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  1. #1
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    Nov 2014
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    Garden Route
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    Default Pavlov's Hog - Part 11

    Once I got all the stuff together, my feeding site looked like this (I'm facing the camera at waist height in a tree):



    This picture was taken from the road. The branches placed underneath were to get the pigs to stay longer at the feeder, rooting things up, and ensure that there is no such thing as an easy meal. Keep an eye on the logs, as you will see that with each frame, the logs slowly get shifted around by the pigs and baboons. I had to keep putting them back for this purpose. From what others have said, a few handfuls of mealies is not enough to attract bushpigs to an area, so I was lucky enough to get a load of grape skins to dump there, as it has been mentioned before on this forum before that the pigs love fruit.



    You can see in the background the road and behind it a grassy/bushy embankment with fence and pasture behind it where I positioned myself.

    Now comes the fun bit. The best part of this whole pig hunting exercise for me, was checking what’s on the camera.

    The first 5 days revealed the following:


    Day 1
    Set feeder for 8pm, Scatted grape skins and stems.
    10:39pm, 11:08 11:59 and 2am Large spotted genet



    Day 2
    Hundreds of baboons piled in and polished off the grape skins throughout the day. The camera took 800+ pictures of them. They must have sat there the whole day.






    Night 2
    Nothing

    Day 3
    Lots of sheep grazing around the area.

    Night 3
    Genet at 4am

    Day 4
    Nothing

    Night 4
    Porcupine at 1:15am – 1:30am
    Duiker hind leg at 1:55am



    Day 5
    Sheep well over 100 pics

    Night 5
    Nothing

    Day 6
    Nothing

    Day 7
    Porcupine 12am

    At this point I was getting quite despondent, as there was not a piggy to be seen. The famer swore that every time he puts a dead baboon out, by the next day there is nothing left but the skull and some skin licked clean. The famer added a few extra baboons near the feeder.

    Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12

    Yay!!! At last, some bushpigs!!!! Five days in a row. Clearly the baboon trick is the bomb! Feeding times varied from 9:30pm to 4am, with no pattern whatsoever. This could a lot of long nights in the veld trying to be there with this random pattern of movement.


    A nice boar. Not as big as he looks, as he is standing close to the camera.


    More of the sounder.


    A pregnant female.



    Notice how they have cleared the area under the feeder by shifting all the timber with their snouts.


    Day 13 – Day 20
    I thought I had them trained. The next evening I decided to have a go at them as I figured they were coming every day now, but at different times. It was a cold windless night. I could feel the cold air slowly sinking down the sides of the valley and could hear every sound. At one stage I heard what seemed like a few grunts deeper in the forest, but no sign of the pigs. I left when my teeth were chattering so loudly from the cold that I figured the noise would give me away. Note to self. Thermal undies, down jacket and a sleeping bag. My luck the pigs had simply disappeared for more than a week. The baboons (live ones) took full advantage of the situation and gobbled up all the mealies under the feeder.

    Day 21 -22
    Porcupine

    Day 23
    Nothing

    Day 24
    Bushpig (just one) 5-5:30am

    Day 25-26
    Nothing

    Day 27
    Porcupine

    Day 28
    Bushpig (just one) 5-5:30am

    Day 29
    Bushpigs 11-12:30pm




    With the pigs return came the first piglets from the pregnant sow. I think they are practically new born, as they are about as thick as a black wattle stump, but so cute. They look like little water melons with their stripes. It gets hard to shoot them after you have paged through their family album

    Day 30 (18 april)
    Porcupine

    Day 31
    Nothing

    Day 32- 33
    Porcupine

    Day 34
    Porcupine and Bushpigs 10-12:30pm

    Day 35- 36
    Bushpigs 8:30-12:30pm

    Days 37-45
    The camera went dead. The famer assured me the pigs are all over the place now. When I looked at the area under the feeding spot, it looked well trampled, all the logs and branches in the first pic had been shifted to the side, and there were droppings all around. I decided that that should be the night I have another go.

    To be continued….

  2. #2
    User
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    JHB
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    Default Re: Pavlov's Hog - Part 11

    It gets hard to shoot them after you have paged through their family album
    Lolz

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