Plus, venomous snakes do not inject venom every time they strike, and animals, like people, can learn to catch to a snake without getting bit "most of the time".

I am not going to take any chances on getting bit and rely on the venom not being bit/injeted "most of the time". I will let someone else be that guinea pig.

I am not saying that you should, but luckily, for folks who do get bit, there is a chance.

According to the Texas Department of Health,

7,000 people bitten by poisonous snakes annually in the USA.
0.2% of he cases are fatal
~50% are dry bites
~1-2 people die in Texas every year from snake bites.

I wish they provided some morbidity statistics as well.

While hogs don't have the benefit of antivenom or doctors, I would imagine they are more robust in withstanding a venomation than humans.

I am still not taking a chance on that 50-50 deal though. I know which end of that deal I will get with my luck The chance of getting bit and surviving is going to be much better due to there being a higher number of medical facilities with easier and faster access by people today than in years past. My grandfather got bit when he was a young boy while chopping cotton. He spent almost a month in the hospital around 1910 due to the time it took them to get him to a hospital.

I never advocated getting bit or handling snakes. Just stating some facts to help explain how hogs could deal with snake bites in the wild.

But now that I think about it, Texas Ranchers are probably causing snake bites for trying to extinct the population of prairie dogs and over grazing. You know, like a karma thing.

I remember when I was a kid we had some puppies in a barn not even 3 weeks old. 2 of the puppies got bit on the head and they both lived. There is not a doubt in my mind that a feral hog can handle a rattlesnake bite.

You're not from Texas are you?

The most sensible statement in this thread.

Read this the other day. Crazy!

Wild hogs are “opportunistic omnivores,” meaning they’ll eat most anything. They’ll devour or destroy whole fields—of sorghum, rice, wheat, soybeans, potatoes, melons and other fruits, nuts, grass and hay. Farmers planting corn have discovered that the hogs go methodically down the rows during the night, extracting seeds one by one.

Hogs erode the soil and muddy streams and other water sources, possibly causing fish kills. They disrupt native vegetation and make it easier for invasive plants to take hold. The hogs claim any food set out for livestock, and occasionally eat the livestock as well, especially lambs, kids and calves. They also eat such wildlife as deer and quail and feast on the eggs of endangered sea turtles.


Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/A-Plague-of-Pigs-in-Texas.html#ixzz2SEU1x5ur
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

Any animal that is as prolific as hogs is a survivor. To be a survivor it cannot be picky about what it eats.

I gutted a feral hog a while back that had a Walmart plastic bag in it's gut.

Well I've seen a few feral hogs shopping at Walmart. Saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's, and his hair was perfect. Ahhwooooo!

love that movie mang~....great quote!

Short people problems...

Don't agree with the snake theory, but pigs will take advantage of any opportunity to eat. The last pig I shot came in full speed trying to find the distressed rabbit call I was using for coyote hunting.

Well, believe it because its true.

How do the rattlers get the word to each other about not using their rattles as a warning after the hogs take over? Email? Texts?

You think the hog ate a Wal-Mart?



No, it really isn't.



Actually, the process would be behavioral and evolutionary. The ones that typically would not rattle much would be the survivors and hence the reproducers. HOWEVER, no studies have found that snakes are rattling less, but hogs and snake hunting have been attributed to this problem. In reality, rattlesnakes often do NOT rattle. Scary as it sounds, folks likely pass by these snakes with a much higher frequency than they realize because they don't always rattle unless threatened and don't always consider proximity to be a threat.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/snakes/a/Rattlesnakes-Not-Rattling.htm
http://www.bentoncourier.com/content/hahn-myth-silent-rattlesnake

I havn't heard a snake rattle in a couple years. We don't have hogs. I have killed several.

thank ya thank ya...my favorite movie of all time.



really? really guy??

Yes it is true

I think there was a post earlier about a feral hog getting married recently.