Lake County has an abundance of wildlife. There are deer, bear, elk and other mammals, but there is one species that has particularly flourished and is now becoming a problem. I’m talking about wild pigs. Several ranchers have called me and wanted to know if they could get a depredation permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) to kill the pigs that have been tearing up their crops. The answer is yes.
All you have to do is to contact the local game warden who will investigate the problem. If the game warden feels the problem is warranted, he will issue a permit. The permit allows the property owner to kill as many pigs as is needed and he can take them without a hunting license or pig tags. The holder of a depredation permit can also kill the pigs at any time and that includes at night. Wild pigs can also be trapped as long as certain guidelines are followed. Recently one rancher in Scotts Valley had a trapper take 30 pigs in one day. Wild pigs in Texas have become such as nuisance they are often hunted from helicopters and thousands are killed each year.
Pigs are not native to California or even America. They were transplanted here from Eurasia and Northern Africa in the early 1700s by Spanish and Russian settler. They introduced domestic pigs to California as livestock and many became feral. In the 1920s a Monterey County landowner introduced the European wild boar, a wild subspecies into California, which bred with the domestic pigs. The result of these introductions is a wild boar/feral domestic pig hybrid.
Until the mid-1950s wild pigs were unclassified under state law and could be killed with no restrictions. In 1957 wild pigs were designated as a game mammal by the State Legislature. The Fish and Game Commission soon established hunting seasons, bag and possession limits, method of take and the conditions for using dogs.
Wild pigs currently exist in 56 of the state’s 58 counties and can be found in a variety of habitats ranging from woodland, chaparral, meadow and grasslands. They are omnivorous, consuming both plant and animal matter. In general, wild pigs feed on grasses and forbs in the spring, mast and fruits in the summer and fall, and roots, tubers and invertebrates throughout the year. There are physical differences between domestic and wild pigs. The hair on a domestic pig is short compared to long on a wild pig. The ears of a domestic pig are long and floppy whereas on a wild pig they are small and erect. The young of a wild pig are normally dark with horizontal stripes and the adult wild pig is normally black. On a domestic pig the color is usually uniform and is often white or pink. A large wild boar can weigh up to 300 pounds but a domestic boar can weigh a much as 500 pounds. Wild pigs tend to be more active during the nighttime. Many hunters put out trail cameras to record the number of pigs in a given area and most will tell you that the most active time for wild pigs is from 2 a.m. until daylight.
A wild boar can be a very dangerous animal. It has long tusks and is often aggressive. More that one guide has lost his dog to a wild boar and even hunters have been gored. They are especially dangerous when wounded or cornered.
Despite Lake County having a healthy population of wild pigs, only about 100 are taken yearly by hunters. Most of the wild pigs in the county reside on private ranches. They don’t like a lot of human activity and will quickly leave an area.
A wild pig has few natural enemies. Bears will kill and eat young piglets but rarely kill an adult pig. A wild pig can live up to 10 years but most only live five or six. They are extremely prolific as the sows often have two or even three litters a year. A litter can consist of eight to 10 young and two-thirds of them generally survive to become adults.
