MELBOURNE, Fla.,None — Dozens of wild hogs are terrorizing an upscale Melbourne golf course and trappers say they have already caught 17 of them.
The hogs are tearing up the grass along a number of holes on the golf course at the Suntree Country Club near North Wickham Road.
Residents say they spotted one boar that appeared to be 300 lbs. with two and a half inch cutters, which are like small tusks.
"They are razor sharp," said wildlife trapper James Dean, about the boars.
Dean said that there are at least six boars left in the area.
"They are coming into the backyards on the golf courses and rutting up the ground, and I mean tearing it up with their snout to get grubworms, insects, snakes," said James Dean, a wildlife trapper.
Ed Mangold lives on the eighth hole where the hogs made another mess.
"It looked like about a two foot deep by eight foot by eight foot swimming pool," said Mangold.
Mangold had golf course staff fill in the hole.
"They just get down with their tusks and keep going and going and going," Dean explained.
The wild weather from early October flooded the nearby woods where the boars live. Dean says the animals are seeking higher and dryer ground on the golf course.
He uses dogs to track the boars and sets traps to catch them.
Officials say they are dangerous animals, and anyone who spots one should contact Florida Fish and Wildlife immediately.
WFTV
