Anyone who thinks that feeding feral animals or wildlife is a good idea has never had to deal with an animal that isn't afraid of humans, but instead associates them with food. I have seen this with bears in Colorado, coyotes in California and now hog in Hawaii. The outcome is never one that is desired, usually with the animal paying with their life. The animal doesn't know any better, they are doing what they were taught by their parents and are following their natural instincts to survive. I don't blame the animal, but the ill-informed, ignorant people.
For example, a friend of my mother who lived out in the dry scrub area of Westcliffe, Colorado thought she was doing something good by putting food out for the birds. Hummingbirds and the sparrows appreciated her thoughtfulness for a while, until the bears started raiding her feeders because they were starving due to drought conditions. There had been warnings about the bears and she had a near run in with a bear on her porch trying to get in to her house to get at the cat food or cats when she didn't get the doors closed down one night. She came face to face with the bear and was lucky enough to get the door closed in time. You would think that would scare her enough to not feed the birds, but no. On a visit a few days later I spotted a mother brown bear 300 yards out from her house. She wasn't a big plump bear just out for a stroll, but a scrawny mother bear looking for her meal at the ladies house. This time she got scared enough to finally take action.
I have enjoyed my island adventure and have seen some wildlife in my own back yard. At times I feel I live on a farm. The chickens start crowing in the middle of the night. What person said that they crow when they see the sun hasn't ever been around chickens. They crow all the time! I have been up at three in the morning letting the dogs out and the chickens are crowing! They seem to cease some in the middle of the day, I guess that is when they are sleeping! I have numerous birds that visit my yard and several that visit the gutters on my house to get a drink or feed off of whatever is in there. There is a flock of turkeys that roams our neighborhood. I had one roosting in the yard and decided to run it off so the dogs wouldn't chase it. Little did I realize that it was a hen with babies. She didn't like me trying to help her babies over the fence and decided I needed to be chased. Good thing there was a palm frond laying nearby!
We have a cane field behind our house that is leased out to a local rancher. He will put his horses or cows in the fields periodically. I prefer the horses and have a favorite or two. I like to give them carrots and apples when they come up to the fence. I sometimes see the pheasants. They are Kalij Pheasant which were introduced on the island in 1962. They are a short rounded tail pheasant that almost look like a chicken at first glance. They come into the yard periodically and I like watching them until the dogs see them and run them off.
Here on the island there are a few feral animal problems. First, there are the Indian mongoose that was introduced in 1883 in hopes of combat the rat problem in the sugar cane fields. Good idea, bad research. The mongoose is a daylight animal and rats are nocturnal. OOoops! At least Kuai heard of this little problem on the Big Island and headed it off there. No mongoose on Kuai. We also have a problem with feral cats and hogs. The cats are cute and people feel sorry for them, so they feed them. The cats keep breeding and producing more cats and are infested with flea and disease. Plus they tend to raid and kill the birds that are native and the non native birds. At least they hunt the rats and mongoose. The hogs, well that is a whole other story.
While pigs were first brought to Hawaii by the Polynesian ancestors of the Hawaiians, these animals were kept penned and probably didn't do too much damage to local ecosystems. When larger pigs were released by Europeans in 1778 they invaded the native forests and have since caused perhaps the greatest ecological damage of any of the invasive species. They can have three litters a year, which left unchecked would decimate the island. They are a destructive, tearing up native plants, killing ground nesting birds, rooting big waddles in the ground, which then fill with water and draw mosquitos and spread invasive plants through their dung. They get to be agressive and are sometimes dangerous animals, especially sows with babies or big boars that are trying to protect what they consider to be their territory.
Destructive, yes, I am realizing that. They have come into my yard and torn up the same place several times. I have tried making noise to scare them away. The dogs have even cornered and chased a couple of younger hogs, which luckily didn't turn on them and were ready to be out of my yard. I have tried putting Cayanne pepper in the areas that they like to root and dig. I have been told that human hair or urine will keep them away. I HAVE NOT tried that method yet! Being the industrious person that I am I decided to make my own alarm. I call it HERS. That creative name stands for Hog Early Response System! It consists of 60 lb fishing line and about 3 fishing bells (aka cow bells on a smaller scale). You see they have these bells at Wallyworld and other fishing stores for the fisherman to put on their poles ( yes, they usually have 3-5 poles they fish with at a time). They are not dainty little bells, think fist size. I have strung the line across the area where the beasts are making an easy entry into my yard via the house next door and hopping up the little retainer wall. Thank goodness for palm trees and steel poles put up by someone else for probably the same purpose. The HERS has worked fairly well. The hogs hit it and then quickly retreat and grumble into the yard next door. One hog got through the system and stood frozen like a deer in headlights while we spotlighted it with the flashlight and spotlight. After yelling at it the dumbfounded beast retreated over the wall.
Most of the attacks from the Baconater happen at night, so I have felt fairly confident letting the dogs out during the day. That is until Duke decided to go over the wall after a Baconater. I heard a commotion and jumped and ran to see what was going on. Sarge was on the back wall intently watching and Duke nowhere to be seen. I finally spotted him in the corner but the porker was still out in the cane and grunting and chuffing at me until I yelled before it finally retreated. Duke stood in the corner and was ready to keep going after it. I called him over to me and tried to get him to jump back over the fence. He snagged his back on the wire and I made him go back. He was three feet below the wall and at 92 pounds there was no way I could lift him up and over. Getting him back over the fence was a chore. I had to deconstruct part of the wall and pull the barbed wire up for him to carefully crawl up and over the wall. Dukester was ok, except for some wounds from the barbed wire. After enduring another early morning invasion attempt (12:51 by my clock) by a huge Baconator, luckily deterred by the HERS, another chasing of hogs in the yard at 4:30 (Go Sarge Go) and seeing my lawn torn up in a new place and an injury to Sarge (don't know if it was barbed wire or hog, but an inch long fresh wound on his chest and a yelp in the dark makes your heart beat faster.) the big guns have now come out. The hog trap sits in the front waiting for the guy to come and set and bait. A paintball gun purchase is next. I figure that they won't like getting hit by a high powered ball. It won't kill them, but it sure will pack a punch (especially if frozen)! Oh the joys of living with nature. The saga will go on, but this too shall pass.
Kalua pork anyone?
