ABSTRACT
Presence of wild pigs in south-central North America dates to the early exploratory and colonization period by Europeans in North America during the 1600s. Wild pigs did not occur in the Americas prior to European arrival, a fact unknown to many people in the South-Central region. Wild populations established in Cuba became the source of pigs used to provision Spanish expeditions of Cortes and De Soto to Mexico and the southeastern United States. Established wild pig populations in Oklahoma and Texas expanded naturally through reproduction and dispersal and artificially through intentional trapping and translocation. Natural dispersal was generally slow and landowners managed isolated pockets of wild pigs by hunting and trapping. In the South-Central region, wild pig sounders primarily consist of a sow and her litter that may combine with other sows, shoats, and piglets forming larger groups. Wild pig damage in the South-Central region is widespread and extensive, but rarely rigorously quantified.
