Texas A&M AgriLife develops guide to manage feral hogs in national parks

Texas A&M AgriLife researchers have developed the first integrated framework to help the U.S. National Park Service manage feral hog populations across parklands nationwide.

The research, led by the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, provides park managers with a science-backed decision-making guide for monitoring, management and control methods that can be tailored to meet each site’s unique attributes — an urgent need for preserving natural and cultural resources.

The guide will soon be pilot tested at multiple parks across Texas, Tennessee and Hawaii. 

Feral hogs threaten ecological, cultural resources across parks

Feral hogs are among the most destructive invasive species in the U.S., annually causing more than $1 billion in damages, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

In national parks, these impacts include destroying sensitive ecosystems, outcompeting or predating native fauna, spreading disease, disturbing historic or culturally significant landmarks, and negatively affecting visitor experiences, said Anna Racey, doctoral student in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management and project lead.

“There are countless reasons why these animals are so successful, including their high reproductive rate, their adaptability, as well as the fact that they have very few natural predators,” Racey said.

Providing a solution to an expanding challenge

John Tomeček, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management and project adviser, said that until now, no unified, nationwide framework existed for national parks to reference or follow to combat the spread of feral hogs within park boundaries.

“All monitoring and management plans, if they are available, had to be created by the staff of the individual parks,” Tomeček said. “This presents a distinct challenge based on a park’s available resources, expertise and even environmental attributes.”

The time it takes for park staff to research, develop a plan, complete compliance documents, and train or hire staff to implement management actions provides additional time for the invasive population to expand and gain a greater foothold within parks.

“A unified framework for feral hog management plans would make control more attainable for all park managers — even those who have not encountered wild pigs, but could face invasion in the future,” Racey said.

Building an adaptive management framework

Racey explained the framework is a cohesive set of tools and guidelines that helps structure the planning and management of a conservation program. It is based on decision-making principles that balance ecological outcomes, resource constraints and stakeholder needs.

Racey conducted a detailed survey of more than 400 national parks and additional in-depth interviews with select parks, as well as qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data. She then developed a detailed structured decision-making guide to help park staff choose actions tailored to their location’s conditions – from environmental and legal limitations to stakeholder interest and visitor use.

From concept to implementation

The initial pilot test across parks will enable Racey to work closely with park management to refine the framework before it’s made available to parks nationwide.

“Ultimately, the project will assess the nuances of feral hog management across a variety of physical, administrative and social conditions by putting a magnifying glass on the relationships between policy, boots-on-the-ground operations and science,” Racey said. “My goal is to assist park managers in fulfilling the agency’s fundamental mission of conserving the natural and historical resources of our parks for future generations.”