Feral pigs are invasive animals first introduced in the continental United States during the 1500s by European sailors. The animals are a problem across the Southeastern and the Western United States. Large numbers exist on Federal lands, including National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks, as a result of illegal releases and high reproductive rates. With adequate nutrition, breeding occurs throughout the year. Females often breed at less than a year old and can produce two litters in a year with an average of four to eight piglets per litter. Large predators of swine, such as wolves and mountain lions, have been extirpated from most of the area where feral swine range, leaving few natural controls. Feral swine are known to spread more than 30 diseases and 37 parasites, including swine brucellosis and pseudorabies, which can have devastating effects on livestock and wildlife.
Feral Pig Research
Building Resilience to Invasive Species in Ohia Forests
Feral Pig Abundance at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge
Invasive Mammals of the Pacific
- Overview
Feral pigs are invasive animals first introduced in the continental United States during the 1500s by European sailors. The animals are a problem across the Southeastern and the Western United States. Large numbers exist on Federal lands, including National Wildlife Refuges and National Parks, as a result of illegal releases and high reproductive rates. With adequate nutrition, breeding occurs throughout the year. Females often breed at less than a year old and can produce two litters in a year with an average of four to eight piglets per litter. Large predators of swine, such as wolves and mountain lions, have been extirpated from most of the area where feral swine range, leaving few natural controls. Feral swine are known to spread more than 30 diseases and 37 parasites, including swine brucellosis and pseudorabies, which can have devastating effects on livestock and wildlife.
Feral Pig ResearchBuilding Resilience to Invasive Species in Ohia Forests
ʻŌhiʻa (Metrosideros polymorpha) is the dominant tree in Hawaiian forests, but Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD), a newly emerging disease that stands to cause high mortality of this ecologically important tree, may lead to invasions by exotic plants as gaps open in the forest. To better understand if planting of ʻōhiʻa seedlings can be used as a restoration tool, we investigated the survival of ʻōhiʻa...Feral Pig Abundance at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge
Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) have been identified as a significant problem in 120 U.S. National Wildlife Refuges. Pigs cause substantial degradation to natural ecosystems through rooting, digging, and browsing, but they are particularly destructive in Hawai‘I, which has no native terrestrial large mammals.Invasive Mammals of the Pacific
The terrestrial biota of the Central Pacific is primarily defined by its degree of isolation. At the center lies the Hawaiian Archipelago, which is more than 3,200 km from any continental land mass. After tens of millions of years of evolutionary isolation from all mammals except bats, islands of the Central Pacific were quite suddenly besieged by a number of alien rodents, carnivores and both... - Publications