Disappearing Dead Hogs...

I generally drag off pigs that I shot to a area where I have left dead cows and horses over the years. It is a area away from house and just inside the wood line in a low area but not a ditch or creek. There are still many bones from the cows and horse but never any from the pigs. For the last 6 or 8 I have taken there, I went back in a few days and sure enough, the whole pig or pigs are gone. No signs of hide, bones or anything of them left there. A couple of them were probably bumping 180 lbs and one time there was a quantity of 5 piglets at one time.
The cows always decay and have the normal buzzard and yote feast until nothing but bones left. Pigs are just gone in whole, quick.
Any idea what would be hauling them off whole ? Other pigs ? Yotes ?
Not that I am complaining or care, just curious

Yotes! I put a trail cam watching my bone yard one time and the coyotes are the guilty party. Other hogs would stop by for a look but coyotes drag stuff off. Wish they would drag all mine off....I still have plenty of bones.

Yep, yotes will drag them off sometimes. I have a bone yard. I put 4 hogs into it on Monday night. When I came back on Tuesday night to add another, one of the hogs was gone. When I came back on Thursday night to add another, two more were missing.

Yotes are not the only thing in the woods that will eat hogs, other hogs will eat hogs as well. They have no problem eating their own

I have thought about this as well. I have a place where I dispose of carcasses regularly and know that within a week, there will be no sign of hog remains, other than a few small bones scattered about. Day 1 - 3 there will be dozens of vultures feasting. Usually by Day 3, the remains are spread about, guessing from coyotes tugging at hide and bones. By Day 4 or 5 there is not much left, and always within a week, all is gone.

Last year I threw a coyote carcass in the area and it was there, mostly intact, for over a month. Surprised me that it lasted that long.

I could swear the buzzards are starting to follow me around in the Can-Am. They're on pigs I've dumped within 3 hours.

The coyotes will sure enough drag the pigs off when the remains are light enough. I always put the dead pigs in a certain area and then hunt coyotes there. Not long ago I was hunting over a ‘depleted’ hog, which was laying maybe 5’ from the wood edge. It was late and I was ready. I looked away from the pig for just a moment, and in that moment a coyote ran out and dragged the carcass in the woods. Too fast for me to do anything about it.

My guess is yotes as well, dragging them off whole. There has been some sizable ones but guess if they worked hard and long enough they could do it. Would have liked to got a couple skulls to go around a large cactus I have at my entrance to go along with the cow and horse skulls. They just don’t last that long.
I am probably one of the few but like having the yotes around to keep the rest of the critters in check. Besides, they make good music while sitting by the fire or pool. They should keep well fed as I shoot every hog I see, can’t stand them tearing up fields.

No one or no thing can resist bacon.

I think you were mostly joking about this, but the last couple of times I have been out to my place it's as if the buzzards are just circling waiting for a hog to hit the dirt. I am all too happy to oblige.

I think they're a lot smarter than we give them credit for. That one that ZZ Top took on tour with them lived to 50 years old! That's like an elephant's possible longevity. I know you see them dead in the road every once in a while, but I think that's just greed.

From my experience, the coyotes always try to drag them into the woods - harder for the buzzards to get to them. I've watched buzzards and coyotes battle over carcasses and the coyotes usually watch and wait until the buzzards move out.

Like everyone else has said the yotes drag off pieces at a time, we dumped 5 in a creek last week and set a camera on it. The buzzards showed up the first day and the yotes the following night eating what they could that night. The second day they were dragging pieces off into the woods and by the 4th day they were completely gone other than 1 hide the buzzards picked on. I don’t know exactly where they all went but we got a tc pic of a yote with the spine of one over 500 yards away. They will remove everything but the stench in no time. Mother Nature’s garbage disposal

where you located. Been looking for a few skulls

As several have mentioned...
Trail cam, have set mine up over hogs...
Lots of buzzards, hawk, & yotes,
never had other hogs messing with dead hogs...
Yotes be the culprit of dragging off...

Put a trail cam up, Walmart has cheap $28.00
Get some cool pic's...

If left overnight, buzzards usually will find it early, hit it hard and can lighten one up pretty quickly.
After the buzzards leave for the day and dark sets in, the song dogs can drag off what's left pretty easily unless it's a pretty good sized pig.

I shot a 90#'r Saturday morning about 12:10. I did not feel up to cleaning it. I found it the next morning half gone and 50 yards away. Coyotes.

This is one that I shot in the morning. I cut off the leg quarters, took out the backstraps, and then slit the belly open to make things easier for the buzzards and yotes. I dropped it off at 8:30AM. The photo was taken six hours later, at 2:30PM the same day.

Yep,

Coyotes and Buzzards reduced this 230+ boar into just bones and hide in a bit under 24 hrs.

I shot a big boar Friday evening, drug him off to the bone pile, nothing to be found yesterday except for the tail.

I have found the same thing with Coyotes. Seems that buzzards are the only thing that will mess with them.

I have an area on my property I drop the dead hogs off at. Amazing how quick they disappear. For as many hogs as I've dropped off there - the number of bones is small.

I am always amazed at the speed and efficiency of the clean up crews when they are left alone to do their jobs.

Marc

Between the yotes and buzzards, mine are gone by sunrise.