Any Wild/Feral Pigs in Washington?

[Bob33]

I remember a few years ago wdfw was encouraging people to go hunt pigs on the coast, no license or tag required.  Can't imagine they all got killed, you should contact fish n game and ask.

There were some near my place. Most of us figure someone was trying to get a population started by planting them just based of where they all started showing up. There were several shot that first year. I never heard of any after that.

It was a good ten years ago. They were in the Wynochee area. Have not heard of any confirmed sightings since.

[stevemiller]

Lots of hogs on the peninsula! Used to be alot near Cheney on the ranch. Rumors of some up north in the Colville, but Idont believe it..

Colville huh,that would explain the cougar size and population around there, 

[jasnt]

Thi sounds like its turning in too C-post thread.

[ICEMAN]

The only pigs I have seen in this state were two across my breakfast table the other day. Dang kids can go through a box of cereal at one sitting I swear!

[bigmacc]

While it would be awsome to do a hog hunt here in our home state,The way I understand it we dont never want that to happen.With all the destruction they do we would lose on deer and elk populations as the problem states have. 

I have a buddy who was born and raised in northern Arizona until he moved to Washington in the 80,s.He told me a story [that i think he said happened in the 70,s]of a livestock truck wrecking somewhere around Flaggstaff [i believe] that was loaded with about 400 domestic pigs.About 350 pigs survived and and disapeared into some prime elk and deer habitat.After about 3 or 4 years some were rounded up or killed by predators but a vast majority survived,bred and became wild.He said they became such a problem with tearing up prime elk and deer habitat that the game dept in Arizona open a season to try and wipe em out.My buddy said anyone with a valid Arizona hunting lic. was allowed to take 3 of these wild pigs and if you wanted to kill more you had to purchase some sort of special tag at 10 bucks a piece i believe for each additional pig.The ones he and his 2 brothers shot were in the 300 to 400 lb [per pig] range!He said the area they were hunting in looked like a war zone it was so tore up,trees sage brush uprooted,rocks and boulders moved around and holes in the ground you could park a VW bug in! He said when he left Arizona shortly after he still wasnt sure if they had erradicated all of them

[hillbilli]

"I know a guy who claimed there were wild pigs on the Olimpic Peninsula. Went their to hunt them, came back with not a pig sighted and claimed he saw Bigfoot. No joke! "


Guess we know who ate all those pigs now dont we??

[mountainman]

"I know a guy who claimed there were wild pigs on the Olimpic Peninsula. Went their to hunt them, came back with not a pig sighted and claimed he saw Bigfoot. No joke! "


Guess we know who ate all those pigs now dont we??

dang squatches! Lol!

[Heredoggydoggy]

Last I heard there were quite a few in Central Oregon.  It would be an agricultural disaster if they ever get to Washington.

I also heard that some feral hogs tried to get into Southern Idaho through some swampy land, and the Idaho F & G Department wiped them out... 

[Broken Arrow]

Here is an article from 2012. Sounds like the small population we had in 2000 was taken out.


Feral Pigs ‘Scare The Bejeebus’ Out Of Washington Wildlife Officials
By Andy Walgamott, on July 23rd, 2012
Even though Washington doesn’t have any known population of feral swine, the state is part of a new regional effort to report outbreaks of the unwanted invasive species.

Today marked the launch of the “Squeal on a Pig” campaign to build awareness about the threat the animals pose.

“They scare the bejeebus out of us in Washington,” says Bill Tweit of the state Department of Fish & Wildlife.

That’s because the state has some “great habitat” in the Willapa Hills.

“They would be tough on riparian areas, salmon recovery and agriculture,” he says.

Washington has been more successful than either Idaho or Oregon in killing off the unwanted porkers. Back in the early 2000s, after WDFW issued a press release looking for information on the location of feral swine on the southwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula, there was a mad scramble amongst hunters and others for the free bacon.

For years and years afterwards at the now defunct Fishing & Hunting News, we would get monthly requests for maps or any other info we had on the peripatetic porkers.

No reports have come in for awhile, but Tweit says that last fall, a roadkilled pig was brought into the Montesano office.

It’s unclear if it was feral or someone’s recently escaped animal.

He says that one of the main “vectors” for the introduction of feral pigs is hunting, and unfortunately that appears to be the case in Central Oregon where some may have escaped a shooting preserve and now roam private lands near Shaniko, 40 air miles south of the Columbia.

We wrote about the problems and solutions in the April 2011 issue of Northwest Sportsman.

Ferals are now also established in Southwest Oregon and near Boise. Some that turned up near a reservoir outside Ontario, Ore., several years ago, however, were quickly converted to pork chops and footballs.

Tweit says the damage the pics cause from their rooting is “immediate and apparent.” They can easily tear up moist uplands.

“They are not a stealth animal,” he says.

For that article last year, we quoted the Oregon Hunter’s Association secretary Duane Dungannon as saying, “OHA’s policy is to support efforts to eradicate feral swine. Oregon doesn’t need another invasive species that competes with native wildlife for food and water, and we certainly don’t need another predator that preys on fawns and nesting game birds and does such extensive habitat damage.”

A toll-free number, dubbed the Swine Line by The Oregonian, has been set up for anyone with a report to call. It is (888) 268-9219.

“We’re taking this opportunity to keep them out of Washington,” says Tweit.