Trapping Feral Hogs

Trapping, especially where feral hog densities are high, is probably the most effective control method. However, traps may not be effective during fall and winter when acorns or other preferred natural foods are available. Hogs seem to prefer acorns over grain and other baits, probably due to the larger percentage of fat found in acorns. Leg snares and hunting may be more productive control methods during fall and winter, but usually require considerably more effort and should not be considered a long-term control stragegy. Stationary corral-type traps and box traps have been used with success, and will help to control numbers, but will not eliminate a hog population.

The corral or stationary trap is permanent and should be constructed in locations where large populations of hogs are evident and where more than one hog can be trapped at a time. It is recommended that the trap be built out of steel fence posts and 2 x 4-inch welded 12-gauge wire fencing. A gate frame can be made from 2 x 4-inch boards. Make doors from 3/4-inch plywood and mount them so that they open inward and close automatically with screen door springs. Heavier material may be used for the gate and frame in areas where exceptionally large hogs are to be trapped. Also, more steel fence posts may be needed to reinforce the wire fencing. The wire fencing should be put on the ground as well as at the top of the trap to prevent hogs from going under the sides or over the top. Fasten the sides to the top and bottom. Continue reading Trapping Feral Hogs

Legal Status of Coyotes

Status of coyote populations 

The status of coyotes varies depending on state and local laws. In some states, including most western states, coyotes are classified as predators and can be taken throughout the year whether or not they are causing damage to livestock. In other states, coyotes may be taken only during specific seasons and often only by specific methods, such as trapping. Night shooting with a spotlight is usually illegal. Some state laws allow only state or federal agents to use certain methods (such as snares) to take coyotes. Some states have a provision for allowing the taking of protected coyotes (usually by special permit) when it has been documented that they are preying on livestock.

In some instances producers can apply control methods, and in others, control must be managed by a federal or state agent. Some eastern states consider the coyote a game animal, a furbearer, or a protected species.

Coyote Home Range

Coyote Home Range 

Historically, coyotes were most common on the Great Plains of North America. However, because of changes in land use and the extirpation of the red wolf, coyotes have expanded their range. In fact, coyotes have since extended their range from Central America to the Arctic, including all of the United States (except Hawaii), Canada, and Mexico. When red wolves, which were two to three times the body size of coyotes, numbers declined, coyotes were able to expand their range to include much of the wooded habitats formely used by wolves.

Coyotes are generalist when it comes to habitat. They can survive in open prairie or dense woodlands, coastal marshes or deserts, or warm southern climates or the north country. The coyote was built for survival and it can make a living just about anywhere! 

Legal Status of Grizzly Bear

Legal status of grizzly bear hunting 

Grizzly bears south of Canada are protected as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act of 1973. However, the states Wyoming and Montana have limited grizzly bear hunting seasons as authorized under the act, but the seasons are currently closed pending clarification of the act through legal challenges in court and further actions by the states. Without state hunting seasons, killing of grizzlies is allowed only through official control actions or defense of self and property.

North of the Canadian border, grizzlies are hunted to varying extents in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Wrongful killing of a grizzly bear mandates a severe penalty of up to $20,000 in fines. Taking grizzly bears is being more liberally defined as court challenges establish that even habitat destruction can be interpreted as taking or killing.

Economics of Feral Hog Damage and Control

In most areas it is unlikely that feral pigs can be exterminated. It is theoretically possible, but the cost to totally eliminate feral hogs in usually prohibitive. In addition, even though it is theoretically possible to control wild hogs, I still don’t think it is possible because of the areas they inhabit. With this in mind, landowners must generally accept the fact that they will always have some wild pigs, and should therefore plan for a long-term control program.

Feral hog damage can be extensive and costly if not controlled. Control for disease suppression is extremely expensive because many hogs would need to be eliminated, the density greatly reduced to slow (much less stop) the transfer of disease between hog populations.

Feral Hogs

Crop depredations may cease after one or two hogs are shot or trapped, or intermittent hunting pressure is put on them. They simply move to new areas. If hog depredations are heavy enough to require a reduction in the overall population, then a program can be very costly, depending on the size of the area involved. Keep in mind that wild hogs cannot be eliminated by shooting or trapping, both together or alone, but these actions can help keep hogs numbers under control — or on your neighbors property!

Hunting Coyotes With Dogs

Training dogs to hunt coyotes 

Hunting coyotes is not easy, but hunting coyotes with dogs can make it a bit easier. Several dog breeds are generally known as trailing hounds, including Walkers, Julys, redbones, blueticks, black and tans, Plott hounds, and English fox hounds. Trail hounds follow the scent left by a predator and run it to tree or bay it on the ground. Coyotes are seldom caught and killed by trail hounds. In most instances, trail hounds are used in combination with sight hounds.

The trail hounds run coyotes into the open, and then sight hounds are released to capture the fleeing coyote. Often times, however, coyotes are shot as they run from the pack of hounds by hunters. Sight hounds, generally greyhounds or Russian wolf hounds, are used in open prairie country to run coyotes down and kill them. Trailing hounds can find secluded coyotes, but sight hounds have the speed necessary to catch and overtake the much slower coyote.

Texas ShareLunker Program

The ShareLunker program is a selective largemouth bass breeding program that is housed at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) in Athens. To participate, anyone legally catching a 13 pound or bigger largemouth bass from Texas waters, public or private, between October 1 and April 30 may submit the fish to the Toyota ShareLunker program by calling program manager David Campbell at (903) 681-0550 or paging him at (888) 784-0600 and leaving a phone number including area code.

Some of the offspring from these large fish are stocked back into the water body from which they were caught. This, in turn, increases the genetics of the remaining bass population. Other ShareLunker offspring are stocked in public waters around the state in an attempt to increase the overall size and growth rate of largemouth bass in Texas. Continue reading Texas ShareLunker Program