A trio of wild piglets has apparently been orphaned near the Village of Bradford.
The three piglets were spotted by noted Villages shutterbugs Ron Clark and Sam Boatman.
Originally there were three piglets, but Wednesday there were only two piglets nestled near the Village of Bradford, located south of State Road 44.
A resident indicated that an adult pig had been hit and killed by a car in the area, apparently leaving the piglets without a mother.
The Florida Fish and Wildwood Conservation Commission was contacted, but indicated the piglets would not be trapped and nursed along, because they are consider invasive. FWC indicated the landowner could choose to trap the piglets.
Wild hogs, also called wild pigs, wild boars and feral pigs, are not native to Florida but were introduced over 500 years ago by Spanish explorers. They can be found in all of Florida’s 67 counties within a wide variety of habitats, but prefer oak-cabbage palm hammocks, freshwater marshes, sloughs and pine flatwoods, according to FWC.
Adult wild hogs can weigh more than 150 pounds and be 5-6 feet long. They eat plants and animals, and feed by rooting with their broad snouts, which can damage native habitats and ground cover vegetation. It’s easy to spot where hogs have been because they often leave areas looking like plowed fields.