Hi Jennifer
It’s very likely that some of the hogs will be the same ones. I found that the females seem to stay in the same area for some years, although the males come and go a bit more and I think that the young males move on to new ranges soon after they return from hibernation. But it follows that some young males may move into those ranges from elsewhere. Some of the adult males may be around for a couple of years, some possibly more.
I had one female here who visited during at least 5 different years. She was a lovely hog, very distinctive in appearance and a real character. Not all survive that long. She was already an adult when I first knew her, so could have been visiting even longer.
But yes, they know their ranges very well, which is one reason why it’s so important that if they ever need rescuing they are returned to their home range upon recovery. They learn their ranges from young hoglets. The young males who have moved on from here tend to visit less and less often as time goes on and then from occasional visits, they eventually disappear completely.
Having said that, it is the males that tend to come out of hibernation first, so it may be that amongst the larger hogs it is mostly males around at the moment.
