STUTTGART — The feral hog population in the White River National Wildlife Refuge is continuing to grow, and the damage they do has been magnified by this year’s flooding and the drought that followed.
The Stuttgart Daily Leader reports that the hogs are damaging the levee along the White River, where they root through the soil and leave it vulnerable to washing away in a flood.
The hogs are no friends to hunters. The pigs will turn up at corn feeders left by deer hunters. They also destroy wild turkey habitat and eat nestlings, along with other birds.
Wildlife officials have a trapping program at the refuge but the traps are pulled during the summer because bears are also attracted to the bait.