Hogzilla Again

Do you remember the large wild hog called Hogzilla from 2004? Chris Griffin shot this animal near Alapaha Georgia in mid-2004. The animal was reported to be over 12-feet long and over 1000 pounds in weight.

Featured in 2005 in a National Geographic television special, the Georgian Hogzilla ended up being around 7 1/2 - 8 feet long and around 800 pounds.

Even if not the godzilla of hogs, it was a formidable animal. One not to tussle with.

That said though, the Georgian animal did set one record at least, its 18-inch tusk (one was 18, the other 16) set a new Safari Club international North American Free-Range Record.

News now comes of another Hogzilla, that is 1100 pounds that was killed in Fayette County of Georgia by William Coursey.

The Associated Press has been running an entry on it, which has been reported in numerous papers now across the land:

Another Hogzilla reportedly caught near Atlanta
FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A giant wild hog claimed to be bigger than the near-mythical "Hogzilla" caught in southern Georgia a few years ago has been killed in a suburban Atlanta neighborhood.
The hog hung snout down from a tree Friday in William Coursey's front yard, not far from where the avid hunter said he shot the beast. He said he hauled it to a truck weight station, which recorded the hairy hog at 1,100 pounds.
The Department of Natural Resources did not know whether the hog was a record for the state. "We don't keep records on hogs," said Melissa Cummings of the DNR's public affairs department.
But Coursey believes his behemoth surpasses the famed super swine shot and killed in 2004 that weighed in at half a ton on the farm's scales. A team of National Geographic experts later confirmed "Hogzilla" didn't quite live up to the 1,000-pound, 12-foot hype, saying the beast was probably 7 1/2 to 8 feet long, and weighed about 800 pounds.
The news of Coursey's kill got people are talking about the enormous beasts that roam the state.
"Nobody keeps official records," said Daryl Kirby, an editor with Georgia Outdoor News. "But it's one heck of a hog."

Another large animal indeed, but others of dangerous size have also been killed recently.

William Bruner and Kelly Livingston killed two hefty Russian boars on New Year's Day 2007 in Bull Swamp in South Carolina. One weighed 500 pounds the other 475 pounds.

Cryptic encounters in the woods with large hairy animals do occur. But would you want to run into one of these "monsters" in the woods?


Craig Heinselman
Peterborough, NH