Louisiana’s hog records follow its water. St. Tammany Parish, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, leads with 114 of the state’s 386, much of it from the Pearl River swamps along the Mississippi line, where Pearl River Wildlife Management Area and the West Pearl River each turn up a cluster. Orleans Parish comes second with 30, and about half of those are from Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge, a marsh that sits inside New Orleans city limits. South of the city, the Barataria swamps of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve add 11 more, and Palmetto Island State Park in Vermilion Parish carries the record west into the coastal marsh.
Records reach 43 parishes in all, including Caddo in the far northwest and Madison along the Mississippi River. But the heavy weight on swamp and marsh near New Orleans reflects a crowded part of the state with many observers, as well as good hog habitat.
A summer lull
Reports run highest in March, at 51, and stay strong through April. They sag through the warm months, running in the low 20s each month from May through September, then return in October. Heat and insects keep many people out of the swamps in summer, and hogs lie up in shade by day.
Feral hogs are introduced in Louisiana, not native. They’re also one of the state’s most frequently recorded mammals, ninth of 72 by record count.
Full species profile
