The government is hiring hit men to kill the pigs on Santa Rosa Island, but there are plenty of guys who'd do it free.

The wild swine, they say, are good to eat and a thrill to stalk.

Since a week ago, when the Channel Islands National Park announced plans to kill the island's 4,000 or so wild pigs, sportsmen have been calling with offers to help.

Inquiries come hourly from "people looking for action," Park Service dispatcher Fred Rodriguez said. "They'll say, 'I want to get on the list.' They'll say, 'How can I get to the island to kill pigs?' "

One group of volunteers called from a tavern one afternoon.

"It was kind of comical, actually, that it was something they thought they could do in one day," Rodriguez said. "They were having a good time. You could hear the country-Western music in the background."

He said he has been getting about 12 such calls a day.

Park officials do not intend to entertain the sportsmen. Instead, rangers this fall will team with professionals, preferably those experienced in destroying animal populations.

Officials want to employ commercial hunting outfits with staff biologists. People with a science background understand the animals' habits and can conduct tests or post-mortems if necessary, park Supt. Mack Shaver said.

The government will spend between $200,000 and $800,000 to kill the pigs under a state mandate to restore native wildlife and vegetation to the 53,000-acre island. Rangers will be taught to hunt the feral animals by their colleagues from Hawaii. The rangers and hunters, about a dozen in all, will eradicate the pigs zone by zone in a year and a half. They will use guns, traps and perhaps other methods.

"We don't want to be paying people just kind of out there shooting a lot of pigs," Kate Faulkner, a Park Service official, said. "You can shoot a lot of pigs and not come close to eradicating them."

Most of the island has been ravaged by the pigs' digging roots, eating acorns and plundering bird nests since European settlers abandoned the livestock there in 1850, authorities said.

Chasing and trapping the first 90% of the animals will be relatively easy, Faulkner said.

"The pigs that are left are the smartest," she said. "They just seem to know every trick, and you lose your enthusiasm. You can spend thousands of dollars to get each of those last pigs."