Cameras in Peach Grove are recording images of wild hogs in yards and say the pesky creatures are causing problems for neighbors.
SAN ANTONIO — Every night for weeks, neighbors have been getting alerts on their home surveillance cameras in the Peach Grove neighborhood in southeast San Antonio.
But the cameras aren’t being tripped by two-legged prowlers.
The intruders travel on four hairy feet and the people who live in what has been a relatively peaceful place say the invasion is disturbing.
Feral hogs, it seems, have moved into the residential area in a big way.
Kayla Winrow shot video with her cell phone when she was returning to her mom’s house overnight.
“We turn the corner and we see a whole thing of hogs and me and my husband are frightened. We’re scared for our family,” Winrow said, adding she is concerned for the many neighbors who have small pets.
“We’re like ‘Oh my God what is that?’ We’re shocked and you worry about the people who live in this neighborhood and they walk their dogs through here,” Winrow said.
Winrow, who said she grew up in the area, has never seen such a display, attributing the change to new subdivisions that are sprouting in almost every nearby direction.
“Their habitats are being broken so they are coming into the area,” Winrow said.
It’s a surreal scene, with festive blow-up holiday lawn decorations lighting the night and illuminating the nocturnal visitors, feral hogs old and young, that are digging and rooting in the yard, hunting and gathering their dinner.
The family that lives in the house said the nightly ritual started a few weeks ago. They said they have the biggest oak tree in the area and they believe the pigs are scouring the yard for acorns.
They said the hungry animals have torn up their sod and even managed to topple a garden ornament that weighs about fifty pounds.
Other neighbors shared video from the surrounding blocks, which all have connections to Salado Creek at the west end of the neighborhood.
Lester Allen, who has lived in the area four years, said this kind of invasion is a first for him.
“On the far end of the street there’s no fences, so they came up the street and went in every yard except the ones that had Christmas decorations and the lights were on,” Allen said, adding “it seemed like they skipped those yards, but they tore up everybody else’s yard on the whole street.”
Allen said he’s not too concerned about his yard being damaged but others are.
“My next door neighbor nearly had a heart attack because he babies his yard. He rakes it and mows it even in the winter time. He takes care of it,” Allen said, adding “Mine, if it grows, I cut it. That’s about it. I’m not much of a yard guy, but he is.”
The damage isn’t confined to the neighborhood. Kenneth Ray said he has been walking on the nearby Salado Creek hike and bike trail every other day since Thanksgiving
Ray described an encounter that set him on edge.
“I went over one of the many bridges that they have and there were several pigs,” Ray said, adding “We all stopped and stared at each other and I was like I don’t know what to really do.”
Ray said he continued on his way without incident but he wonders how to prepare for more sightings.
“I talked to people and they say maybe you should carry a stick,” Ray said, and added he’s also been told not to get between young pigs and their parents.
Wildlife biologists advise people to not leave pet food out that might attract the pigs, never approach them no matter where they might be found and outside, after dark it’s extremely important to be vigilant.
More information about wild pigs can be found on the Texas Parks & Wildlife website: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/nuisance/feral_hogs/