The boar war: Hunters using DRONES and high-power firearms... to kill pigs in America's deep south

Louisiana Hog Control track pigs with thermal imaging camera on a plane



While an operator flies the aircraft hunters on the ground follow directions



Feral pigs cause billions of dollars worth of damage to crop fields ever year



A team of feral pig hunters are using technology to win their boar war by sending up remote control airplanes fitted with heat seeking cameras to guide them towards their prey.

The wild beasts are a serious problem in America's deep south where they cause around $1.5bn worth of damage to crops and wildlife every year.

Exterminators at Louisiana Hog Control are often charged with the task of tracking the pigs and killing them before they roam onto the next farm and wreak more havoc.

Hunters at Louisiana Hog Control pose with another successful haul, thanks to their trusty radio plane

The team use aerials to beam pictures back to ground where hunters are waiting for instructions to shoot



But the animals are experts in going unseen, often raiding crop fields in the dead of night.

Due to their illusive nature Cy Brown and his partner James Palmer at the hunting company have had to take special measures to catch up with their prey.

They use a radio-controlled airplane equipped with a thermal-imaging camera as a spotter which can then inform a human hunter on the ground.

The method has proven so successful that Brown estimates his team have killed roughly 300 wild pigs in the last six months alone.

Brown and his team of night hunters are so in demand that farmers will pay them a price per pig killed

Black heat spots on the map show pigs eating a farmer's crops in a field under cover of darkness

The hunters use images like this one to direct their troops towards the unsuspecting prey in the black of night

He said: 'Obviously it’s not completely new technology, but some of the sensors and computing power has gotten to such a state to where it’s very easy to build these things, have them last a long time and for them to have a little bit of brains'

Now in his third hunting season, Brown's idea stemmed from his love of model planes.

The hunter say that using planes has given them the upper hand, allowing them to kill 300 in the last six months The nocturnal pigs are less cautious at night having getten used to being able to raid farmers' fields

The scene may look like a blood sport, but wild boars can destroy acres of crops in the American south 'The aircraft is certainly capable of going thousands of feet, but generally the working altitude is 400 feet' Brown, 36, told FoxNews.com.

'And it’s hard to say whether it will be business, but I know people who are making their living doing this.' The system he uses is far from military grade, in fact, but anyone wishing to recreate his system will have to spend a serious amount.

This control centre allows the person steering the plane to communicate with other hunters

With two screens, the controller is able to see where his plane is headed and what the map below is showing

His aircraft is worth about $2,000 whereas the camera attached can cost upwards of $10,000 and beyond.



He recoups some of that money by charging a kill rate on the amount of pigs he kills, which is $25 per pig.