I had recently finished reading a pig hunting book written by an Australian hunter. He wrote a lot about live captures as he was selling his pigs to the chiller box. To do this he had to be certified and the animals had to be recent kills. So he would capture his pigs alive and keep them in a set of yards until he had enough to cart them to the chiller box. This got me thinking about catching some pigs alive, this also has the advantage of learning more about the pigs as well as getting me a couple more pigs for the training block if I can get them trained up to respect the fences. We all hear about people catching a small pig and carrying them out alive but we don’t hear much about hunters taking bigger pigs alive. There is a big difference between NZ and Australia in our terrain we do not have the luxury of being able to drive to our pigs and we have a lot of step hills with a lot of bush. For me to be able to catch pigs alive I would need to get them out to a four wheel drive track. To do this I would need my dogs to do a lot of the work for me as it is easier to get the pig to a track with the dogs rather than try to carry it alive.
The first pig that I caught was a 104 pound boar, I was up on one of my neighbors places (Robbie) having a yarn where he has a hut right on top of the hill. While we were talking Fog had tracked off for a look. He spent about an hour looking around before the GPS told me that he had stopped in a gully 800 meters away. So I left Robbie’s and headed out to this gully on foot. At this point the dogs were a good 600 meters from any track so I let the young boar break knowing that he was more likely to go down hill towards the four wheel drive track. In the end I had him bailed right on the track so I encouraged Fog to go in and hold while I grabbed the pig and tied his legs up for collection later. Every body that knows me know that I do not like my dogs holding as I see this as a bad habit. When my dogs do go in Lightning likes to grab the front leg that is why I do not let him grab as this can hurt a pig fast to the extent that the pig can not be let go.
My other dog Thunder is still youngish at eighteen months and I have noticed his tendency is to grab on the arse which can also harm the pig. Fog on the other hand only likes to grab an ear so he is ideal for this job as long as he does not think he is allowed to do this any other time. When tracking my dogs they are wearing tracking collars that also have electric built in so any small pig squealing on the hill stops real fast. From the time that fog got onto this pig to the time that I had him tied up was about 80 minutes so he would have had the other two dogs on him as well for about fifteen minutes. With the pig tied up I had a big walk ahead of me back up to the top of the hill to my motorbike at Robbie’s hut. I rode the bike back around and picked this boar up three hours after leaving him. Back at home I put the pig in my cattle yards where I knew that he could not escape from. I knew that the pig had a number of dog bites on him but I did not think that he was to bad as he still had a lot of fight in him. Three days later this pig died due to either the few injuries that he had sustained or he may have stressed out to much with being captive or maybe a combination of the both. It was a good learning curb for me as it offered my a number of questions as well as answers. Would this boar have survived if I had let him go. The day I took him he had a lot of fight in him and even when I let him go in the cattle yards he wanted to charge me.
My next hunt a couple of days later I had the three dogs put up a bail 450 meters away on a 70 pound sow. This pig was only 150 meters off the track so I decided to take her alive. It did not take me to long to break her a couple of times on the last break she was trying to back away from the dogs through some matagouri so I called the dogs off and as soon as she turned to run I whistled the dogs back on her and bailed her right beside the track. As I got close I got Fog to grab her by the ear and tied her legs up.
It was an easy walk back to the bike, as I was riding back around to collect her I watched as Lightning went over to her and gave her a bit which I was ready for. He was quick to jump in the air as the electric collar done its job. This pig has got over any injuries that she had and is a very feisty as she always chargers at me when ever I am near. So the learning and training will be on going. she has been in the yards for a couple of days so far and still has not taken to eating. she will only be able to hold out for so long before she gets real hungry and decides to eat. When I get time I will set up an electric fence inside the yards so that she leans not to charge the fence and I am hopping that over time I will get her friendly enough that she will be able to go into the training block.