HOGZILLA

ALAPAHA, Ga. (AP) Around these parts, they are calling it Hogzilla: a 3.6-metre-long wild hog recently killed on a plantation and now quickly becoming a part of local legend. The plantation's owner claims the hog weighed 450 kilograms and had 23-centimetre tusks. But few people have actually seen the hog -- the only proof being a photo that shows the dead beast hanging from a rope.

It has definitely been the topic of conversation in small towns across southern Georgia.

"People just back up and ask 'Is it real?' They can't believe that there's a hog that big in the woods," said Drew White, who has a copy of the photo on display at an auto parts store in Tifton, about 25 kilometres away.

Chris Griffin said he killed the beast last month at the plantation, where he is a hunting guide, and has been showing the picture around.

"They say 'Man, you look like a dwarf compared to that thing,' " he said yesterday.

He and Ken Holyoak, owner of the plantation, buried the beast on the property and did not bother to slaughter it since the meat of large feral hogs is typically not very good.

Holyoak said he also decided that the hog's head was too large to mount on a wall.