Florida has the second-largest population, over half a million, and regulates hog hunting on public ground. In some years Floridians kill more hogs than deer. A.D. Columbus was thought to have released eight swine in the West Indies on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. Forty-six years later Hernando DeSoto brought 13 of Columbus' porkers from Cuba to Florida, and throughout the rest of the 16th century Spanish explorers released hogs through the Southeast and Southwest. Porkers were set free to roam because of theirpredilection for survival.
Pigs are woods smart and gritty.
Turn one loose on an island and he will probably survive to be hunted down by the next band of human castaways that washes ashore. That was the motivation behind the nautical custom of loosing hogs on islands around the globe, a custom DeSoto brought to the New World. If you ever have encountered feral hogs, you can see that wild streak. They neither look nor act like their barnyard kin. They are rangy, lean, and exceptionally keen of nose and ear-and their eyes are better than most hunters think.