Imagine walking through a wooded area on a crisp fall day,
enjoying the brilliant foliage. Suddenly
you hear a squeal, followed by the thundering sound of a huge animal galloping
up behind you! You turn to look - it's a
huge pig with giant tusks, bigger than you could've imagined! If you survive, your friends will never
believe this story. (Click here to read Part 1.)
Or will they? Giant feral pigs have been in the news for several years. The photograph above
depicts an Australian farmer and his catch - a feral pig said to weigh 440
pounds. Supposedly, the farmer was
checking the windmills on his farm and saw and shot the pig. Part 1 of this story explains the differences
between feral and domestic pigs.
Catching Big Pigs
eHow.com
explains how to catch a feral pig - although the article only achieved a rating
of 2/5 stars. The basic steps were the
following, with warnings that although dogs could be helpful in finding the
scent, they could easily be hurt or killed by feral pigs:
- Find nesting ground and
determine feeding patterns
- Set up pig feeders
- Set up pig traps
- Place feeders in traps
- Use online resources for
domestication info
Most of the exceptionally large feral pigs on record have
simply been shot on sight.
Hogzilla
In 2005, the remains of a feral pig were dug up and studied
for a documentary. The pig had been shot
and killed in Georgia
in 2004. At the time of its death
"Hogzilla" was supposedly over 12 feet long and 1,000 pounds.
Studies showed that Hogzilla was half feral pig and half
domestic swine. National Geographic
experts believe the animal actually weighed 800 pounds and was really about
eight feet long. The length discrepancy
comes from the fact that the hunter measured Hogzilla while the animal was
suspended by its hind feet. The tusks of
the carcass measured 28 inches in length!
It was determined that this type of large pig is either a
domestic pig, obese from captivity, or a huge feral pig (or in this case, a
combination).
Bigger than Hogzilla?
There is a story floating around that in 2007, a boy from Alabama killed a feral
pig that weighed in at 1,051 pounds - trumping Hogzilla's record. This pig was "only" 9 feet, four inches in
length. The 11-year-old boy shot the
animal eight times and had to follow it through the woods for three hours
before finishing it off. The animal
generated an estimated 500-to-700 pounds of sausage and a mounted head with a
circumference of 54 inches.
 Entelodonts - Hell Pigs / Terminator Pigs
Entelodonts are an extinct family of omnivores that were
around for about 20.9 million years during the Eocene and Miocene epochs. They are distantly related to modern pigs and
stood about 6.9 feet at the shoulder - with brains the size of an orange. Weight was estimated to be about 9,300
pounds. These guys obviously put today's
giant pigs to shame!
Largest Captive Pig
All of this research on wild pigs had me wondering if there
was a record for the largest pig in captivity.
Obviously, this would be "cheating" to some extent, because the animal
would not forage for its food and probably wouldn't receive any exercise
either.
According to Syracuse.com,
Big Norm, the world's largest pig weighed in at 1,600 pounds and passed away on
August 17, 2008. He was seven years
old.
Resources:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/giant-feral-pig.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2248177_catch-feral-pigs.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogzilla
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275524,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entelodont
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/big_norm_the_worlds_largest_bi.html
http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/10534
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