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Feral hogs are not as harmful as we thought, according to a new study
The wild pigs were actually found to increase plant diversity in environments where they are introduced.
By Ariana GarciaFeb 5, 2024
A new study finds that feral hogs actually help increase plant diversity in environments where they are introduced.



Feral hogs might not be as damaging as we thought. They might even be good for the environment. A group of researchers with Aaruhs University in Denmark found that, contrary to popular belief, large "invasive" or "feral" plant-eating mammals do not have stronger or more negative effects on plant abundance and diversity than their native equivalents. Instead, large herbivores—whether invasive or native—help shape many ecosystems by spreading seeds and increasing plant diversity, the authors argue. The findings were published on Thursday in the journal Science.

Erick Ludgren, an Aarhus University postdoctoral researcher and one of the study's authors, wrote on X that the study's purpose was to question whether a visitor from another planet could tell which large mammals were native or introduced based on their actual impacts. "If nativeness is a real biological variable, then it must be measurable," Lundgren wrote. "Otherwise, nativeness would remain a description of dispersal history and not be a meaningful way to understand ecological interactions."

For the study, researchers observed "megafauna"—animals that weigh about 100 pounds—that only consume plants and analyzed approximately 4,000 plant abundance and diversity responses from 221 studies to native and introduced large mammals. They found that the most important factor in determining a species' effects on the surrounding ecosystem was its dietary preferences, not where it came from.
Researchers found that feral hogs 'often increase plant diversity, at times doubling native plant diversity by suppressing competitive dominants.



Communities dominated by selective feeders tended to decrease plant diversity, while communities with "nonselective bulk feeders" tended to increase diversity. The researchers classified feral hogs as "dietary generalists," adding they "often increase plant diversity, at times doubling native plant diversity by suppressing competitive dominants."

The study's results suggest practicing caution is necessary with "how we assign notions like 'harm' to the impacts of introduced organisms," Lundgren wrote. "The prevailing logics of invasion biology make it easy to call anything an introduced organism does 'harmful' simply (because) they do not 'belong.'"As an example, Lundgren noted that feral hogs tend to increase native plant diversity in both their native and introduced ranges. "Yet these impacts are described with completely different language depending on whether we think pigs, and their effects, belong," he said.

In Texas—which boasts the most feral hogs in the country—state officials recently proposed using a poison made with warfarin, a type of blood thinner, to reduce populations of wild pigs. The species are said to be among the most destructive in the U.S., causing around $2.5 billion in damages. However, the new study argues against such culling measures, suggesting they are unnecessary and may even be more harmful to the "conservation of wild and diverse ecosystems" they are meant to protect.

"The invasion of cultural values, like 'belonging,' into scientific claims creates partial knowledge (e.g., only applicable if you share the same beliefs), excludes people with other values, and may harm biodiversity itself," Lundgren wrote.

Wow, it's uncanny. I was down at the feed store the other day, and old Jesper was telling Wilbur the exact same thing.

I guess hogs are just like illegal aliens then.

Open Borders Globalist Scum. 🤣😂🤣

I don't need an advanced degree in anything to say that those "researchers" are full of schitt.

I don’t think Ariana has ever farmed before. Neither have I, but I’ve read numerous articles about how feral hogs trash corn fields. Maybe her idea of plant diversity is wiping out monoculture corn fields and replacing them with native vegetation. Her paper sounds too ivory tower.

When did hogs become vegeatarians?


Clyde

Liberal trash article/author.

The other liberal trash will repeat it for years though...

And they will use it to crusade to ban hog hunting, too. Watch and see.

L.W.

Hopefully while warfarin kills ferals by the 10's of thousands.

Depends on what you want.


Lately I've been amused at the whole, stocked, reintroduced, feral, bullschidt.


A rainbow trout is great, a carp bad.
Snakeheads are bad, stripped bass good.

Feral cats are bad! "BUT, BUT, BUT, we can't kill THEM! They are Fluffy's cousins!"
So we spend money to catch, neuter, then RELEASE(?) them.

Wild horses are feral, non-native, and destructive as hell.
So we protect them, and waste money on ineffective control measures.

Hogs do spread seeds and might help with biodiversity.

They might be great on wilderness type land.
Farmers, ranchers, most land owners aren't interested in what they do, especially
how they do it.

Every farmer I know fights biodiversity.
They want corn, oats, wheat, soybeans, or specific grasses, not a bunch
of other crap.

Oats 9eas beans and barley groe do you or I or anyone know how oats 9eas beans and barley groe.

Yep - had a German tourist tell me one time bears are strictly vegetarian. He got this sour " I don't believe you" look when I told him that studies have shown that up to 70% of moose calf mortality by predators is by bears.

As Reagan said about Democrats: " It isn't that they don't know anything. It's just that so much of what they know is wrong."

Anything that plows up the ground will increase diversity.

Years back a rancher southeast of us was having issues with the BLM over a rare locoweed on his grazing allotment. Seems it was most common in the disturbed sites around the stock tanks.

the left sat them down and told the hogs its better to eat plants and bugs. i don't think it werked.

Yep, they are nuthin but bad news. I do my absolute best to eliminate everyone I see.

Hog Huggers!

I think there's a couple here too...

I'm glad we don't have any.

You will.

that right there the person is not always good when you're trying to raise purebred livestock or a true crop.
root up the crop that's wanting to be grown and don't do nothing else with it the weeds will overtake it and that's diversity. kind of like the trash we have as humans in this country from other third world [bleep] anymore.. and in that case the Democrats or the hogs rooting it up letting the weeds in