The Distribution and Abundance of Feral
Hogs (Sus scrofa) on Mingo National
Wildlife Refuge
Within
the past two years, there has been an explosion of feral hog activity at Mingo
National Wildlife Refuge. Getting a
baseline of data and understanding the seasonal changes and habitat use of the
feral hog is important for maximizing management efforts. In order to monitor the hogs across the
refuge, thirty points were selected with certain criteria as locations for
cameras. There
are three different sets of variables for the thirty cameras. The first variable is sign versus
control. Fifteen cameras are “sign” cameras,
which were placed in areas where hogs were thought to be present due to rooting,
wallowing, and scat. The other fifteen
cameras are labeled as control or random cameras and were placed on a transect
line made by ArcGIS. The second variable is bait versus no bait. Out of these thirty cameras, using a random
number generator, 15 cameras were chosen to have bait. Seven of those cameras are “sign” cameras and
eight are “random/control.” The third
variable is low versus high elevation.
It is thought that during the wet months there would be more pictures on
cameras at high elevation than at low elevation. The trail cameras have been
in the field since November 2012 and will be collected December 2013. As of September, 63,125 images have been
collected. Out of the thirty cameras,
twelve have had pictures of hogs. The
images are currently being sorted by camera, month, and species.
*This is a small peak into what has consumed my time as of late. This weekend my adviser is taking 4 SEMO graduate students to the Central Plains Society of Mammalogists meeting. I am presenting a poster (above) and another student is giving a 15 minute presentation. The paragraph is an abstract about my thesis topic.
