Is this a problem now?

[Grant]

After seeing such feral swine in both northern Florida and the Great Smokies years ago (early '80s), I started reading up on them. Turns out that (at the time) there were just a few primary population centers in the U.S. where imported European boars had managed to survive, breed with local domestic swine, and thrive. One was in the Tennessee, N.C. border area (Smokies), another was north Florida, and the third was a small pocket in SW New Hampshire.

The first feral pigs in continental N. America escaped the expedition of Hernando de Soto, the Spanish explorer, in 1539–42. Wild pigs that escaped from Spanish colonists in Florida survived in the woods and swamps so well that today some of their descendants represent the only modern examples of old Spanish breeds that've since been lost to domestication.

In the northeastern U.S., New Hampshire is alone in having a feral swine population. Eurasian wild boars escaped from a game preserve many years ago and remain on the loose in the hills of Sullivan County.

That said, I've never seen one in the state, and had no idea they'd moved north (although that's logical).

Keep an eye out -- the LAST thing this state needs is another destructive, invasive exotic species. Don't get me started on rock bass ( ), and just pray that the snakeheads and Asian Carp don't find their way into our waters. And then there's zebra mussels...