GAYLORD -- Terry and Jami Rogers are having wild hog on the barbecue.
They live in rural Otsego County, about 11 miles northeast of Gaylord, where last week Terry shot a monstrous wild boar in their back yard at a distance of about 50 yards.
"He sort of started coming toward me, not charging, just walking. But I wasn't going to let him get too close," Terry said.
Rogers shot the huge creature -- its estimated weight was 400 to 500 pounds -- twice with a rifle and it stumbled to the ground both times, but managed to ramble about 500 yards before it finally fell. The beast is among an unknown number of non-native feral pigs in Michigan and state wildlife officials said the goal is to eradicate them all.
"We don't tolerate them in the natural environment. They are pretty destructive to natural habitats because of their digging behavior and the way they feed," said Keith Kintigh, wildlife biologist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
The animals typically escape from farms or hunting ranches and then breed in the wild. Hunters with a valid license of any kind are allowed to shoot feral pigs in a number of northern Michigan counties, including Emmet, Cheboygan, Antrim, Otsego and others, Kintigh said.
A Russian boar was the very last thing the Rogers said they expected to see in their valley.
The animal will soon be mounted. The head will be submitted to the state for disease testing, Terry said.
"I saw it coming across the field and wondered what it was. I grabbed the binoculars to see," Jami said, adding that she initially thought it was a black bear.
Terry was miles away at work at the time, driving a truck for Johnson's Oil in Gaylord. A panicked phone call from his wife brought him home in a hurry, he said.
When he arrived, the hog was feasting in the garden on leftover corn, acorn squash and tomatoes under the watchful eye of the couple's daughter, Kara, 20. She was in the back of a pickup truck holding a shotgun.
"I took one look at it and thought, 'I'm going to need a bigger gun. A shotgun might just make it mad,'" Terry said.
Now a feast of wild pork is on the menu for an upcoming party for friends and neighbors, the Rogers said.
"Everybody wants to taste it to see how it is," Terry said.
