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At its regular June meeting,
held June 4, in Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation
Commission approved emergency rules that allow feral hog hunting on
Department-owned or managed lands throughout the state.
On all but three wildlife
management areas, hunters will be allowed to harvest feral hogs during
any regular hunting season by whatever methods are legal during that
particular season. In other words, a hunter could shoot them with a
shotgun during spring turkey season, or with a muzzleloader during the
primitive firearms deer season. During firearms deer seasons
(primitive, modern gun and special antlerless deer seasons) on WMAs
open during these seasons, hunters must possess either a filled or
unfilled deer license, and they must comply with other deer hunting
regulations such as wearing blaze orange clothing.
Three areas - Honobia Creek,
Three Rivers and Broken Bow WMAs - will only be open to feral hog
hunting during the nine-day regular deer gun season, and only with
methods and means legal during that season. Season dates and hunting
methods for each individual WMA are outlined in the
soon-to-be-published Oklahoma Hunting Guide and Regulations. Feral hog
hunting on private lands remains at the landowner's discretion,
however, during firearms big game seasons (primitive, modern gun and
special antlerless deer seasons and antelope and elk seasons) hunters
must possess either a filled or unfilled deer license, and they must
comply with other deer hunting regulations such as wearing blaze
orange clothing. The Wildlife Commission was authorized to set rules
for hunting feral hogs on public lands by a law enacted during the
2000 legislative session.
"Feral hogs can damage wildlife
habitat, compete with native species for food and can carry a number
of diseases, including psuedorabies and swine brucelosis," said Alan
Peoples, wildlife chief for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife
Conservation, "but until now, we could not tell hunters to harvest
them if they saw one while hunting. This is a big step in that it will
allow additional hunting opportunity while hopefully helping curb the
growth of hog populations on our WMAs. |
