CROYDON, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire is the only state in the Northeast with a wild boar population, but no one knows just how many are out there.

By some accounts, the state was the first in the nation to become home to the animals when the owner of a massive wild game park in Croydon imported them from Germany in the late 1800s. Over time, the boars have escaped from the park, slipping through holes cut by hunters, rooting under fences or taking advantage of fences damaged by severe weather.

In the past, escapees were considered game animals that could be hunted during open season. But last fall, the Fish and Game Department decided that the hunt was illegal because the boars are considered private property, like farm animals.

That means the park is liable for the actions of fugitive boars and could prosecute hunters for killing them. Most hunters believe they’re permitted to take them, however, said Steve Weber, chief of the Fish and Game Department’s Wildlife Division.

Park manager Gerald Merrill said the park never has punished a boar hunter and likely wouldn’t.

“First off, how do you know they’re from her?” he said. “You don’t really know whose they are.”

The average boar weighs around 130 pounds but they can grow to more than 500 pounds. Though related to domestic pigs, they are gruff animals with wiry fur and razor-sharp tusks.

Weber said the animals aren’t much to worry about here, and he’d like to keep it that way. Harsh winters make it hard for them to reproduce and form a viable population. But that doesn’t mean they can’t cause damage.

Marie Bugbee of Newport used to live near the park in Croydon. She said she woke up one morning to see a good portion of her backyard torn up by boars.

“It was as though it had been plowed by a man,” she said. “If I had been going to grow a field, I would have been all set.”

Bugbee said she got a letter from the park owners saying it was unlikely that her damage was caused by their boars. But Weber and Merrill said in other cases, the park has been proactive about helping people whose property is damaged.

Joe Brown of Grantham said he heard that as many as 200 boars escaped five years ago when hunters cut holes in the park fence.

A few months ago, flooding caused a brook to swell and taken down another portion of the fence.

Brown thinks about 60 escaped. He chased one up the side of a mountain then followed as the tracks doubled back, crossed over themselves, looped around and then headed uphill again.

“The hell with you. You can live,” he said and ditched the pursuit.

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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com

AP-ES-01-08-06 1332EST