Acorns – Manna From Heaven For Wild Pigs

Fall in Central California is the season for festivals, fairs and harvest celebrations. The great number of such local events in rural California allows that conclusion. Surprisingly many are centered around acorns, especially in the oak lands in the foothills of Central California. Native Americans used to harvest and process them into food and so did European peasants.

Nowadays, both have easier and tastier ways of satisfying their need for food. That is good news for wild pigs. Boar rely to a great extent on acorn mast to build up energy for the cold winter months. Sows use the energy from acorns to produce healthy litters. In fact, the better the acorn harvest the more piglets per litter a sow will produce. Good mast years are often followed by years in which wild pig sows produce multiple litters. 'Mast' is not only acorn mast but includes nuts (as in walnuts, black walnuts, etc.), hickory nuts and others.

Not all acorns from oak trees are created equal. Some are sweet and others have a bitter taste. This may have been important to humans in the past, but for wild pigs it does not make a bit of a difference. They gobble them up equally fast. If there is a shell, they crush it and spit it out.

Until the last mast is found and eaten, wild pigs congregate under mast producing trees right around this time of the year. In your front or back yard, in parks, agricultural areas and, of course, in their natural habitat, the oak lands in the foothills of Central California.

This gives local hunters and those with a good knowledge of a geographical area a big advantage over hunters without such information. Since wild pigs go to great lengths to find and dig up mast, this is the time of the year when a hunter can also find them easier on public land – as long as it has oak or other mast bearing trees on it. A hunting guide or a good friend with local knowledge now comes in very handy and improves your chances for success considerably. So gear up for some wild pig hunting before this premier food is gone and the wild pigs have dispersed again.

Yet, before you get all excited and run away into the wilderness to get your very own mast-finished wild pig consider this: California is now in its third drought year. In years with little rain mast producing trees do not bear a good harvest of nuts and acorns. Whatever mast drops to the ground is picked up, dug up and crunched up in little time. Then the wild pigs are again raiding agricultural areas and the front yards of people.
Many boar will not be able to build up enough reserves to survive the winter well. Consequently, wild pig populations will most likely shrink. Less boar make fewer new boar. That is good news for farmers, ranchers and many others. But it does not bode well for the average wild pig hunter in California.

I have not seen any 2009 figures for acorn and mast harvests in the California's wild pig heartland. If you recently visited private land to hunt wild pigs and have information on the quality and quantity of mast, please share it with us.
Oh, and before I forget it: Mast-finished domestic pig meat sells for a premium price in many countries of the world because of its delicious taste. It is also healthier for you because it is lower in saturated fats. The meat from wild pigs harvested at the end of the mast harvest is no exception.

PJJ