Hunter looks back on his 'Year of the Pig'

In 2007, Mark Hainds set a goal to kill a pig in 10 different states.

So he did… and then he wrote a book about it.

This is the non-fiction account of that year, which also happened to be the Chinese calendar year of the pig," Hainds said about his book, aptly titled "Year of the Pig."

His journey is recollected in 23 chapters, each named after the type of vegetation he hunted in.

One chapter titled "Bahia Grass" chronicles an unfortunate situation during a pig hunt in Alabama.

Hainds writes:

"My flashlight was growing dim. I turned around just as the batteries died completely. As I sat, contemplating my sorry situation, the first drops of rain started falling from the approaching storm front. Scratched from head to toe, buried in a yaupon thicket, covered with blood, sitting in the dark in a cold rain with a fever, a bad cough, and a two-hundred-pound hog carcass, the revelation hit me: "Maybe this is why more people go golfing than pig hunting."

Hainds will be signing copies of his book "Year of the Pig" in Port St. Joe on Saturday, Dec. 17 at the No Name Café on Reid Avenue from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. ET. He will also be at the Downtown Bookstore in Apalachicola from 1-3 p.m.

Five chapters of "Year of the Pig" are set in Florida, more than any other state. Hainds trekked through Slash Pine, Saw Palmetto, Laurel Oak, Hollies, and Dog Fennel in search of his prize: a wild pig.  

"In Florida especially, you're surrounded by (wild pigs) basically," Hainds said. "They're all over the place."

The national pig hunt brings Hainds as far as Hawaii.

He used a wide-range of weapons including a black-powder rifle, bow and arrow, knife, and high-powered rifle, and various tracking and hunting methods to stalk swine through foreign vegetation like cypress swamps, saw palmetto and Hawaii's wiliwili forests.

Hainds said wild pigs have wreaked havoc on ecosystems across the country. His dislike for wild pigs began with his affinity for pine tree restoration.

"I've been teaching people for 20 years on how to restore the longleaf ecosystem," said Hainds, a research associate with Auburn University and research coordinator for the Longleaf Alliance located at the Solon Dixon Forestry Center in Andalusia, Alabama.

Wild pigs come in and root up the pine trees, carry diseases, and can basically take species right out of the ecosystem, Hainds said.

Feral hogs are considered pests.  

"And they're just not cute and cuddly like a deer," Hainds said.

"It's something that's kind of stirring the interest of land managers, environmentalists and die-hard pig hunters," Hainds said of the book, published in September by the University of Alabama Press. ""It's gaining momentum."

"With so many books being published every year, it's kind of hard to rise above the fray. But my book is unlike any other book published this year. It's truly unique."

If nothing else, Hainds can rest easy knowing that the pig populations of Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, California, Arkansas, Tennessee, Hawaii, Oklahoma and Georgia have been slightly decreased after his 2007 swine-slaughtering soirée.