Wild hogs in Brownwood
 

Hello all,

First post from a long time Pennecamp lurker here.
We were on our way home from City Fire Brownwood last night at 10p.m.
About a mile up Buena Vista heading for 466A a BIG PIG, my estimate 200+
lbs,, ran from our left in front of us. We hit it square in the front at 15-20 mph. Only minor damage to our Toyota Avalon and thankfully, no airbag deploy. Piggy shook itself off and ran away. Our message as we sit here counting out blessings is simply BE CAREFUL.

There was a dead hog on 441 in Fruitland Park Sat AM...HUGE!! Must have come out of the Lake Griffin area. Glad you are ok. Those things can quickly do a lot of damage.

Oh,oh hope someone is picking up their poop!!!

Bacon! :D


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Heck with the car, glad you all are OK. Sounds to me like you hit a boar, and they get huge! Probably won't see them around here much longer once the housing develops some more. They don't like residential areas.

A word of caution, if you hit one, and it does not run off, do not get out of the vehicle. Call the police to have it removed from the road. Boars are dangerous, and if they are hurt or have piglets around, they are more dangerous.

Interesting animal though...really neat to watch from a safe distance.

Katie

Welcome to Florida! You'll find we have all kinds of friendly creatures you might run into. Wild hogs, Coyotes, water moccasins...love bugs.... just to name a few

...do not forget the roving pack of cougars at Katie Belle's.

Couple out that way are training pigs to be "comfort animals" so they can bring them into all the local restaurants! ;)

HaHa

I'd be scared to come across a wild boar when driving my golf cart home from Brownwood!

Just hope it doesn't happen!

Check out this link. It did actually happen albeit several years ago, could happen again.

Faa: Unruly Pig Was Ok Usairways Was Right To Allow Sow - Philly.com

capecodbob: Very funny. However, I would be wary taking a pig to a resaturant. it would be like taking your little dog to the waters edge of Lake Sumter.

They do get into residential areas. They would sleep in and root up the sand traps in Guam when I lived there. In Hawaii, they come down from the mountains and root up peoples back yards. I have seen them while hiking in the mountains and always carry a long bamboo staff for protection, just in case. These are not farm animals and are very dangerous.

A couple years ago in CA I was driving home from work in a heavy rainstorm. Driving thru a steep canyon area a very large feral pig was hit by a car after it apparently slipped down the wet hillside onto the two lane highway.

The pig was dragging its hind legs and attacking cars as they tried to get around it - not a happy piggy. Read in the paper the next day that the police had to shoot it to clear the highway.

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So let me get this straight--Snakes, Coyotes, Pigs and Cougars--In The Villages? Is it safe to drive late at night in the golf cart? Geesh-- I'm getting worried!!

You forgot to mention snakes in the garage.

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On Sunday mornings a couple bring their pot bellied pig into the entry seating area of a local high end restaurant where I now reside. Customers love the pig and take photos of it. Now and then it squeals a bit like a human child. We joke about owning it paying off in bacon in the future.

They are there because that is where the cubs hang out.

AND also BEARS! :eek:

What if these critters work their way north?


It's real: Attack of the giant African land snails in Florida
By Joe Sutton, CNN
updated 1:44 PM EDT, Mon April 15, 2013

Giant African land snails can carry a human parasite called rat lungworm, which is a form of meningitis and potentially deadly.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Giant African snails are menacing Florida's Miami-Dade County, say agriculture officials
They can grow as big as rats and could carry a potentially deadly parasite
Driving over their sharps shells can puncture car tires, experts say
Experts warn against handling them and suggest calling local agriculture agency
(CNN) -- Florida, already threatened with sinkholes, now has a new terror: rat-sized, tire-puncturing snails.
Sounding like something out of a 1950s B-movie, these giant African land snails eat their way through some surprising stuff, including stucco, plastic recycling bins, signs and more than 500 species of plants, says the Florida Department of Agriculture.
Their calcium shells bear pointy edges that are sharp enough to blow out tires of vehicles that run over them.
Agriculture Department spokeswoman Denise Feiber says the menacing creatures also carry a human parasite called rat lungworm, which is a form of meningitis and potentially deadly.
So far, no human cases have been reported in Florida, Feiber says. But some giant African land snails that have been captured in the state have carried the parasite.
The snails are isolated to the Miami-Dade County area, says Feiber. Experts don't know exactly how they were first introduced to the United States. It's thought they may have hitched rides aboard incoming travelers' luggage. Or some of them may have been intentionally carried into the country as pets -- and then released.
The snails have another trait in common with rats: They can multiply very rapidly -- and grow to adulthood in a year, Feiber says. The snails can produce up to 1,200 eggs per year, and they can live up to nine years.
Since agriculture officials first discovered the snail invasion in 2011, trappers have collected more than 117,000. Officials are hoping to prevent a worst-case scenario, where the snails would threaten Florida crops.
Some countries, such as Ecuador and Barbados, have run out of resources to fight these critters, Feiber said.
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Good one

Around Mainz, the Wild Swine are on the menu! Quite tasty!