Mingo, Duck Creek to temporarily close for feral hog operation

PUXICO — Officials at the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge and adjacent Duck Creek Conservation Area are preparing for a feral hog eradication operation, and both areas are expected to be closed intermittently during the week of Jan. 20-25.

During that period, refuge manager Ben Mense said, officials will use a helicopter and aerial gunning in an effort to reduce the numbers of feral hogs on the refuge.

“The hog flights are another tool we use to try to eradicate hogs from the Mingo basin,” said Mense. “They can be very successful, depending on the weather and water conditions.”

The flights are completed with assistance and cooperation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation.

“It’s a high priority for us, and we have great partners to work with,” said Mense.

“We’re always glad to work with other agencies and landowners,” said MDC’s A.J. Hendershott. “These flights are very effective, and combined with good trapping efforts, they help remove hogs from the landscape.”

Last year’s hog flight at Mingo, Mense said, netted around 130 pigs.

The flights, Mense noted, also help biologists learn what areas of the refuge feral hogs tend to use given the water and habitat conditions, which helps future operations.

Leading up to the Jan. 20-25 flights, Mense said, officials will be out on the refuge intensely scouting for hogs, including using thermal imaging during the overnight hours.

During the operations the entire refuge and Duck Creek Conservation Area will be closed to public entry for safety reasons.

“We hope not to be closed all day, every day, but we’ll have to wait and see,” Mense said. “We’ll work as hard as we can to keep the refuge open as much as we can.”

During the operation, gates will be closed and signs posted to alert the public, he said.

The visitor center, along Highway 51, will remain open throughout the week, Mense noted.

Feral hogs began showing up on the Mingo refuge in substantial numbers after the 2011 flood, which raised the level of nearby Wappapello Lake. Officials believe the hogs came from that region as they tried to escape the high water.

Since then, several measures have been used in an effort to keep hog numbers down, including the hog flights, nighttime shooting and intensive trapping.

While the nighttime shooting accounts for a very small percentage of the hog eliminations, mainly to remove large boars, which are difficult to trap, trapping has been the most effective eradication tool.

A full-time USDA trapper, Mense said, spends most of his time on the refuge, and in the last 12 months alone, he was responsible for the removal of about 770 hogs on the refuge with his traps.

Even more, Mense said, have been trapped off Duck Creek and neighboring landowners.

“Last year was a very successful one for trapping, with about double what we’ve caught any other year,” Mense emphasized.

The hogs cause an enormous amount of damage on the refuge and are a threat to native species of wildlife, Mense said.

“They do damage everywhere, and it’s a major problem when they tear up the levees and roads,” he said.

With several measures in place to help remove feral pigs, Mense said, he hopes to eventually “be able to get to a point where we’re looking for hogs” because there won’t be many.