Trust in others and prior experience with feral hogs were significant factors in whether landowners would commit effort and dollars to controlling the destructive animals, two studies have found.
Feral hogs cause an estimated $2.5 billion in damage and control costs each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. They are found in at least 35 states with populations concentrated in the southeastern United States.
Nana Tian is a forest economics researcher for the Arkansas Forest Resources Center who studies human dimensions and economic issues in natural resource management. When it comes to feral hogs, her research informs education and management plans.
“Understanding their perspectives and attitudes toward feral hogs is very important for us to make management plans,” said Tian, who is also an associate professor in the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. “That’s the major reason why we established those two different studies.”
Tian is the corresponding author of two studies that address these issues: “Private Landowners’ Perspectives on Managing Feral Swine in Arkansas, Louisiana, and East Texas,” published in the Journal of Wildlife Management and “Private Landowners’ Willingness to Pay for Managing Feral Swine in the West Gulf Region,” published in the Journal of Sustainability Research.
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