National Geographic Explorer Season 2 Episode 6 Hogzilla

If you're a fan of urban legends then last summer you would likely have heard the audacious tale of a monstrous 12-foot, 1000-pound swine, appropriately named Hogzilla, that had been shot in a swamp in Georgia. A grainy photograph of the beast strung from a backhoe next to the victorious hunter, spread like wildfire on the Internet triggering worldwide awe and disbelief. It was prime fodder for a bad sci-fi flick. Or, could this beast possibly be real?

On October 23, 2004, a team from National Geographic Explorer decided to find out. It took a while to get around the campy notion of investigating a feral hog. But as the first few weeks of preparation for the shoot passed by, I found myself captivated by the mystery of this giant swine, and what it reveals about the larger issue of feral pigs worldwide.

Today more than a billion domestic pigs live among us. There are millions more in the wild and the numbers are escalating rapidly. The animals are increasingly at odds with farmers as they root up crops and pastures in their quest for food. Pigs are exceptionally adaptable animals, and in many places their natural predators have declined or been eradicated altogether, opening the floodgates for a massive population boom. In Texas alone there are two million wild hogs that's one hog for every ten Texans.

Our team took a detour to Texas, where the fine gentlemen of Kaufman County showed us what it's like to hunt a feral pig first hand. I will never forget the intensity of chasing the hunters through the briars of East Texas with a load of sound equipment around my shoulders, trying to get the best shots while avoiding the charge of an angry 250 pound pig--with tusks big enough to put more than a hole in your jeans.

Hunting hogs is big business. Hunters from around the world come to the southern US to shoot trophy hogs and the bigger the better. In many cases the owners of these hunting ranges feed the hogs to lure big money clients. Could Hogzilla have just been an over fed hog that had dodged the bullet?