Most Tennessee hunters have secured their rifles and packed away their orange for another year, as deer seasons concluded across the state with last weekend's youth hunt. But there is still one more big game season taking place before the winter hunts are said and done, for hunters willing to travel a little and walk a little.

A special hog season started Wednesday in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and will continue through February 28. The annual hunt began several years ago by TWRA and the National Park Service as a way to help cut down the numbers of feral hogs roaming the recreation area.

The Big South Fork NRRA is a 115,000-acre national park that falls into four counties in Tennessee: Scott, Fentress, Morgan and Pickett. The terrain is unlike much of the rest of the state. Add to that the hogs' nocturnal tendencies and the fact that they prefer to hole up underneath rock overhangs along bluff lines and in thickets of mountain laurel, and hunts for the critters can be quite challenging.

Adding to the frustration of hunting BSF pigs is their relatively small numbers; in past years, over-anxious promoters of the sport, namely magazine outdoors writers, tended to over-estimate the population of hogs inside the park, leading hunters from outside the area who made the trek to Big South Fork to throw up their hands in frustration after seeing neither hide nor hair of their quary.

Rangers of the Big South Fork do not have a good handle on how many wild hogs roam the 115,000 acres that make up the recreation area. But TnHunting.Com Wild Boar specialist Lathern Hull, who lives on the park's boundary and hunts the boar throughout the deer seasons and the special season, estimates the park's entire population of pigs to be fewer than 500.

Nevertheless, reports from hunters and rangers indicate that pig sightings and kills were up this year over previous years.

For the most part, the wild hogs that call the park home roam the portion of the recreation area west of the Big South Fork River and the Clear Fork River, which run the entire length of the recreation area from south to north. On the south end of the park, the pigs primarily have the traditional European "razorback" look, with a bit of Russian thrown in for good measure. On the north end of the park, there are more pigs with unique coloring patterns, such as blonde and red.

The use of dogs is not allowed for the Big South Fork hunt. A permit is required to take part in the animal. It is available at the Big South Fork Visitors Center at Bandy Creek or at several area merchants. All big game hunting regulations in Tennessee apply to the special season, including the fluorescent orange requirement.