Where did the ears go...........????

[bswiv]

Don't make fun of the picture.........Louann was in a hurry.....and I'm old.

Do pay attention to the ears on HER!!!

Yes I said HER.

Know all about trimming boars ears to mark ones that have been cut but I can't figure this sow out. She was in prime shape. And where the ears were looked the same on both sides....almost like they were never there.....or maybe cut carefully?

But this was on a WMA that is a LONG way from anyplace the raises hogs, besides which she looks very wild.

So what happened?

Shot her at about 15 feet in some tall grass out in a stand of planted pine that is mostly 5 to 10 feet tall.

 

[Shane Tuttle]

You have me there. Ding! Ding! Paging Dr. hogdogs! He might be able to answer this dilemma...

 

[Hog Buster]

Maybe someone wanted to make a couple of silk purses........

 

[hogdogs]

That is what we call "slick eared"...
She was caught with dogs. As a young pig, often the dogs will get on a little one, she squeals, others come to defend her. The dogs either voluntarily or with force, will leave her and take up chase on a larger defender.

The other possibility, she was real small when originally caught. So the human hunters decided to leave her go (unlike gunning, we can do catch and release) to grow up. Had that been a MALE it would likely have been turned from a BOAR to a BARR hog to put on fat for pork not so lean and more meat overall.

If the latter, the ears could have been intact when released but suffered irrecoverable damage and fell off.

bswiv, a pm is incoming...

Brent

 

[hogdogs]

BTW, for the record... By dogs, I mean canine... This could have come from yote attack as well as hog dog hunting.

Brent

 

[hogdogs]

"Marked" hogs will have a tip sliced off, a triangle nipped out or some guys use a simple leather punch plier... one hole or a combination in a pattern for reference... we love to know we caught the same hog later after it grows up.

Brent

 

[Daryl]

Interesting, however a person looks at it.

Sorta like a rancher friend back in Arizona. He was out one day with some bear hunters when they treed a big boar. After shooting it, Troy noticed that it was branded with the brand he's aquired with the ranch; a lower-case "h", or "little honey brand" as they called it.

Best he could figure, some cowboys from the ranch had caught the bear as a youngster, and put their brand on it. With sows being somewhat protective of their cubs, there's probably a more interesting story behind it, but who knows?

Strange things can happen.

Daryl

 

[Uncle Buck]

I do not know where you are located, but one other possibility to consider, she could have lost the ears to frost bite.

I had a sow die and leave me six little ones to take care of in a nice January freeze. Two of them had ears so black they soon fell off.

Baby pigs can be very aggressive with each other also.

 

[hogdogs]

bswiv is located in fla. Where he is at, the pigs are usually self protected from freeze with low layin' "bottoms" with dark warmer water and a super rare HARD freeze. I don't remember a full 24 hours below 30*...

Brent