LouisianaBowhunter.com posted a photo to its Facebook Page on Sunday depicting a group of wild hogs trotting through a field, the leader, carrying a fawn in its mouth.
The caption read: “Wondering what you can do during the off season? Well, I’ll just leave this here for ya to think about it.”
There is much attention paid to predator control when it comes to managing healthy deer populations, but more often than not, wild hogs tend to be a second thought to wolves and coyotes. While the management of coyotes and wolves is important to deer and many other game animals, the same can be said about feral hogs.
In addition to depleting limited food sources in any area they inhabit, these hogs have a keen sense of smell that enables them to locate birthing grounds. This unique ability gives them the advantage of seeking out newborn fawns and overpowering them, oftentimes before the mother has accounted for them.
The threat of wild hogs to whitetails may not be as widespread as say, coyotes, but in areas where the population of hogs is not able to be contained poses a significant threat to deer and the valuable habitat in which they live.
