Strange behavior

[muzzlebrake]

Saturady I was hunting on the Briscoe Caterina for hogs and we couldn't find any except scattered in with the cows. Each small cow herd seemed to have a half dozen to a dozen pigs mixed in with them. As we sat and watched for a clear shot where the pigs were separated from the cows we noticed that each time a cow pooped, the pigs would swarm the cow pile and gobble it all down.
Wow! I had never witnessed anything like that. The ranch was hot and dry. It hasn't rained there in months and all the animals, deer, hogs, javis, coyotes etc are all emaciated and just skin and bone. Those hogs were resorting to what makes them so adaptable and being so hard to get rid of. We also noticed that the tiny baby pigs were seemly OK and appeared to be fat and in good shape thanks to all the cow pie they were getting.
I did manage to do my part in hog eradication by shooting my 2 hog limit.
I'll be donating the one I brought home. No way am I gonna eat that thing after what I saw it eating. Another hunter group also witnessed the same thing and yet another watched a hog chomping on a deer skeleton, eating the bones.
It's a sad situation down there right now with the wildlife.

[Punkin]

Wow! that would throw me for a loop if I saw that happening.

[PHfactor]

never heard of anything like this-very strange

[Mac...]

Nasty critters!!!! Just another reason for me to leave em for the birds and yotes!

[TX_Hoghunter]

100% normal. Most farm animals will do it.

-john

[jetlag887]

Different animals digest only bits and pieces of what they take in. It is VERY common for hogs to eat feces from other animals.
I lease a cow pasture that borders a feedlot here in Floresville and we have the fatest wild hogs I have ever seen! Every night they head to the feedlot and eat cow manure and corn/feed that the cattle drop. Our hogs here are always fat and slick!
I guess animals, and maybe humans too, digestive system is only partially effecient, kinda like a combustion engine. A lot of unused energy goes out the tailpipe.

[jsrickert2]

Saturady I was hunting on the Briscoe Caterina for hogs and we couldn't find any except scattered in with the cows. Each small cow herd seemed to have a half dozen to a dozen pigs mixed in with them. As we sat and watched for a clear shot where the pigs were separated from the cows we noticed that each time a cow pooped, the pigs would swarm the cow pile and gobble it all down.
Wow! I had never witnessed anything like that. The ranch was hot and dry. It hasn't rained there in months and all the animals, deer, hogs, javis, coyotes etc are all emaciated and just skin and bone. Those hogs were resorting to what makes them so adaptable and being so hard to get rid of. We also noticed that the tiny baby pigs were seemly OK and appeared to be fat and in good shape thanks to all the cow pie they were getting.
I did manage to do my part in hog eradication by shooting my 2 hog limit.
I'll be donating the one I brought home. No way am I gonna eat that thing after what I saw it eating. Another hunter group also witnessed the same thing and yet another watched a hog chomping on a deer skeleton, eating the bones.
It's a sad situation down there right now with the wildlife.

Pigs are very adaptable!

[jetlag887]

Actually I remember an experiment done several years ago by an ag class where they stacked 4 hogs on top of each other in crates for some amount of time.
They fed the top hog "X" amount of feed/day, the next hog got less feed than the hog above it, the next hog got even less and the bottom hog was fed nothing and only ate the feces that dropped down from the other 3 crates.
At the end of the given time the bottom hog had gained the most weight.

[hogdaddy]

everyone needs a warm meal once in a while.

[txnduckhntr]

You ought to see them eat all that yellow slick poop that newborn calves excrete!! That poop is almost solid milk. We used to feed chicken litter(poop and shavings) to our cattle..haul it out in 18wheeler load dump it in huge piles...........hogs would literally vacuum that stuff up