BUSHPIG BASICS PART 2: BAITING
Baiting for bushpigs has grown dramatically over the past few years and must be the most widely and commonly used practice to hunt these animals in South Africa. The excitement of hearing a sounder of pigs sneaking slowly towards the bait, their blowing and sniffing as they try scenting anything suspicious, followed by the loud chewing as they eventually start feeding on the bait, will get any hunter’s heart rate up.
The terrain, habitat and movement of bushpigs will determine where and how you bait them – anything from a pile of guts (with the promise of carrion, maggots and beetles) to a baited mixture of maize and harmony chop will do. To bait bush-pigs successfully hunters need to study the animals’ habits and what they prefer as food.
THE BAIT SITE
This is the most important part of baiting bushpig. It is crucial to choose the correct site. Several factors need to be taken into consideration; namely pig activity in the area, wind direction, will you be using a rifle or bow, do you need lighting, and the distance from the bait site.
It is pointless putting down bait randomly without first scouting the area thoroughly. Baiters have had success using carcasses and luring the bush-pigs to their setups but this may take weeks if there is a low population of pigs and they are not used to carcasses as bait. The best option is to find areas that bushpig frequentwhere there is an easy escape route, rather than a barren, open field.
