mean, there's a lot to that. You have to, right? Because of the... you have to eradicate a certain amount of those pigs. But isn't there like a lot of food that you're just letting rot? There is. So, I mean, this is the Pandora's box topic for me. I'm very vested in it. I just wrote a book about feral hogs. Steve Vernella, to come full circle on that, he called me the hog apologist. And it's true. But to your point, I think that, you know, we'll start there with a feral hog. Let's explain the numbers, too, because people need to know how fucking crazy it is here in Texas. And of course, these numbers are not going to be clearly defined. You know, it's hard to get a census on hogs. So the estimate in the United States is around 6 million. The estimate here in Texas is between 2 and 4 million. So probably somewhere in the middle of that, maybe 2.6. That's a number that you'll see a lot, maybe around 3 million, but whatever. So literally more than the entire population of Austin? In hogs. Spread out around the state. And in the time we've been talking about them, you know, how many a bunch more. Point, point, point, point. So they have no breeding season. They can breed at a very young age. You know, let's say five or six months. It's very conceivable. And then they have a gestation period of three months, three weeks, three days. And then they can drop a litter of, you know, always three days. So you can just plan it out. Yeah. I mean, it's pretty pretty precise like that. I bet women are very jealous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll be giving birth on Wednesday. Yeah. At a time den. And after that, I mean, they're able to go back into estrus pretty quickly after that. And their litter size can be anywhere from, you know, 2 to 12. But, you know, let's just say it's, you know, even 6 is a lot. So you've got a 10-month-old animal dropping six babies. And they can do it three times a year. Well, twice. You know, that'll the way that works out, you know, you've got I think it's 20. I want to say 26 days that they can go back into estrus, something like that. It might be 23 days. I can't remember the number right now after they give birth. And they're back in estrus. And if they're living in an area that's got a high population of boars, they're probably going to get bred pretty quick. And so that's when you see this explosion that has happened. And so they're not indigenous to this country. So they came here in the mid-1500s. Columbus brought some to, I mean, just the Caribbean islands. But the mainland was it's usually attributed to Hernando de Soto, who dropped off a bunch of pigs on his way before he died in Arkansas. And then there was some other explorers that also brought in pigs, Spanish explorers that brought in, you know, domestic, semi-domestic hogs and dropped them off. And so what we saw was this real slow build in pig populations. There was also some Pacific Islanders that dropped them off in Hawaii way before that. So if you're talking about the technical United States, why did they drop them off in Hawaii? It's a food source. No, no. When? When? Oh, it was it was I couldn't give you a number. It's way previous to the 1500s. Wow. That's wild. So that's a weird debate in Hawaii, right? Because a lot of people are saying they're an invasive species. And then some folks are like, well, so are people. Sure. Because if you think about it, the hogs have been there as long as the people almost. There's going to be a lot of parallels. Yeah. Yeah. There's a very destructive European animal arrives on our shores. Yeah. And and now there's a lot of them. So, you know, you've got these populations exploding throughout time, but really kind of concentrated in the late 1900s, like the 80s. And then you saw people, you know, you've got a guy that loves to hunt on his ranch in West Texas. And he says to his friend in East Texas, like sure as hell like to be able to shoot something out here year round. Buddy in East Texas is like, wow, man, I got some pigs. And then, you know, traps a couple, throws them on a trailer. And now you have 253 out of 254 counties in Texas have hogs, feral hogs. Wow. And they're spreading all across the country, too. Yeah. There's a downward migration from Saskatchewan, you know, and those are escaped domestic hogs. But I mean, let's also define what a feral hog is. It's a pig that's just on the wrong side of a fence. I mean, once they get out, that's a feral pig. So I like to say it's a it's a domestic pig or a feral hog is just a pig without an address. You know, they just as soon as they get out of that pen, they're feral. And I will readily admit, I mean, not even on purpose, but we have shot while hunting pigs that had ear tacks, meaning that at one point that was a farm pig. It's not anymore. And what it's doing is it's breeding like crazy out there with with a feral boar. And it's just creating more feral pigs. So like I said, once they're on the wrong side of the fence, they're fair game. Well, we should explain to people what happens to pigs, right? I've talked about it on the podcast before, but people haven't heard that episode. There's a physiological change that happens to pigs when they get wild. So when you're saying that this these are pigs, they're wild pigs, people like wait, but they're boars. Boars are different than pigs. It's all called soos scrofa, right? Correct. Correct. And once they escape within months, their hair can become shaggy. And we're talking about the same pig, you know, not its offspring. Right. Their hair can become shaggier and their snouts will elongate in order to allow them to root more effectively, because that's one of their primary ways of feeding is rooting. And that's the most destructive way. I mean, they can dig three feet down in soft dirt, and they're getting roots, they're getting insects. They're omnivores. And they'll go after anything. And so once they get out, they go feral quick, they get street smarts, too. I mean, they go nocturnal. I mean, they're smart, smart animals. And so you add all this together, you know, the herds that were initially brought here for food and then further domestic herds. And then you have escapees over hundreds of years of, you know, settling in this country and you've got escaped domestic hogs. Then you've got hogs specifically brought in for hunting, namely your Russian boars, your Eurasian boars, which are kind of the big hairy razorbacks. How much different are those? Is it all it's still the same species? Yes, it is. And they're I mean, they're there. It's like, I believe, and, you know, not I don't want to stand by it, but I believe it's just like a subspecies. There's one more Latin name after Susgropha for the Eurasian, but freely interbreeding. It's not like I mean, they're not hybrids where they're not. Well, they make hybrids, right? But the hybrids are viable. Absolutely. Yes. It's not like a hybrid, like a liger where they can't. No, no, no, no, no, nothing like that. And so then you've got some some kind of specific areas. California had a lot of Russian boars brought in and there's certain areas in Texas. The Powderhorn Ranch down there, Port O'Connor, was one that had some brought in specifically and deposited there. Is the difference in the flavor or the way they look like the flesh? It would be really hard to determine that now because most of them over the years have been a bread with your standard feral pig. And so purebred populations of those hogs are very hard to find. It's debatable whether the Powderhorn Ranch population is purebred Russian boar. I've read I've read different things about it. Some say that it's not. Some say that it is. It's a high fence. It's got a high fence around it and has had one since the 1920s, I believe. Oh, wow. And so whenever they brought in the boars, those are the same breeding population. Right. They think. But you know, you know, a fence doesn't mean shit to a pig. You know, they go under it, you know, any way around it that they can flood waters come up, they can swim. You know, it's so it's not known. But there is one sequestered population of feral hogs in the United States. And that's on Osaba Island off the coast of Georgia. And so that was an Iberico hog brought over here by the Spanish. You know, pointy hats, long brown robes. They drop some hogs on that island. And that island has sustained a population of purebred Iberico hogs to this day. It's called Osaba Island. And they have an Osaba Island hog, which is a purebred Iberico hog, which is the same hog that produces the 150, 150 dollar a pound Serrano ham. Catch new episodes of the Joe Rogan experience for free only on Spotify. Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify, including clips easily, seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on Spotify. You can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps and can download episodes to save on data costs all for free. Spotify is absolutely free. You don't have to have a premium account to watch new JRE episodes. You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app. Go to Spotify now to get this full episode of the Joe Rogan experience.