Helicopter snipers to take on invasive feral hogs at Land Between the Lakes

Chris Smith | Leaf Chronicle

The war on feral hogs at Land Between the Lakes has escalated, with plans announced this week to shoot them on sight from helicopters.

The winter campaign to eradicate feral hogs at LBL begins in November and also includes bait trapping and euthanasia, managed by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Kentucky Division of Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Feral hogs are non-native and threaten visitor safety, cultural sites and native plant and wildlife species, LBL officials said.

APHIS began assisting the Forest Service with trapping in 2014 with success but not at a rate that keeps up with the hogs' rapid growth. In 2018, 70 feral hogs were euthanized by APHIS. In 2019, that number grew to 124.

Feral hogs can have two litters per year averaging 5-10 piglets. Those offspring can give birth to a new generation in less than a year, the release said.

“Feral hogs threaten the values that make Land Between the Lakes such a special place,” said Tina Tilley, area supervisor at the U.S. Forest Service. “Feral hogs now pose a serious threat to the heritage sites across Land Between the Lakes, and we can’t risk losing the sites that connect so many to their past.”

The hogs not only destroy farming crops, native wildlife, cemeteries and streams, they also carry an array of diseases that can infect livestock, pets and humans.

Tilley says feral hogs are invasive but highly adaptive and can quickly out-compete native animals, not unlike the Asian carp that have invaded the surrounding lakes.

“Feral hogs pose a serious threat similar to the Asian carp and we must take additional steps to make a greater impact on feral hogs now.”

And, though not as well as Asian carp, hogs can swim. The boars have been known to swim the river to seek out females, said Terri Brunjes a wildlife biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

"We don't have the large predators that are going to control our pig population," said Brad Robbins, USDA Wildlife Services district supervisor.

Traps work all year, but helicopters are much more effective for a large group of hogs.

For the helicopters, the equipment and manpower have to be available, the weather has to be right, and the trees have to be clear of leaves for better visibility.

"All the stars have to line up," Robbins said. "However, when the stars line up, there's not a tool in the box that can compete with this. If you've got large pieces of contiguous real estate, and if you've got a population of pigs on that real estate, there's nothing that can compete with this."

The shooter will use a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun from treetop level.

The hogs have to be left where they are, and what officials called "natural recycling" takes care of them.

Experts warned against the hunting of wild hogs. Not only is it illegal, it's part of how the population explosion started.

“Hunting wild hogs is counterproductive to agency eradication efforts,” Brunjes said. “Hogs that are hunted disperse into new areas and become very difficult to find and euthanize."

And as far as hunting goes, hunters have a definite interest in getting rid of the hogs, which drive down populations of deer and turkeys.