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A lot of Aussie and Kiwis go dogging for pigs. Mostly in the hilly country of the great dividing range.

As Marrakai mentions there are several pig hunting magazines around at the moment and lots of videos.

Mostly the guys and girls release the dogs at sign and the dogs chase and run down the pig, holding it at bay. The fit hunter runs after them and runs it, flips the pig and stabs it in the heart with a bayonet.

Generally all pigs caught are killed. It is probably illegal to catch and release, in fact the feral pigs MUST be killed. They are considered noxious pests.

At least this is my armchair impression of it. I need to be fitter but I would give it a go to see what it is like.

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Wild pigs in Oz are from a number of sources.

In NSW and Southern Queensland, they are feral escapees or releases from farms. Some are becoming a little more boar like.

In the North of the NT and Queensland, Australia is closer to New Guinea, the Pacific Islands and Asia. Some pigs were reportedly released there by Asian and Islander traders. Inaddition European feral pigs bred with these swine. The Northern pigs are reported to be generally larger and often closer to true wild boar. The size may be abundant feed and the boar like attributes, the Asian genes.

Pigs in the wild will seeminly become more boar like the longer they are wild. The heavier shoulders and slimmer rear end. Bristles along the spine. Colour etc. In Australia they are known as Razorbacks.

Now I come to a favourite of mine which I learned about last year. The feral pigs on Kangaroo Island South of the coast of South Australia have been wild on the island for a good two hundred years. They are not numerous nor thick in numbers and can be hard to hunt. But they show a lot of wild characteristics and best of all the pork is mostly disease free. The locals eat them without any problem unlike our outback feral swine.

These Kangaroo Island wild pigs were released by whalers and sealers even before South Australia was colonised. Whalers, sealers and sea-traders released pigs and goats on island and lands as possible food sources in case of ship wreck. And there are a lot of ship wrecks on the Southern Coasts from those days. Directly South of KI across the Southern Ocean there is nothing until Antartica.

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John aka NitroX

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