SALEM, Ohio – The concept sounds like something you’d find in the Deep South, or maybe out West. And unless you’ve seen them, chances are you won’t believe it: Wild hogs are reported wandering in at least 17 Ohio counties.
Wild hogs, 200- to 300-pound bristle-haired animals, some with tusks, are destroying cropland and woodlots as they move.
State Division of Wildlife officials want your help in pinpointing where the wild hogs live in the state, and controlling the population.
On the prowl. Dave Swanson, a statewide forest wildlife research supervisor based in Athens, says his area is the hotbed of hog homes.
When he started with the division of wildlife in 1993, there were already rumors of these feral pigs running the countryside. In 1995, when he moved to Athens County, he heard real accounts of men and women and children hunting them in Hocking and Washington counties.
Today, hunters flock to the 30,000-acre Zaleski State Forest in neighboring Vinton County with hopes of bagging their own wild hog, he said.
There are reports of hunters shooting the hogs in the state forest. And there are reports of many more hogs shot on private property.
Source. Wild hogs –
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