CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — There have been feral hog sightings in at least 23 of 55 West Virginia counties.
That’s according to data from the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health’s Early Detection & Distribution Mapping System (EDDMapS).
EDDMapS reports that wild boar Sus scrofa (feral type) were spotted in:
Captain Experiences, a hunting and fishing guide company, used the EDDMapS to rank states by how widespread their feral hog sightings are. Feral hogs, it says, are invasive and destructive and capable of growing up to five feet long and weighing 400 pounds.
With 41.8% of counties reporting a total of 75 feral hog sightings, West Virginia was not one of the worst impacted states. Those states, according to Captain Experiences’ study, were:
- Ohio, with 102 hog reports across 23.9% of counties
- Kentucky, with 310 across 67.5% of counties
- Missouri, with 336 across 53.9% of counties
- South Carolina, with 423 across 100.0% of counties
- Tennessee, with 488 across 87.4% of counties
- California, with 563 across 100.0% of counties
- Alabama, with 590 across 100.0% of counties
- Louisiana, with 613 across 98.4% of counties
- North Carolina, with 655 across 85.0% of counties
- Arkansas, with 657 across 98.7% of counties
- Oklahoma, with 665 across 98.7% of counties
- Mississippi, with 731 across 100.0% of counties
- Florida, with 1,193 across 100.0% of counties
- Georgia, with 1,377 across 100.0% of counties
- Texas, with 2,425 across 99.6% of counties
In West Virginia, wild boar archery and crossbow season is from Sept. 30, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023, and from Feb. 2, 2024, to Feb. 4, 2024, and wild boar gun season is from Oct. 28, 2023, to Nov. 4, 2023, and Feb. 2, 2024, to Feb. 4, 2024.
