Actually, I believe the pig problem in NH pre-dates 1985 by a long shot.
After spending a few weeks backpacking the Great Smoky Mountains in NC & Tennessee during college (we made it a spring break ritual), I became interested in the pigs. There's a very large population in the Smokies. North Florida has a ton as well. Anyway, while doing a little reading on the subject I learned that the three big concentrations in the U.S. were in the Smokies, north Florida, and a pocket in west-central New Hampshire.
In NH, like other locations, they are believed to have descended from European wild boars that were imported specifically for private hunting reserves - perhaps as long ago as the 1800s. Predictably, some were not killed, and later migrated, mated with domestic swine, and established a population.
According to one site I just found in a quick search...
"The First 'Pure Russian' wild boars were brought into the US by Austin Corbin. They were released into a 20,000 acre enclosure in Sullivan County New Hampshire in 1890.'
And the State of Wisconsin's DNR site had the following:
History of Feral Pigs in America
Domestic pigs were introduced from Europe to the Americas by Spanish explorers. Over time, some pigs escaped or were intentionally released into the wild. Subsequently, free-ranging, feral populations established themselves on American soil.
In 1893, 50 feral pigs from Germany's Black Forest were released on a hunting preserve in New Hampshire's Blue Mountains. Later, in 1910 and 1912, Russian wild boars were released on a North Carolina preserve near the Tennessee border. Russian wild boars were released again in 1925 near Monterey, California and a few years later on Santa Cruz Island. Some of these transplants escaped from the hunting preserves. Many of their offspring bred with feral descendants of domestic pigs.
Today, feral pigs and hybrids of the Russian wild boars are found in 23 states with the possibility of yet-undiscovered populations in several more states. The largest populations are in the coastal states surrounding the Gulf of Mexico and California (not surprising, since Spanish explorers settled these territories). Feral pigs are found chiefly in western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, West Virginia and, in California, on Santa Cruz Island and Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties. Small numbers of pigs are found in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Vermont, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas.
In locations where feral pigs have more recently been discovered it is likely that these "run-wild" individuals are the result of unintentional escapes from domestic swine facilities, escapes or releases from game farms, or illegal stocking. Biologists estimate the nationwide population of feral pigs to be around four million animals.
At any rate, I can't remember where I first read all of this, but it might've been a local paper. I have a cousin in North Florida who used to hunt the wild pigs down there -- kinda the red neck version of the fox hunt, using pit bulls and pickup trucks and rifles. They're quite tasty, actually.
As for reproductive capabilities, once a sow reaches breeding age at 7 or 8 months of age they can be responsible for 1,000 plus feral swine in a five-year period.
With this in mind, perhaps we should find a way to increase that mountain lion population...
