One of the Task Force’s core objectives is to identify knowledge gaps in the biology, ecology, and management of wild pigs, and to promote and facilitate coordinated research and international collaboration that fills them.
The NWPTF Research Subcommittee brings together scientists from universities, agencies, and the private sector to set shared priorities, share findings, and translate science into practice.
Published work and authoritative references, grouped by focus area and listed newest first. More guides and data are on the Resources page.
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Evaluating the effectiveness of trapping, toxicants, and other tools, from whole-sounder removal to coordinated, multi-agency operations.
Field evidence that running wild pig elimination through a unified incident command system improved interagency coordination, accountability, and capacity.
How Missouri became the first state to pursue statewide elimination, using systematic baiting, professional trappers, a central reporting hotline, and aerial operations.
A four-state test of corral, drop, and passive net traps found all three can capture entire wild pig social groups when used well.
Sustained, intensive control cut wild pig relative abundance by about 70% within 24 months and rooting damage by roughly 99%, direct evidence that coordinated removal works.
Removing the entire family group in a single event reduced pig density far more than conventional trapping.
A survey of wild pig control in Brazil found hunting is the dominant method, carried out mostly by volunteers and often outside legal channels.
A bounty program failed to reduce wild pig numbers, with densities rising during the program, evidence that bounties are not an effective control tool.
A review of the impacts of wild pigs in natural areas, the traits that make them hard to remove, and what effective control and eradication require.
Continuous-catch trap doors let additional pigs enter after the door closes, improving whole-group capture in corral traps.
A field test of the Judas technique, using radio-collared pigs to locate the rest, to help eradicate a remnant feral pig population.
Quantifying impacts to agriculture, natural resources, and infrastructure to inform funding and policy.
How a landowner’s actions and the surrounding landscape raise wild pig damage on neighboring farms, underscoring why control has to be coordinated across property lines.
Analysis finding the national program safeguarded an estimated $40.2 billion in crops and pasture from 2014 to 2021.
The first survey-based estimate of wild pig damage to producers of six row crops across eleven states, totaling roughly $700 million in a single year.
A 13-state survey quantifying what wild pigs cost livestock producers through pasture degradation, property and infrastructure damage, and lost forage.
Reproduction, movement, density, and habitat use, and the effects of wild pigs on native wildlife and habitats.
After about 1,850 wild pigs were removed from Alabama sites, wild turkey abundance and occupancy rose, evidence that pig removal can locally benefit turkeys.
Camera evidence identifying invasive wild pigs as a leading predator of wild turkey nests, a direct threat to a valued native game species.
Forest sites invaded by feral swine showed lower native vertebrate diversity, with the effect holding across patches of every size.
After intensive removal, female wild pigs showed density-dependent reproductive compensation, showing populations can rebound quickly after culling.
A long-running study showing heavy hunting pressure pushed wild boar to breed earlier in the year, evidence that pig populations adapt to control efforts.
How wild pigs spread, and the attitudes, behavior, and policy that shape how control is received.
How hunting culture and uneven state regulations shape where wild pigs spread, and the policy changes that could slow it.
National estimates of historical, current, and potential U.S. wild pig populations, documenting a steep upward trend and large areas of unfilled habitat.
Evidence that human activity, not natural dispersal, drives most wild pig range expansion, so movement by people is the spread risk to manage.
Combining 129 global density estimates, the study shows that biotic factors like agriculture and vegetation sharply improve predictions of wild pig distribution and density.
A three-decade model found U.S. wild pig spread accelerated from about 6.5 to 12.6 km per year, driven by climate-matched expansion plus human-assisted jumps.
Across 18 European countries, wild boar harvests rose steadily while hunter numbers stalled, indicating recreational hunting alone cannot contain population growth.
A foundational overview of feral swine’s rapid U.S. range expansion and the resulting risks to crops, native species, and animal and human health.
Monitoring diseases carried by wild pigs and the risks they pose to livestock, wildlife, and human health.
A national survey finding wild pigs carry antibodies to Trichinella and Toxoplasma gondii at higher rates than a decade earlier, a food-safety and zoonotic concern.
Nearly all feral swine sampled in the park carried gastrointestinal parasites, several of them able to infect people and livestock.
The first documentation of New World screwworm in feral swine in South America, showing how wild pigs can act as reservoirs for a high-consequence transboundary pest.
Invasive Wild Pigs in North America: Ecology, Impacts, and Management (VerCauteren et al., eds., CRC Press, 2020) is the definitive book on wild pig biology, impacts, and control. Available from CRC Press.
The Research Subcommittee welcomes natural resource professionals and scientists working on wild pig biology, ecology, and control. Spot a peer-reviewed study we should add? Send it our way.