Feral hog removal in NM ongoing
Five-year program has removed 1,620 of the destructive animals
CARLSBAD — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is nearing the end of an eradication program targeting feral hogs that have been rooting up New Mexico and other parts of the country.
The program is set to end in September 2018 and more funding will be needed to continue fighting the pests, USDA District Supervisor for Wildlife Services Brian Archuleta said.
Officials say about 1,620 invasive feral hogs were removed from New Mexico in the five years since eradication began.
The pigs dig up $1.5 billion in damage each year across the country, according to USDA records.
“They’re just mean animals,” said Woods Houghton, Eddy County agriculture extension agent with New Mexico State University. “They can sure eat up a freshly planted field easily. They get everything you planted. It’s unbelievable what they can do to an alfalfa field.”
Not native to New Mexico, the hogs are believed to have been first brought over from Europe in the 1500s when explorers were setting up future food sources in what was a desolate, untamed wilderness.
The pigs can grow to more than 1,000 pounds and as long as 6 feet, the Carlsbad CurrentArgus reported .
To eradicate the pigs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service embarked on a fiveyear eradication program in 2012.
The project started out with an annual budget of $1 million, but today, funding has dropped to about $400,000 per year.
“We need to do more eradication efforts,” Archuleta said. “We’re trying to find these little needles in a haystack. They are scattered.”
While the biggest population of the pigs was wiped out, Archuleta said sightings have continued and the USDA is working in 10 counties across New Mexico.
When the project started, efforts took place in 17 counties.
Once an area is identified for housing the pests, USDA agents take to their helicopters to gun down the invasive hogs in their assumed habitat.
Seventy percent of the pigs taken were killed by helicopter, which can cost about $1,000 per hour to fly.
Samples are taken from the carcasses, in hopes of finding new areas where the pigs have taken over.
“A lot of people mistake javelinas for feral hogs, but we’ll always check it out,” he said. “You never know if someone found a little pocket of pigs. We don’t just go flying around. We got specific areas. We’re systematically covering a broad area.”