TLM........this is a great addition to this forum. I find that 80%+ of even the experienced and dedicated hog hunters do not know what these items look like and consequently what to look for during their scouting adventures. Most do not know the differance between deer and hog prints.
Please allow me to add: In my area(extreme NW Fla)of the country this is what I have learned about the above.
1. The scat will smell like......well.....crap. In the swamps or feeding thru the bottoms, hogs will go after worms,grubs,moles,lizards,snakes,etc. This will make their scat somewhat darker and smelly. Sometimes you can actually smell it while it is on the ground. It will be sticky,pasty,slimy. If they are feeding on vegitation it will be more like horse scat. Dry,and will be easily seperated if moved with a stick. Like a black bear,if it is 2" in diameter the hog is approximately 200lbs. Usually +/- 10lbs or so. It cannot be used to lure or help draw other hogs into an area. I have tried this. Most of the hog scat that I have seen both in the swamps and in the pine barrens is somewhat rounded and they are individual pieces,not attached to each other. This....depending on their diet. Here,in the swamps and oak filled bottoms they love to feast on white oak accorns and wild pecans. They pass up this years crop and root for the already fermented last years crop that has bee buried by leaves for a year or so. They absolutely love these.
2. Nests/Beds..... They are made of shredded saw palmetto fans or bamboo/cane leaves as shown above. How the hogs shred these is unknown to me. I have heard sounds in the swamps that could have been this in the early AM,just before sunrise. Usually on the small "islands" in the swamp. In my experience the hogs do not use these same beds night after night. This could have quite easily been my fault. (?)
3. Rubs.....They love to rub long leaf pines. Also cut them using their cutters or chew them using their teeth. They don't actually eat it IMO. But if they do, it is small amounts of the very outer bark. They do this to get it's sap flowing. They are more prone to do this during the hottest days of the year. I have used a pulp hook to make these cuts to a pine and the hogs WILL use it. The hogs also LOVE the creosote power poles. If you have a piece of property or a hunting club that has these,if you have hogs in the area,these WILL be rubbed. I have cut these into pieces,installed them into the ground(with concrete)and the hogs will start rubbing them. Use KRESO-D to enhance the smell. Cut it 1oz to 1gal of rain water.
4. Rooting..... IMO the hogs root in soil with the "PERFECT" moisture content. Partly due to the ease of rooting,but mainly because the moisture content dictates what bugs/worms are how close to the surface. Or..that bugs have hatched into the adult form. I have seen hogs root in pure white sand,standing in belly deep water rooting in the underwater soft mud,and in the rocky road side. I have seen hogs rooting. They ran off when they saw me. I took my shovel out of my truck and started digging. I did not find anything that I would consider hog food. (HUH ??)
I love learning new things about hog behavior. I have a written list of things to ask a wildlife biologist if I can ever pin one down. HOWEVER......I will listen to real world experience before a college boy. Find a old world hog hunter from the most rural part of your state. That is where the real knowledge is. ---- pruhdlr