Referred to in some scientific literature as “ecological zombies,” feral hogs cost millions of dollars of damage to farms, fields and forests, and they are breeding and spreading at a rate that outpaces the efforts of wildlife professionals to control them. In this Halloween edition of Earthly, Jonathan talks to Greg Yarrow and Andrew Jamison about the feral hog problem in South Carolina and the Southeast. Yarrow is interim dean of Clemson’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Science and professor of wildlife biology at Clemson University, and Jamison is a graduate student. Together, they’re leading an effort to greater understand these “ecological zombies” and finding ways to control them. They also discuss once and for all whether Hogzilla — the 800-pound animal caught in South Georgia — is fact or folklore.
Additional Resources
South Carolina Wild Hog Taskforce
Recommendations for Management and Control
SC Department of Natural Resources: Wild Hogs
Wild Pigs Complicating Deer Movement
