Number of Pennsylvania counties where feral swine have established breeding populations. Those counties are Bedford, Bradford, Butler, Cambria, and Tioga. Hogs were introduced to the United States in the 1500s as a mean of food for the earliest European settlers. When domestic hogs escape, they quickly take on the physical characteristics of ferals, as well as the wild hogs' damaging and dangerous behaviors. Feral hogs, often called boars, have spread to 37 states where they cause more than $800 million in property damage each year. Last year, the Pennsylvania Superior Court required the state Game Commission to oversee management of feral hogs.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Pennsylvania Game Commission